This lecture was a direct appeal in favour of a Canadian National Spirit. It began by showing that the history of the world was the chronicle of the rise and fall of great nations and empires, of the wars and invasions in which the lust of conquest on the part of rising Powers, and the expiring struggles of waning empires, had been left to the arbitrament of the sword, the nations rising and falling with the changeability of a kaleidoscope. I pointed out that all the great nations possessed a strong national spirit, and lost their position and power as soon as that spirit left them, and urged all Canadians to think first of their country--to put it before party or personal considerations--pointing out that this sentiment, in all dominant races, exhibited itself in the same way, in the patriotic feeling in the individual, causing him to put the interest of the country above all selfish considerations, and "to be willing to undergo hardships, privations, and want, and to risk life and even to lay down life on behalf of the State." After showing a number of ways in which Canadians in ordinary life could help Canada, I went on to say: If our young men habituate themselves to thinking of the country and its interests in everyday life, it will become in time part of their nature, and when great trials come upon us, the individual citizens will more readily be inclined to make the greatest sacrifices for the State. Haliburton, in his lecture on "The Men of the North," made use of a paragraph which I quoted. It shows the spirit which animated the Canada First Party: Whenever we lower those we love into the grave, we entrust them to the bosom of our country as sacred pledges that the soil that is thus consecrated by their dust shall never be violated by a foreign flag or the foot of a foe, and whenever the voice of disloyalty whispers in our ear, or passing discontent tempts us to forget those who are to come after us, or those who have gone before us, the leal, the true, and the good, who cleared our forests, and made the land they loved a heritage of plenty and peace to us and to our children, a stern voice comes echoing on through thirty centuries; a voice from the old sleepers of the pyramids; a voice from a mighty nation of the past that long ages has slumbered on the banks of the Nile: "Accursed be he who holds not the ashes of his fathers sacred, and forgets what is due from the living to the dead." I urged a confidence in our future as another great necessity: We have everything in a material point of view to make Canada a great country--unlimited territory fertile and rich, an increasing hardy and intelligent population, immense fisheries, minerals of every description, ships and sailors; all we further require is a moral power, pride in our country and confidence in its future, confidence in ourselves and in each other.