rural centres, be
it said to the praise of that simple-minded people, and to the
confusion of the enemies of their faith, the great majority have kept
their allegiance to the Church of their baptism. But, where the "bogus
mass," the false priests and "Moscovite money" have failed, the
neutralizing process of a so-called "Canadianization" may succeed. The
flank envelopment has often a greater success than the frontal attack.
This leads us to dwell on another phase of the Ruthenian problem.

In the history of the human race there is nothing more complicated than
ethnic assimilation. It is a slow, delicate and, in many cases, very
dangerous process. In the laboratory of the world many explosions are
due to the ignorance of what we would call "human chemistry." "One
cannot play with human chemicals any more than with real ones. We know
by experience that at times they are _fulginous_ and ready to break
into open flames." But there are two elements which have to be treated
with the greatest care: Religion and Race. They are the two _foci_ of
the ellipse in which moves history; the two shores between which
oscillates the tossing tide of humanity. Lord Morley calls them "the
two incendiary forces of history, ever shooting jets of flame from
undying embers." This explains why the soil of history is so volcanic,
so filled with burning lava which time itself has not cooled.

_The racial element_ in ethnical assimilation is gradually modified by
the imperative adjustment of the immigrant to his new conditions of
life. For the observer and student of history there is nothing more
instructive and, at times, more pathetic than that borderland which
lies between what has been and what is to be in the life of the
immigrant. This violent breaking away from the past and gradual
assimilation with the present has its dangers. Unknown and occult
factors are at work with the blood of several generations, pulsating in
the veins of the new Canadian. Whilst beckoning hands stretch out to
receive him on our shores and initiate him into our national life,
other hands, the hands of the dead, stretch out through several
generations to lay claim on him. Like everything in nature this change
or rather this transformation should be imperceptible. Mutual
toleration is the factor of a healthy assimilation. This has given to
the United States a greater solvent power than has been shown by any
other nation, ancient or modern. Coercive