Page:Brock centenary 2nd ed. 1913.djvu/103

 THE SPEECHES

achievements of the past in order that they may have a true basis for their own manhood and womanhood. True reverence for courage and self- sacrifice, fidelity to principle, and devotion to home and country in time of need, is a fundamental ele- ment of strong, true character. The facts of his- tory may have little influence in developing char- acter, but the noble deeds of our ancestors per- formed for high purposes are the surest sources for the development of the strong and true emotions that make human character vital instead of inert. Emotions form the battery power of character, and among the emotions that give strength and virility and beauty to character, reverence for the dead who wisely struggled and nobly achieved, is surely one of the most productive of dignified and trans- forming character.

The history of the past is valuable chiefly for the opportunities it gives to be stirred to deep, true enthusiasm for heroism, for honour, for patriotism, for love of freedom, for devotion to duty, and for sublime self-sacrifice for high ideals. Whatever else we may neglect in the training of the voung, I trust we shall never fail to fill their hearts with profound reverence for the men and women of the past to whom they owe so much.

We should teach other lessons from the War of 1812. We should fill each child's life with a splen- did courage that can never be dismayed, by telling how a few determined settlers scattered widely over a new country successfully repelled invading armies coming from a country with a population twenty-fold larger. We should teach reverence not only for manhood but for womanhood by recounting the terrible hardships endured wil- lingly by Canadian women generally, as well as by proudly relating the noble work done by individual women, of whom Laura Secord was so conspicuous an example.

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