And Who Knows, It Is Perhaps Due To
This Sympathetic Feeling Of Its Population Towards Literary Men And
Writers That
This city of Quebec has seen such an array of talent
within her bosom, such a succession of Pleiades of
Distinguished
litterateurs, who have glorified her name and that of their country.
For the last fifty years, men eminent in all branches of literature
have made a gorgeous and resplendent aureole around the city of
Quebec. In the generation immediately preceding us, we see Petitclerc,
Parent, Soulard, Chauveau, Garneau, L'Ecuyer, Ferland, Barthe and Real
Angers, these grand pioneers of intellect, who in history, poetry,
drama and romance, made such a wide opening for the generation which
followed them. Then we have l'Abbe Laverdiere, l'Abbe Casgrain,
LeMoine, Fiset, Tache, Plamondon, LaRue, and the first among all
Octave Cremazie, who coming at different times bravely and constantly
continued the labours of their predecessors, until we reach the
brilliant phalanx of contemporary writers, Lemay, Fabre, l'Abbe Begin,
Routhier, Oscar Dunn, Faucher de St. Maurice, Buies, Marmette and
Legendre, all charged with the glorious task of preserving for Quebec
her legitimate title of the Athens of Canada. And how could it be
otherwise? Is not Quebec the cradle of our nationality - the spot
whereon is engraved the most illustrious pages of our history - heroic
annals, touching souvenirs, all combining with the marvels of nature
to speak here the soul of the historian and of the poet. What a
flourishing field for the historian and poet is not the tale of that
handful of Breton heroes, who, three centuries ago, planted on the
rock of Quebec the flag of Christianity and civilization!
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 86 of 864
Words from 23367 to 23643
of 236821
