The Young Seigneur | Page 5

of existence?'"
"It must be an aim, a work," he said soberly.
The elder man was surprised. "My dear Haviland," he exclaimed, "Are
you sure you are practical?"
"I think I am practical, Mr. Chrysler," Haviland replied firmly. "I have
that objection so thoroughly in mind, that I would not expose my news
to an ordinary man. It is because you are broad, liberal and willing
to-examine matters in a large aspect, and that I think that in a large
aspect I shall be justified, as at least not unreasonable, that I open my
heart to you. Believe me, I am not unpractical, but only seeking a
higher plane of practicality."
"But how do you propose to get the people to follow this aim?"
"If they were shown a sensible reason why they ought to be a nation,"
said he with calm distinctness,--"a reason more simple and great than
any that could be advanced against it--it is all they would require. I
propose a clear ideal for them--a vision of what Canada ought to be and
do; towards which they can look, and feel that every move of progress
adds a definite stage to a definite and really worthy edifice."
"The-oretical" Chrysler murmured slowly, shaking his head.
"For a man, but not for a People!" the young Member cried.
Both were silent some moments. The elder looked up at last "What sort
of Ideal would you offer them?"

"Simply Ideal Canada, and the vista of her proper national work, the
highest she might be, and the best she might perform, situated as she is,
all time being given and the utmost stretch of aims. As Plato's mind's
eye saw his Republic, Bacon his New Atlantis, More his Utopia; so let
us see before and above us the Ideal Canada, and boldly aim at the
programme of doing something in the world."
"Can you show me anything special that we can do in the world?" the
old man asked. His caution was wavering a little. "It is not impossible I
may be with you," he added.
The Ontarian, in fact, did not object in a spirit of cavil. He did so
apparently neither to doubt nor to believe, but simply to enquire, for in
life he was a business man. His father had left him large lumber
interests to preserve, and the responsibility had framed his prudence.
He took the same kind of care in examining the joints of Haviland's
scheme as he would have exacted about the pegging or chains of a
timber crib which was going to run a rapid.
"Why, here for instance," answered Haviland, "are great problems at
our threshold:--Independence, Imperial Federation, both of them
bearing on all advance in civilized organizations,--Unification of
Races--development of our vast and peculiar areas. Education, too,
Foreign Trade, Land, the Classes--press upon our attention."
"You would have us awake to some such new sense of our situation as
Germany did in Goethe's day?"
"I pray for no long-haired enthusiasts. We have business different from
altering the names of the Latin divinities into Teutonic gutturals."
"The country itself will see to that. We have the fear of the nations
round about in our eyes," grimly said Chrysler; then he added: "I have
never known you as well as I wish, Haviland. You speak of this work
as if you had some definite system of it, while all the notions I have
ever met or formed of such a thing have been partial or vague."
Chamilly stood up and the firelight shone brightly and softly upon his

flushed cheek; the dark portraits on the walls seemed to look out upon
him as if they lived, and the statue of Apollo to rise and associate its
dignity with his.
"I have a system," he said. "I almost feel like saying a commission of
revelation. The reason, sir, why I asked you here was that you, my
venerated friend, might understand my ideas and sympathize with them,
and help me."
He hesitated.
"I will ask you to read a manuscript, of which you will find the first
half in your room. The remainder is not written yet"
Pierre, the butler, brought in coffee and they talked more quietly of
other subjects.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MANUSCRIPT.
"When yellow-locked and crystal-eyed, I dreamed green woods among
* * * * * O, then the earth was young"
--ISABELLA VALANCEY CRAWFORD.
When Chrysler went up to his bedchamber he found the following on a
table between two candles:--
BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS.
Narrative of Chamilly d'Argentenaye Haviland.
At the Friars' School at Dormillière, racing with gleeful playmates
around the shady playground, or glibly reciting frequent "Paters" and
"Ave Marias," other ideas of life scarce ever entered my head; till one
day my father spoke, out of his calm silence, to my