Clan Fraser in Canada

CLANSMEN IN LITERATURE. 51
occasion, I recognized more than ever before the substantial
services rendered to mankind by men bearing our name, and
now that we have foregathered a small company, it may be,
but a select one, I feel that you share with me the pride with
which we regard our Clan and name.
Professor W. H. Fraser, in replying to the sentiment,
" Distinguished Clansmen in Literature," said : Gentlemen,
— I thank you heartily for the way in which you have receiv-
ed this toast, and for the honor you confer on me in asking
me to answer for our distinguished literary clansmen living
and dead.
Literature is the mirror of life. Life is action : litera-
ture is contemplation and words. My knowledge of the
history of the Clan leads me to the conclusion that most of
its distinguished members were men of deeds rather than
words, and that they lived at times and under circumstances
when deeds rather than words had value — men like Sir
Alexander, who fought by Robert Bruce's side at Ban-
nockburn, or that other Sir Alexander Mackenzie Fraser of
the last century, described by contemporaries as ''mild as
a lamb and strong as a lion," who had said to him in public
by his General, "Colonel Fraser, you and your regiment
have this day saved the British army," or the Fraser who
fought with Wolfe before Quebec, and a host of others-
These men did not write literature, but perhaps they were
better employed. I think they were, but at any rate they
are the men who furnish the basis for literature — heroism,
fidelity and devotion.
The Clan has, however, not been wanting in scholars and