Literature is the mirror of life. Life is action: literature 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 Bannockburn, 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 writers, nor in those who patronized and furthered learning. What think you of a Fraser--Sir Alexander of Philorth--who in the 16th century built a grand University? It is getting to be the fashion now for rich men to build and endow seats of learning, but a man with such foresight and generosity in those early times in Scotland is surely deserving of all praise. Although not a few of the early Frasers won fame by the sword, some wielded to good purpose that mightier weapon, the pen. Such was James Fraser of Brea, in Ross-shire, who wrote copiously on theology, and who went to prison, by orders of Archbishop Sharp, as a preacher at conventicles. Another divine and scholar was James Fraser, of Pitcalzian, in Ross-shire, a son of the manse; a famous controversialist he was, and wrote a book against the Arminianism of Grotius that has kept its ground in Scotland till the present day, although he died as long ago as 1769. These are some of our older literary celebrities. Time will not permit me to mention all those who belong to the present century, or whose lives extended into it. There was Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat, 38th McShimi, who died in 1815. As a school-boy he saw the fight at Culloden, and was afterwards Foreign Consul in Barbary, and was author of the "Annals of the patriots of the family of Fraser, Frizell, Simson or Fitzsimson." It must in truth have been a mighty book if it recorded them all. A curious piece of literature from his pen was the very long and very laudatory epitaph for his own tomb erected by himself.