Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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the most widely read and most influential piece of literature that the world has ever produced. The Canadian people must co-operate with their writers and artists in stimulating and promoting the growth of Canadian art and literature, that the name of Canada may not perish with the decay of her material body, but that she may leave to civilization an heritage worthy of her greatness. D. C. VI. DAWN. I lay awake in the dim gray light Just at the peep of dawn, When the cold bright moon of the long, long, night Was fading before the morn. The steely sea with shimmering light From the sun beginning to rise. Woke from its sleep of the long, long, night, And the sea-gulls wheeled through the skies. The bright lighthouse with its flashing light Wa s paling before the sun, Which after the weary long, long, night Showed that the day had begun. The bright Avaves sparkling, danced in the light Of the glorious, wonderful sun. Forgetting the moon of the long, long, night In the thought of the day to come. B. C, IV. a. SONG OF THE HARVEST. Now the summer-time is ending Blades of corn with weight are bending Fields of wheat, all ripe and mellow, Rows of pumpkins, large and yellow, Waiting to be gathered in, When the harvest shall begin. Squirrels in the woods are found Hoarding nuts beneath the ground. Higher up red apples grow, Till they tumble down below. Flocks of birds fly south together. Seeking warmer, brighter weather. Too cool winds are apt to blow As the days much shorter grow. Gather up the summer ' s spoils. Earned by Harvest ' s honest toils. — E. T., III. b.. 8

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CANADIAN LITERATURE. A most intcrest ' ng address on Canadian Literature as given to the School. Xoveniber 26th hy tlie well-known Canadian Author, ' Sir. Basil King. The object of the lecture was to urge the necessity of arousing the Canadian people to a realization of their possession of an art and literature that was dist- ' nctly Canad ' an. and, further, to reveal the consequent need of a sympatlietic and ;ictive co-operatit n between the antliors and the public. The necessity oi co-operation between the artists and the people ar ' ses out of the dependence of each upon the other. The writer is de- pendent upon the people for the matter for his books, for the thoughts that are woven into his stories. The people are dependent upon the artists for the expression i f their dreams and aspirations; they look to him to give voice to the insistent but vague and imformed ideas that evade the mind, and that need only the touch of his pen to be brought into proper perspective, and to lie rendered into intelligible language. Every nation feels inherently the need of an art and literature that are distinctively its own. A cotmtry that felt no such need would be lacking in spiritual life; for art and literature are the soul of a nation. Consequently art and literattire are more valuable to a nation than the greatest wealth and material prosperity to which it could attain — a declaration that arose not from under-estimation of the importance of material progress to a countr .-. but from a realization of the greater im- portance of a nation ' s spiritual progress. For material prosperit flotirishes only to decay; while a nation ' s spiritual life, like the soul of man, knows no end, but the fruits of its growth, its art and literature, will remain as a last- ing evidence of that nation ' s achievements, and as the standard of its greatness. As a particular illustration. i Ir. King drew attention to two nations of the ancient world. Phoenicia was one of the world powers through the supremacy of her navy and commerce. To the east, of this w ealthy and mighty land lay the tiny, impoverished, agricultural country Israel, ever throughout her historv at the mercy of the great nations that threatened her on everv side. Phoenicia produced merchants: the imaginative and in- tensely spiritual Hebrew race produced poets and philosophers. Phoenicia has left to posterity no record of her greatness. All the Christian world to-day is familiar -with the history of Israel, while the Bible remains to-day 7

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THE ADVENTURES OF RUSTUM-AL-ALI. There «.)nce lived, in a drowsy illayc of the Orii ut, a man by the name of Rustum-al-Ali. Possessing- a readier wit than the villagers hr seemed to their simple minds, to be a great and wise man ; and with such ease did he disentangle dit culties that seemed to the peasants to be beyond solution, that he was reputed to be the favoured of the gods, and blessed with no slight portion of their divine knowledge. The god of mischief, on beholding how Rustum-al-Ali ' s self-com- placency grew with the years, immediately fastened upon him as the next victim of his love of teasing and tormenting. Accordingly he one day parted the veil of the heavens, and, in the guise of a mendicant, descended upon earth, alighting before Rustiim ' s cottage-door. He begged to be allowed to share the w ise man ' s noon-day meal, whereupon Rustum made him welcome at his table. W hen the meal was over, the supposed beggar, making a lowly obeisance, addressed his host as follows : O wise and holy man, who hast surely beheld the face of the gods, and to whom the most secret signs of heaven are made manifest; thou, O favoured of Immortals, canst surely give answer to a question that has long taxed my dull mind. Beaming with gratification and delight. Rustiun-al-Ali bowed his assent ; nor did it ever occtir to him that he might be dealing with a man whose wits were as sharp, or even sharper than his own. Thou hast spoken truly, my friend, he replied in pompous tones. T have indeed been favoured with the counsels of the gods, and to me the inmost secrets of the heavens have been revealed. Speak, and I will answer. Then, said the god of mischief, smiling to see how readv was his host to flounder into the snare prepared for him, Then it is this. In the beginning of things, there were but one man and one woman upon earth. Is this not so? Yea, answered Rustum, solentnly. Since that long-ago beginning of things, continued the beggar, the race of man has increased to many millions; but the earth, the stable work of the god, is as it was. Is this not so? Somewhat perplexed as to what his guest was driving at, yet not with less confident in his powers of sohition, Rtistum again inclined his head m assent. ■ ' Since it is evident that man will continue to multiply in number, and since it is equally evident that the earth will never accommodate itself to his increase, what then do the gods intend when mankind shall have outgrown his habitation ? Thou, O intimate of the gods, canst inform me of their purpose, and relieve the anxiety which presses upon the mind of thy- humble servant. The poor wise man was in a state of utter bewilderment, when oftered so hard a nut to crack. The god of mischief, through his divine power, was able to look right into Rustum ' s thinking-box, under his top-knot. The wise man ' s ideas had fallen out of their pigeon-holes, and were staggering- round in such a manner that their owner must hav e felt quite dizzy. In- 9