Ross, Malcom MacKenzie

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1962
MALCOLM MACKENZIE ROSS
to be Doctor of Letters

Brilliant and beloved rebel, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, alumnus and former pupil, greeting to you,
whom neither Latin and Greek could metamorphose into a Classic, nor four undergraduate years mould into a
conformist. Instinctively you then were, as consciously you now are, a Canadian. Why, you asked, and to what
should a Canadian conform?

In your own trenchant phrase, we are essentially a "bifocal" people, and we must, if prudent, "keep one foot each
side of the Ottawa river". Our prudence is no conformity, nor is it the inertia it is often labelled. It is rather (again,
your words) "the immobility at the centre of the wheel . . . it lies coiled in us like a spring". Your image is as old as
Heracleitus. But you are the first to apply it to a nation.

With ritualistic devotion to English you are surrendering a headship to accept a professorate. You are laying down
administrative burdens at Queen's for scholarly pursuits at Toronto. Trinity, whither with our blessing you are
bound, is an Anglican College. See that with your ripe literary talents you bring to her also your wider
nonconformity. For disturbing though you rebels are, Canadian universities need your fiery breed, if Canada is fully
to attain self-knowledge.

From:
Cattley, Robert E.D. Honoris causa: the effervescences of a university orator. Fredericton: UNB Associated Alumnae, 1968.