que « cela est excellent pour contenir des forces domptées qui requièrent la présence d’une sentinelle pour les empêcher de dériver ; mais que cela est fatal à la robustesse de l’esprit et au courage moral[1] ». Ceci sonne bien, certes ; je ne veux discuter aucune des opinions de Parkman qui peuvent prêter à diversité de vues, ou quand il est avéré que l’auteur pèche seulement par exagération ; mais « quelle belle robustesse d’esprit et quel superbe courage moral », chez ceux qu’il admire tant, Lawrence, Shirley, sans compter lui-même ! Cher Parkman vous dites : « s’il est permis
- ↑ Voici le texte anglais de Richard : « Parkman, in his Montcalm and Wolfe, speaks of the ecclesiastical tutelage over the French-Canadians, which « aids the tamer virtues » that « need the présence of a sentinel to keep them from escaping », but which « is fatal to mental robustness and moral courage. »
Nous donnons ci-après toute la page de Parkman d’où ces mots ont été tirés. L’état d’esprit étroit, sectaire et injuste de l’historien américain s’y révèle ouvertement. Cette page est au Chapitre XXXII de Montcalm and Wolfe, conclusion, page 427 : « With the Peace of Paris ended the checkered story of New France ; a story which would have been a history if faults of constitution and the bigotry and folly of rulers had not dwarfed it to an épisode. Yet it is a noteworthy one in both its lights and its shadows ; in the disinterested zeal of the founder of Québec, the self-devotion of the early missionary martyrs, and the daring enterprise of explorers ; in the spiritual and temporal vasselage from which the only escape was to the savagery of the wilderness ; and in the swarming corruptions which were the natural result of an attempt to rule, by the absolute hand of a master beyond the Atlantic, a people bereft of every vestige of civil liberty. Civil liberty was given them by the british sword ; but the conqueror left their religions system untouched, and through it they have imposed upon themselves a weight of ecclesiastical tutelage that finds few equals in the most Catholic countries of Europe. Such guardianship is not without certain advantages. When faithfully exercised it aids to uphold some of the tamer virtues, if that can be called a virtue which needs the constant présence of a sentinel to keep it from escaping ; but it is fatal to mental robustness and moral courage ; and if French Canada would fulfil its aspirations it must cease to be one of the most priest-ridden communities of the modern world. »
Cette page de l’historien est tout simplement absurde.
