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Faney elot}., $3. /,o iiToyal *"Ocictij of ^an;r(tri *cvics. / ^ I/' ST^RENGTll LLECTUAL AND WEAKNESS A SHORT HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL REViFW OF TITllRATURE, ART AND LDUCATION LN CANADA, BY J. G. BOLRINOT, C.M.G., LL.D., D.C.L., D.L. (LAVAL). AUTHOR OF "CAPE BRETON AND !TS ME.MORrALS OF TilE FPENCH REGIME. ' and Of SEVERAL WORKS ON FEDERAL AND PAkLIAMfMARV GOVEPN.VIENT IN THE Dominion oe Casai. a MONTREAL FOSTER E^ P O W N & C O . L<>XDON : BERNAFiD QUARITCH 1803 c 2 e O O fi }N<^ -f P^nlcnd .uTordinff to Act of P:irli;iniciit of Cjuiada by.l. 'i. BoritiNor. in the Officu of the Minister of Agiicnlrure, in tlie year LStKi. GAZETTE PKINTINC COMPANT, MONTKEAl. Sir J. VV. DAWSON, (C.M.G., F.R.S.C., ll.d.) ANfi MONSIGNOR HAMEL. (M.A., F.F^.s.C), WH(» UEPRKSENT THE CXTLTURK AND LEAKNINC. Of THE KNGLISII AND FRl.NcU ELEMENTS OF THE I ANABIAN PEOPLE, % xlcdicatr. THIS SHORT KEA'IEW OF THE rNTEI.LErTTTAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW DOMINION. ■•'■'''■'' I'mmimmM PREFATOEY NOTE. This monograph on the intellectual development of the Do- minion was delivered in substance as the presidential address to the Royal Society of Canada at its May meetin^,^ of 1893, in Ottawa. Since then the author has given the whole subject a careful revision, and added a number of >)ibliographical and other literary notes which could not conveniently appear in the text of the address, but are likely to interest those who wish to follow^ more closely the progress of culture in a country still struggling with the difficulties of the material development of half a conti- nent. This little volume, as the title page show^s, is intended as the commencement of a series of historical and other essavs w' tch will be periodically reproduced, in this more convenient form for the general reader, from the large quarto volumes of the Royal Society of Canada, where they first appear. Ottawa, 1st October, 1893. a:s"alysis of contein'ts. i.~p. 1. Introdactory remarks on the overestimate of material success in America; citation from an oration on the suiyert by James Russell Lowell; application of his remarks to Cauadians. II.-P. 4. Three well defined eras of development in Canada ; the French regime and its heroic aspect; the works of Champlain. Lescarbot, Potherie, Le Clercq, Charlevoix and others ; evidences of some cnlturo in Quebec and Montreal ; the foundation of the Jesuit College and th. Seminaries; Peter Kaim on the st.idv of science; the mental apathy of the colony generally in the days of French supK^macy. III. - P. 9. The period of political development from 1760 1«40. under English government ; low state of popuhir education ; growth of the press ; influence of the clergy • intel- lectual contests in legislative halls ; publication of " Sam Slick " ; development of a historical literature. IV. -P. 14. An era of intellectual as well as material activity commences in 1840, after the con cession of responsible government ; political life still claims best intellects ; names of prominent politicians and statesmen from 1840-]867; performance in literature and science; gross partisanship of the press; poenis of ("remazie Howe, Sangster and others; histories of Christie, Bibaud, Garneau and Ferland. V. -P. 19. Historical writers from 1867-18!^3-I)ent, Turcotte. Casgruin, Sxilte. Kingsford etc • Canadian poets-LeMay., Reade, Mair, Roberts, Carman and others: critical remarks on the character of French and English Canadian poet^^- : comparison between Canadian and Au.stralian writeis ; patriotic spirit of Canadian poems. VI. -P. 27. Essay writing in Canada ; weakness of attempts at fiction ; Richardson's " Wa- cousta'-; De Gaspe's " Anciens Ganadiens' ; Kirby's " Goldeji Dog"; Marmette's "F. de Bienville,' among best works of this class ; Professor De Mille an spirit of mi're materialism; its etlect i>rol)abl} the development of a higher culture and creati\e artistic genius on the continent. XL--P. 58. " -^':'- Conclusion : The Frf nch langtiage .'in(i its jirobable dtiration in Canada; the advan- t.ages of a friendly rivalry among French and Englisli Canadians, which will best .stimulate the genius of their peoples in art and letters ; necessity for sym- pathetic encouragement of the two languages ,^'.nd of the ment;>l efforts of each other; less provimialism or luirrowness of mental vi.\ion likely to gain larger audiences in other countries; conditioiis of higher intellectual development largely flepen lent on a widening of our mental horizon, th(> creation of wider sympathy for native talent, the disappearance of a tendency to self-deprecia- tion, and greater self-reliance and confluence in our own intellectual resources. - .,,a««»*^^»*fri«S(*T*.~'S^;>''^fcs.-H^ ■ BIBLIOCRAPHICAL, ART AiND GENERAL NOTES. (1) P. 61.— Lowell's remarks on the study of the Liberal Arts. (2) v. 6L— Jamestown, Va. (.<) P. r)L-Champl,iin s Works ; hia character compared with that of Captain John Smith. <4) P. 62.— Lescarlx)fs " Ilistoire de la Xouvelle France." !? ,^' f:--£^^i'l«^oixs " Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France." m F. bd.— Hutchinson's " History of Massachusetts." <7) P. «)8. Sagard's " Le Grand Voyage," etc. (8) P. fKJ.-P. Boucher's " Mteurs et Productions de la Xouvelle France " (9) P. fti- Jesuit Relations. (10) P. 63.— Fere du Creux, " Historia Canadensis." ai) P. 63. -La Potherie's " Ilistoire de i'Amerique Septentrionale." (11a) P. fJ3.-The Jesuit Lafitau and his work on Indian customs. (12) P. 64.-C. le Clercq, " Etablissement de la Toy." (13) P. 64.-Cotton Mather's " Magnalia." atio) P. (U.— Dr. Michel Sarrazin." (13/^) P. 64.— Peter Kalm and tiie English colonies, (14) P. 65.— Education in Canada. 1792-1893. (15) P. 6o.-I'pper Canada, 1792-1840. (16) P. 0(1.— Canadian Journalism. (17) P. (3(^.— Howe's Speeches. (18) P. 60. -"Sam Slick." (19) P. 6(5.— Judge Haliburtnn's History of Nova Rcotla. (20) P. (i6.-W. Smith's History of Canada. <21) P. (>7. -Joseph Bouchetle's Topoj^raphical Works on Canada. (22) P. 67.— M. Bibatid's Histories of Canada. (23) P. 67.— Thompson's Book on the War of 1812-14. (24) P. 67.— Belknap's History of New Hampshire. (2.5) P. 67.— The poet Cremazie. (26) P. 68.— Chauveau as a poet. (27) P. 69.— Howe's Poems. (28) P. 69.— The poets Sangster and McLachlan. (29) P. 69. -Charles Ileavysege's Works. (30) P. 69.— Todd's ParMamentary (rorernment. (31) P. 6y.-Christies History of Lov\er Canada. (32) P. 70.— Garneau's History of Canada. t;«) P. 70. -Ferland and Faiilon as Canadian Historians. (34) P. 70.— Dent's Histories of Canada. Xll BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, ART AND GENERAL NOTES. (35) P. 71.— Turcottes History since L'aion of 1841. (36) P. 71.— B. Suite, " ilistoire de.s Cauadieiis Fraucais," etc. (37) P. 71.-Abbe (^asgrain's Works. (38) P. 71.-KiiiK8ford. Dionne, Gosselin. Tasse, Tanguay. and other Canadian historians. (39) P. 72.— A Canadian Bibliography. (40) P. 72. -Later Canadian Poets. 1867 1«« : Frechette, LeMay, W. Campbell Robert.s, Lampman, Mair, O'Brien, McColi, Suite, Lockhart, Murray, Edgar, O'Hagan, Davin, etc. Collections of Canadian poems. Cita- tions from Canadian poems. (41) P. 77.-" In My Heart." By .John Readc. (41a) P. 78.-" Laura Secords Warning," fxom Mr.s. Edgar's "Ridout Letters." (42) P. 79.— Au.st,ralian poets and novelists. (43) P. 80.— Howes " Flag of Old England." (44) P. 81.— Canadian essayists : Stewart, Grant, GrifTin and others. (45) P. 81. ~W. Kirby's " Golden Dog " and other works. (45ff) P. 82. -Major Richardson's " Wacousta," etc. (46) P. 82. -Marinette's " Frangois de Bienville, ' and other romances. (47) P. 82.— De Gaspe's " Anoiens Canadiens." (48) I'. f<2. -Mrs. Catherwood's works of fiction. (49) I*. S3. -Gilbert Parker's writings. (50) P. 83.-DeMille's fiction. (.51) P. 8;i.— Sara Jeaiinettc Duncan's " A Social Departure," etc. (52) P. 83.— Matthew Arnold on Literature and Science. (53) P. 8;]. I'rincipal Gr.int'.s Aihiress to Royal Society. (.54) 1'. 84'.— Sir J. W. Dawson's scientific labours. (.55) P, 84.— Elkanah Billings as scientist. (56) P. S-t.— Origin of Royal Society of Canada. (57) P. 84.— Sir D. Wilson, T. S. Hunt and Mr. Chauveau. (.58) P. 84.— Canadian Literary and Scientific Societies. (58a) P. 85. -The Ear! of Derby's farewell address to the Royal Society. His opinion of its work and usefulness. (59) P. 86.— S. E. Dawson on Tennvson. (60) P. 86. -The old " Canadian Monthly." (61) P. 86. -Form of Royal Society Transactions. (62) P. 86.— Goldwin Smith on the study of the Classics. (6;i) p. 37.— Canadian I^ibraries. (61) R ^. -List of artists in Canada. Native born and adopted. Art societies. In fluence of French school. Canadian artists at the World's Fair. J. W. L. Forster on Canadian art. (64a) p. 89. -Architectural art in Canada. List of prominent public buildings noted for beauty and symmetry of form. (65) p. 91.-" Fideiis." OUR rNTKJ.LECTrAL STRJ-:NGT1[ ANl; WEAKNESS. A SHORT REVIEW OF LiTf:R.ATURF, Education and Art in Canada I. I cannot more appropriately commence this address tlian by a reference to an oration delivt^red seven years ao-o in the great hall of a famous university which stands ben^-ath the stately elms of (Cambridge, in the old "Bay State " of Massachusetts : a noble seat of learning- in which Canadians take a deep interest, not only because some of their sons have complett.-d thuir educa- tion within its walls, bui bi-«>anse it ropresents that culture and scholarship whi.h know no national lines of separation, but belong to the world's great Federation of L.nirniug The orator was a man who, by his deep philosopliy, jiis poetic geuius. his broad patriotism, his love for Euglancl her great literature and history, had won for himself a reputation not' equalled in some respects by any other citizen of the United .^tates of these later times. In the course of n brilliant oration in honour'* of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Harvard. James Russell Lowell took occasion to warn his audience against the lenden<-y of aprospeious democracy ' towards an overweening confidence in itself and it8 home-made methods, an overestimate '* In all cases the references are to the Notes ia the Apjjendix. 2 revif:\v of Canada's of material success and a correspoudin;^ iudiffeifuce to the things of the mind." He did uot deny I hat wealth is a great fertilizer of civilization and of the arts that beautitj it; that wealth is an excellent thing- since it means power, leisure and liberty ; •' V>ut these," he went on to say, ''divorced from culture, that is, from intelliirent purpof*e. beconn^ the very mockery of their own essence, not goods, but e^■ils fatal to their possessor, aiul bring with them, like the Nibelungen Hoard, a doom instead of a ])!esfcing." " 1 am saddened,'' he continued, "w^hen I see our success as a nation measured by the number of acres under tillage, or of busht;ls of wheat ex])orted ; for the real value of a country must bo weighed in scales more delicate than the balance of trade. The garners of Sicily are empty now, but the bees Irom all climes still fetch honey from the tiny garden-plot of Theocritus. On a map of the world you may cover Judea with 3''our thumb, Athens with a finger-tip, andneilh^'r of them figures in the Prices Current ; but they still lord it in the thought and action of every civilized man. Did not Dante cover with his hood all that was Italy six hundred years ago? And if we go back a century, where was Germany outside of Weimar ? Material success is goc>d, but only as fhe necessary preliminary of better things. The measure of a nation's true success is the amount it has contributed to the thought, the moral energy, the intellectual happiness, the spiritual hope and consolation of mankind." These eloquently suggestive words, it must be remembered, were addressed by a great American author to an audience, made up of eminent scholars and writers, in the principal academic seat of that New England which has given birth to Emerson, Longfellow, Bancroft, Prescott, Motley, Hawthorne, Holmes, Parknian, and many others, representing the brightest thought and intellect of this continent. These w'riters v^'ere the product of the intellectual development of the many years that had passed since the pilgrims landed on the historic rock of Plymouth. Yet, while Lowell could point to such a brilliant ari-ay of his- torians, essayists, poets and novelists, as 1 have just named, as the latest results of New England 'i-ulture, he felt compelled to utter a word of remonstrance against that spirit of materialism INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 3 that was then as now abroad in the land, tendinjr to stifle those generous intellectual aspiratious- which are best calculated to make a people truly happy and gn-at. Let us now apply these remarks of the emin.-nt American poet and thinker to Canada—to ourseh'es, whose history is even older than that of New England ; contemporaneous rather with that of Virginia, since Charaplain landed on the heights of Que-- bee and laid the foundations of the ancient capital only a year after the English adventurers of the days of King James set tht-ir feet on the banks of the river named afrer that sovereign and commenced the old town which has long since disappeared Defore the tides of the ocean that stretches away beyond the shores of the Old Dominion. - If we in Canada rire open to the same charge of attaching too much importance to material things, are we able at the same time to point to as notable achievc^ments in literature as results of the three centuries that have nearly passed since the foundation of New France ? I do not suppose that the most patriotic Canadian, however ready to eulogize his own country, will make an elibrt to claim an equality with New England in this respect ; but, if indeed we feel it necessary to offer any comparison that would do us justice, it would be with that Virginia whose history is contemporaneous with that of French Canada. Statesmanship rather than Letters has been the pride and ambition of the Old Dominion, its brightest and highest achievement. Virginia has been the mother of great orators and great presidents, and her men of letters sink into insignirnjauce alongside of those of New England. It may be said, too, of Canada, that her history in the days of the French regime, duriiio- the struggle for responsible government, as well as at the birth of confederation, gives us the names of men of statesmanlike designs and of patriotic purpose. From the days of Champlain to the establishment of the confederation, Canada has had the services of men as eminent in their respective spheres, and as successful in the attainment of popular rights, in moulding the educational and political institutions of the country, and in lay- ing broad and deep the foundations of a new nationality across half a continent, as those great Virginians to whom the w^orld is 4 REVIEW OF CANADA'S ever rcifly to pay its nu'ed of respect. These Virginian statesmen won th*'ir fame in th l;ir;:ic tiit^atro oi' national achievement — in laying the basis 'A' t [,,. vDost riMiiitrkablc t'ed*'ral republic the world has evt-r seen ; whilst <'aiia;liai. public men have laboured with equal earnesttiHs< nnd ability »n iliat far less conspicuous and brilliant arena ol' colonial development, the eulogy oi" which has, l'» ])c written in the histories of the future. '■ n Let me now ask vou to follow me for a shon time whilst 1 review some of the most salient features of our intelici.'tual progress since the days (yanada entered on its career of cora- ])ctition in tlie civilization of thi^ coiuineut. So far there have be3u three well defined eras of devtdopment in the country now known as the Dominion oi' Canada. First, there was the era of French Canadian occupation which in many respects had its heroic and picturesque features. Thm, al'rer the cession of Canada to Eug'land, on with the admirable works of Cham- plain, explorer and historian,' or with those of the jrenial and witty advoeat»\ Marc Lescarbot,' names that caji never be for- gotten on the pi<;turesqne heights of Quebec, or on the banks of the beautiful basin of Annapolis. Is there a Canadian or Ameri- can writer who is not under a deep debt of obligation to the clear-headi'd anench archives, is of priceless value as a true and minute record of the times in which the authors lived, or which they described from the materials to which they alone had access. It may be said with truth that none of these w^riters were Canadians in the sense that they were born or educated in Canada, but still they w^ere the product of the life, the hardships and the realities of New France — it was from this country they drew the inspiration that gave vigour and colour to their writings. New^ England, as I have already said, never origin- ated a class of writers who produced work of equal value, or indeed of equal literary merit. Religious and polemic contro- INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS^. 7 versy had the chiff attraction for thi- i-loorny, disputatious puri- tan native nf Massachusetts and the adjoining cok>nies. ( •otton Mather was essentially a New Knt^land .r'^ation, and if quantity were the criterion of literary merit then he was the most distin- guished author of his century : for it i.s said that indefatiirahle ai\tiquari:ins have counted up the titles nf nearly four hundred h<»oks and pamphlets by this industrious writer. His principal work, however, was the " Maunalia Christi Americana, or Eccle- siastical History of New England from lt;20 to lt>98,"''' a hirge folio, remarkable as a curious collection of strange conceits, forced witticisms, and prolixity of narrative, in which the venturesome reader soon linds himself so irretrievably mystitied .and lost that he rises from the perusal with wonderuKnit that so much learn- ing, as was evidently possessed by the author, could be so used to bewilder the world of letters. The historical knov.'ledge is literally choked up with verbiage und mannerisms. Even prosy du Creux becomes tolerable at times compared with the garrulous Puritan author. Though books were rarely seen, and secular education was extremely defective as a rule throughout the French colony, yet at a very early period in its history remarkable opportunities were afforded for the education of a priesthood and the (^ult of the principles of the Roman Catholic religion among those classes who were able to avail themselves of the facilities offered by the Jesuit College, which was founded at Quebec before even Harvard at Cambridge, or by the famous Great and Lesser Semin- aries in the same place, in connection with which, in later times, rose the University with whi;h has of late years extended through th'- Dominion — and is the chief honour of Ontario — was never dreamed of in those times of slttggish growth and local apathy, when communication between the distant parts of the country was slow and wretched, w^hen the conditions of life were generally very hard and rude, when the forest still covered the greater portion of the most fertile districts of Ontario,'" though here and there the jjioneer's axe could bo heard from morn to eve hewing out little patches of sunlight, so many glimpses of civilization and better times amid the wildness of a new 1 und even then lull of promise. The newspapers of those days were very few and came only at uncertain times to the home of the farmer by the side of some stream or amid the dense forest, or to the little hamlets that were springing up in favoured spots, and represented so many radiating influences of intelligence on the borders of the great 10 REVIEW OF CANADA'S lakes and their tributary streame. on the Atlantic seaboard, or on the numerous rivers that form so many natural highways to the peoi)le of the maritime provinces. These newspapers were for years mostly small quarto or folio sheets, in which the scissors played necessarily the all-important part ; but there v/as, never- theless, before 1840 in the more pretentious journals of the large towns, some good writing done by thoughtful men who studied their (juestions, and helped to atone for thr- very bitter vindictive partisan attacks on opponents that too frequently sullied the press in those times of fierce conflict."' Books were onh'' found in the homi.'S of the clergy or of the ofiicial classes, and these were generally old editions and rarely the latest publications of the time. Montreal and Quebec, for many years, were the only places where bookstores and libraries of more than a thousand volumes could be seen. It was not until 1813 that a successlul effort was raade to establish a "social library" at Kingston, Bath, and some other places in the Midbind district, Toronto had no library worth mentioning until 1886. "What culture ex- isted in those rude days was to be hauted up among the clergy, especially of the Church of England, the lloman Catholic priests of Lower Canada, and the official classes of the large towns. Some sermons that have come down to us, in i)amphlets of very common paper — and very few were printed in those days when postage was dear and bookselling was not profitable — have no pretensions to originality' of thought or literary style : sermons in remarkable contrast with the brilliant and suggestive utter- ances of such modern pulpit orators as Professor Clarke, of Trinity. The exhaustive and, generally, closely reasoned sermons of the Presbyterian divine hud a special flavour of the Westminster con- fession and little of the versarility of preachers like Principal Grant in these later times when men are attempting to make even doama more genial, and to understand the meaning of the sermon in the Mount. Then, as always in Canada, there were found among the clergy of all denominations hardworking, self- denying priests and mis.sionaries who brought from time to time to some remote settlement of the provinces spiritual consolation and to many a household, long deprived of the intellectual uour- INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 11 ishrnent of other days, an opportanity of conversing on su]>jects which in the stern daily routine of their lives in a new country were seldom or ever talked of. It was in the legislative halls of the provinces that the brightest intellec t naturally fourd scope for its display, and at no subsequent period of the political history of Canada were th<»re more fervid, earnest orators than apjieared in the days when the battle for responsible government was at its height. The narat'S of Nelson, Papineau, Howe, Baldwin, Wilmot, Johnstone, Young, Robinson, Rolph and Mackenzie recall the era when questions of political controversy and politi- cal freedom stimulated mental development among that class which sought and found the best popular opportunities for the display of their intellectual gifts in the legislative hails in the absence of a great printing press and a uati\'e literature. Joseph Howe's speeches " displayed a wide culture, an original elo- quence, and a piatriotic aspiration beyond those of any other man of his time and generation, and would have done credit to the Senate of the United i:?tates, then in the zenith of its reputation as a body of orators and statesmen. It is an interesting fact that Howe, then printer and publisher, should have printed the first work of the only great humorist that Canada has yet produced. I mean of course "The Clockraaker," '"^ in which Judge Hali- burtou created " Sam Slick," a type of a Down-east Yankee pedlar who sold his wares by a judicious use of that quality which is sure to be appreciated the world over, " Soft sawder and human natur'.'' In this work, which has run through ever so many editions, and is still found on the shelves of every w^ell-equipped library and bookstore, Sam Slick told some home truths to his somewhat self-satisfied countrymen who could not fielp laugh- ing even if the humour touched them very keenly at times- Nova Scotia has changed much for the better since those dull times whevi the house of assembly was expeited to be a sort of political providence, to make all the roads and bridges, and give good times and harvests ; but even now there are some people cruel enough, after a visit to Halifax, to hint that there still is a grain of truth in the following reflection on the eriterprise of that beautiful port : '• How the folks to Halifax tak" it all out in 12 REVIEW OF CANADA'S talkiii' — thoy talk of steam-boats, whalers and railroads — but they all end where they beg-in — in talk. I don't think I'd be out in my latitude it' I was to say they beat the womankind at that. One jeller says, I talk of n written i)i British North America up to rliai time — indeed it is still most readable, and worthy of a place iu every library. In later days the Judge wrote many other books and became a member of the English House of Commons: but "Sam Slick " still remains the most signal illustration of his original genius. During this period, however, apart from the two works to which I have referred, we look in vain for any original literature w^orthy of >i'e(.iai mention. A history of Canada written by William Smith,-" a son of an eminent chief justice of New York, and subsequently of Canada, was published in excellent style for those days as early as 1^15 at Quebec, but it has no special value except to the collector of old and rare books. Bouchette's topographical and geographicj^l account of Canada-' illustrated the ability and zeal of an eminent French Canadian, who de- served the thanks of his country, but these w^ell printed books were, after all, mere oomfnlations and came from the English press, Pamphl ts were numerous enougli, and some of them had literary skill, but they had, in the majority of <^ases, no per- manent value except to the historian or antiquarian of the present day who must sift out all sorts of material and study every phase and incident of the times he has chosen for his theme. Mich(d Bibaud wrote a history of French Canada,'- which no one reads in these days, and the most of the other works that ema- nated from the Canadian i)ress, like Thompson's " War of 1812,'" "' are chieily valued by the historical collector. It was not to be expected that in a relatively poor country, still in the inffincy of its development, severely tried by political - ontroversies, with a INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 13 small popnlatioii sfittt'red over ;i loii!>- stretch of territory, from Sycbiry to Niajram, there rould be any iutcllectnal stimulus or literary etlbrt e:vce|»t what was represented in newspapers like the Gazelle of Montreal— whieh has always maintained a certain dignity of style in its lonn- journalistic rareer — the Gaztitt- -^^ml the Canadien of (,>iu-bec, the .Vo?v/ ^(vfinn of Halifax, or displayed itself in k^eii coiiti'sts in the leaislature.s or court-houses of a people deliahting- always in sii -h di^^jdays as ih*re were made of mental power and natural eloquence. From a literary point of view^ our American neighbours had, during this period, left us away behind, in fact no com])arison can be made between the two countries, laying aside th(^ orignuil creation of Sam tSlick. Tow^ards the close of the eio-hteeiith v.entury Px Iknap published his admirable history <:-i New^ Hampshire,-' while the third Tolume of Hutchinson's history of ]\rassachusetis appeared in 1828, to close a work of rare merit alike for careful research, philosophic acuteness and liierary charm. That admirable col- lection of political and constitutional essays known as the " Fed- eralist " had attained a w^ide circulation and largely influenced the destinies of the union under the constitution of 1783. Chief Justice Marshall illumined the bench by his great Judicial deci- sions which have w^oii a remarkable place in legal lit.'rature, on account of th'»ir close, acute nnisoning, breadth of knowledii'e, insight into great eonstitutionai principles, and their immediate influeure ou th-^ jjolitical development <.f the fegan to ajipear in 1821, and Ikunroft published in 18;>4 the iirst volume ol what is a great history despite its somewhat rhetorical and ambitious style. Hawthorne\s "Twice Told Tales" appeared in 1835, but his fame was to be w^on iii later years when he wrote the "Scarlet Letter '' and the ''House of Seven Gables," the most original and quaint productions that New England genius has yet produced. If I linger for a moment among these men it is 14 REVIEW OF CANADA'S because they were not merely American by the influence of their writings ; but wherever the English tongue is spoken and Eng- lish literature is road these writers of a past generation, as it may be said of others of later times, claim the gratitude of the untold thousands whom they have instructed and helped in many a weary and sad, as well as idle hour. They were not Canadians, but they illustrated the genius of this continent of ours. lY. It was in the years that followed the concession of respon- sible government that a new era dawned on Canada — an era of intellectual as well as material activity. Then common schools followed the establishment of municipal institutions in Ontario. Even the province of Quebec awoke from its sullen lethargy and assumed greater confidence in the future, as its statesmen grad- ually recognized the fact that the union of 1841 could be turned to the advantage of French Canada despite it having been largely based on the hope of limiting the development of French Cana- dian institutions, and gradually leading the way to the assimi- lation of the two races. Political life still claimed the best talent and energy, as it has always. done in this country ; and, while Papineau soon disappeared from the arena where he had been, under a diflerent condition of things, a powerful disturbing influ- ence among his compatriots, men of greater discretion and wider statesmanship like Laibniaine, Morin and Cartier. took his place to the decided benefit of French Canada, Robert Baldwin, a tried and conservative reformer, yielded to the antagonistic influences that eventually arrayed themselves in his own party against him and retired to a priva^^y from which he never ventured until his death. William Lyon Mackenzie came back from exile and took a place once more in legislative halls only to find there was no longer scope for mere querulous agitators and restless politicians. Joseph Howe still devoted himself with untiring zeal to his coun- trymen in his native province, while Judge Wilmot, afterwards governor like the former in confederation days, delighted the people of New Brunswick with his rapid, fervid, scholarly elo- INTELLFX'TUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 15 queiice. James "VV. Johnstone, lonir the leader of the Conserva- tive party in Nova Scotia, remarkable for his great tlov^' of lan- guage and argument ; William Young, an astute politician ; James Boyle LTuiacke, with all the genius of an Irish orattn- ; Laurence O'Connor Doyle, wit and Irishman; Samuel J. W. Archibald with his silver tongue, afterwards master of the rolls ; Adams G. Archibald, polish(?d gentleman ; Leonard Tilb'y with his suavity of demeanour and skill n.-- a politioian ; Charles Tupper with his great command of language, earnestness of expression and courage of conviction, were the leading exponents of the political opinions and of the culture and oratory of Nova Scoria and New Brunswi* k. In the upp^r provinces Wt» had in addi- tion tu the names of the distinguished French Canadians I have already mentioned, those of John A. Ma'donald, at iiU times a ready and incisive debater, a great party tactician, and a states- man of generous aspirations, who was destined to die very many years Inter with the knowledge that he had realized his concep- tion of a federation uniting all the territory of British North America, from Sydney to Victoria, under one government. The names of Allan McNah, Francis Hincks, George Brown, George Etienne Cartier, Alexander Gait. D'Arcy McGee, Louis Sicotte, John Hillyard Cameron, Alexander Mackenzie, Seth Huntington, William McDougall, Antoine Dorion, Alexander Campbell, and of other men, eminent for their knowledge of finance, their powers as debaters, their graceful oratory, their legal acumen, their poli- tical skill and their intellectual achievements in their respective spheres, will be recalled by many of those who hear me, since the most eminent among them have but recently disappeared from the stage of active life. As long as party government lasts in this country men will be divided into political divisions, and objection will be of course time and again taken to the methods by which these and other political leaders have achieved their party ends, and none of us will be always satisfied with the conclusions to which their at times overweening ambition has led them ; but, taking them all in all, I believe for one who has lived all my life among politicians and statesmen that, despite their failings and weaknesses, the 16 REVIEW OF Canada's public men of our country in those days laboured on the whole conscieiition:>]y from their own ])oint^ of vievT to make Canada hapi)i.'r and >:rreater. Indeed, wheii I look around me and see what lias biicn dont' in the face of great obstacles during a half century and less, I am bound to pay this tribute to those who laboured earnestly in the dililiult and trying inteile.tiuil Held of public life. But this period ■v.hieh brougiit so many bright intellects into the activities of political life was distinguished also, not merely for the material advance in industry, but notably for some perform- ance in the less hazardous walk of literature. The newspaper press with the progress of population, the increase of wealth, the ditfusion of education, the i/onstruction of railways and tele- graph lines, and the development of politi-al liberty, found itself stimulated to new energy and enterprise. A daily press now commenced to meet the necessities of the larger and wealthier cities and towns. It must be admitted, however, that from a strictly intellectual point of view there was not in some respects a marked advance in the tone and. style of the leading public journals. Political partisanship ran extremely high in those days — higher than it has ever since — and grosser personalities than have ever characterized newspapers in this country sullied the editorial columns of leading exponents of public opinion. No doubt there was much brilliant and forcible writing, despite the acrimuiiy and abuse that were too otten considered more neces- sary than incisive argument and logical reasoning when a poli- tical oj>ponent had to be met. It was rarely that one could get at the whole truth of a question by reading only one newspaper; it was necessary to take two or three or more on different sides of politics in order to obtain even an accurate idea of the debates in the legislative halls. A Libera] or Conservative journal would consider it beneath its legitimate functions even as a newspaper to report with any fulness the speeches of its political adversa- ries. Of course this is not newspaper editing in the proper sense of the phrase. It is not the English method assuredly, since the London Times, the hest example of a well-equipped and well-con- ducted newspaper, has always considered it necessary to give INTELLEHTUVL STRENGTH A\D WEAKNESS. It equal proraiaence to the speeches of IVel, Russell, Palmerston, Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone—of all the leaders irrespective of party. Even in these days of heated routroversy on the Irish question one can always find in the columns of the London press fair and accurate reports of the speeches of CTladstone, Balfour, McCarthy, Chamberlain, Morley and iJlake This is the sound basis on which true and honest journalism must always rest if it is to find its legitimate reward, not in the fickle smiles of the mere party follower, but in the support of that great public which can best repay the enterprise and honesty of a true newspaper. Still, despite this violent partisanship lo which bright intellects lowered themselves, and the absence of that responsibility to public opinion expected from its active teachers, the press of Canada, during the days of which I am speaking, kept pace in some essential respects with the material progress of the country, and represented too well the tone and spirit of the mass in the country where the rudiments of culture were still rough and raw. Public intelligence, however, was being gradually diffused, and a<;cording as the population increased, and the material conditions of the country improved, a literature of some merit commenced to show itself The poems of Cremazie,-' of Chauveau,"' of Howe,^" of Sangster -» and others, were imbued with a truly Canadian spirit— with a love for Canada, its scenery, its history and its traditions, w^hch entitled them to a larger audience than they probably ever had in this or other countries. None of those were great poets, but all of them were more or less gifted with a measure of true poetic genius, the more noteworthy because it shovv-ed itself in the rawness and newness of a colonial life. Amid the activities of a very busy period the poetic instinct of Canadians constantly found some expression. One almost now forgotten poet who was engaged in journalism in Montreal wrote an ambitious drama, "Saul," which was described at the time by a Biilish critic as " a drama treated with great pcetic power and depth of psychological knowledge which are often quite startling ; " and the author followed it up with other poems, displaying also much imagination and feeling, but at no time reaching the ears of a large and appreciative audience. We can- B 18 REVIEW OF Canada'? not, howover, cljiim Charles Heiivysc'^e-'^' as a product of Canadian soil and <;ducatioii, tor h(^ was a man of mature ago whtm ho made his home in this country, and his works were in no wise inspired by Canadian sentiiaeut, 8(^enery or asfuration. In his- torv Canadians have always hhowa some strength, and perhaps this was to be expected in vi»Hv of the fact that political and his- torical literature — such works as Hamilton's 'Federalist" or Todd's "Parliamentary Government"'" — naturally engages the attention of active intellects in a new country at a time when its institutions have to be moulded, and it is necessary to collect precedents and principles from the storehouse of the past for the assistance of the i^resent. A most useful narrative of the politi- cal occurr'-nce*^ »• Lower Canada, from the establishment of legis- lative insiitntions until the rebellion of 18B7-38 and the union of 1841, was written by Mr. Robert Christie, long a publicist of note and a member of the assembly of the province. While it has no claim to literary style it has the great merit of stating the events of the day with fairness and of citing at length numerous original documents bearing on the text.^^ In French Canada the names of Garneau^' and Ferland ''^ have undoubtedly received their full meed of praise for their clearness of style, industry of research, and scholarly management of their subject. Now that the political passion that so long convulsed the public mind in this country has disappeared with the causes that gave it birth, one is hardly prepared to make as much a hero of Papineau as Garneau attempted in his assuredly great book, while the foun- dation of a new Dominion and the dawn of an era of larger poli- tical life, has probably given a somewhat sectional character to such historical work. Still, despite its intense French Canadian spirit, Garneau's v( lumes notably illustrate the literary instinct and intt'licctual strength which have always beeu distinguishing features of the be.^t productions of the able and even brilliant men who have devoted therasches to literature with marked success amono- their French Canadian couutrymen, who are wont to pay a far deeper homage to such literary efforts than the colder, less impulsive English Canadian character has ever shown itself disposed to give to those who have been equally worthy of recog- nition in the English-speaking provinces. INTELLECTUAL STKENOTH AND WEAKNESS. 19 As I g-laiice over my library shelves I Ihid indeed thit liis- torital literature has continued sine*; the d;iy.« of Garueau and Ferland, to enlist the eanie.st and industrious study ol Canadians with more or less success. In English Canada, John Charles Dent i->roduced a work on the political development of Canada fron. tbe union of 1841 until the confederition of 1867, which was written with fairness and ability, but ln' was an En^-uiUi to this country in the maturity of their mental powers, yd to men of their class the Dominion owes a heavy debt of gratitude for the ability and earnestness with which they have elevated the intellectual stand- ard of the community where they have laboured. Althou2h all of us may not be prepared to accept the conclusions of the his- torian, or approve the judgment of the political critic; although we may regret that a man of such deep scholarship and wide culture as Goldwin Smith has never yet been able to appreciate the Canadian or growing national sentiment of this dependency, yet who can dovibt, laying aside all x><^>litical or personal preju- dice, that he, like the others 1 have named, has stimulated intel- lectual development in his adopted home, and so far has given us compensation for some utterances which, so many Canadians hoiiestlv believe, mar an otherwise useful and brilliant career. Such literary men have undoubtedly their uses, since they seem specially intended by a wise dispensation of afiairs to cure us of too much self-complacency, and to prevent us from falling into a condition of mental stagnation by giving us from time to time abundant material for reflection. So much, by way of parenthesis, is due to the able men who have adopted Canada as their home and have been labouring in various vocations to stimulate the intellectual sf-rowth of this Dominion. A most 20 REVIEW OK CANADA'S aocurato histori<;il r«.'cord of the samo period of our history as that re /icwed by Dcnit was made iu French about, thf J^ame time by I-ly a review of the more salient features of our intellectual development in the well-marked periods of our history. Indeed it is gratifying to us to know that the Royal Society comprises within its ranks nearly all tae historical writers in Canada, and it would seem too m"ch likj pure egotism were I to dilate on their respective performa*ices. Of poets since the days of Cremazie we have had our full proportion, and it is encouraging to know that the poems of Frechette, — whose best w^ork has been crowned by the French Academy, — LeMay. Reade, Mair, Roberts, Bliss Carman, Wilfred Campbell and Laraxnnan have li'ained recojriiition from tim • to time in the world of letters outside of Canada.'" * We have yet to produce in English Canada a book of poems w^hich can touch the sympathies and live on the lips of the w^orld like those of Whittier and Longfellow, but we need not despair since even in the country w^hich gave these birth they have not their compeers. ISome even declare that the only bard of promise who appears in these days to touch that chord of nature which makes the whole world kin is James Whitcomb Riley, the Iloosier poet, despite his tendency to ex- ■"' *A list of Canadian poems which have been printed in books (^from 1807- 1893) appears in the Bibliograpliical Notes (4(J). INTELLECTUA.L STRENOTH AND WEA KNEE'S. 21 ai^i^erato provincial diulect and make his true poetic g^^niiis too siihordinatH to what b»'Comes at last an aftectatiou and a mt>r« mannerism which wearies by its very repetition. Even in Kng"- land there is hesiiaiioii in choosing a poet laureate; there are Swinhurne, Morris and other poets, but not another Tennyson, and it lias been fveu sujifgested that the honour miyht pass to a master of poetic prose, John Ruskiu, whose brilliant genius has been ever devoted to a lofty idealism which would make the world much happier and better. At the present time Canadian poets obtain a pla*;e with regularity in the best class of American maga/jues, and not infrequently their verse roaches a hi«rher level than the majority of i>oetic aspirants who appear in the same field of poetry ; but for one 1 am not an ardent admirer of Amcri- <'an magazine poems which appear tooofien mere macliine work and not the results of that *rue poetic inspiration which alone can achieve permanent fame. The poems of the well known American authors, Aldrich, Gilder and .Stedraun, hive certainly an easy rhythmical ilow and an artibiic finish which the majority of Canadian poeti*- aspirants should study with far more closeness. At the same time it may be said that even these artists do not often surpass in poetic thought the best prodixctions of the Canadians to whom 1 have referrt?d as probably illustrating most x)errectly the highest devel- opment so far among us of this department of hellesleftres. It is not often that one comes across more exquisitely conceived poems than some of those written by Mr. John Reade, whom the labor- ious occupation of journalism and probably the past indifference of a Canadian public to Caiiadian poetry have for a long while diverted from a literary field where it would seem he should have won a wnder fame. Among the verses which one can read time and again are tho.se of Avhich the first lines are "In my heart are many chambers through which I wander free, Some are furnished, somo are empty, .some are sombre, &oiue are light ; Some are open to all comers, and of some I keep the key, And I enter in the stillness of tho ni^'ht.' "* *i « Given in full in Appendix. 22 REVIEW OF CANADA'S It would be interesting as well as instructive if some com- petent critic, with the analytical faculty and the 7»oetic instinct of Matthew Arnold or Sainte-Beuvo, were to study the English and French Canadian points and sr-how whether they are mere imitators of the best models of French and Eiiglisli literature, or whether their work contains within itself those germs which give promise of original fruition in the future. It will be remem- bered that the French critic, though a poet of merit himself, has spoken of what he calls "the radical inadequacy of French poetry." In his opinion, whatever talent the French poets have for strophe and line, their work, as a rule is " too slight, too soon read, too poor in ideas, to influence a seiious mind for any length of time." No doubt many others think that, in comparison with the best conceptions of Wordsworth. Sh-'lley, Keats, Emerson, Browning and Tennyson, French poetry is, generally speaking, inadequate for the expression of the most sublime thoughts, of the strono-est passion, or of the most powerful imagination, and though it must always please us by its easy rhythm and lucidity of style, it fails to make that vivid impression on the mind and senses which is the best test of that true poetic genius which influences generations and ever lives in the hearts of the people. It represents in some respects the lightness and vivacity of the French intellectual temperament under ordinary conditions, and not the strength of the national character, whose depths are only revealed at some crisis which; evokes ci deep sentiment of patriot- ism " Partant pour ia Syrie," so often heard in the days of the last Bonaparte regime, probably illustrated this lighter tendency of the French mind just as the " Marseillaise," the noblest and most impressive of popular poetic outbursts, illustrated national passion evoked by abnormal condi'ions. French Canadian poetry has been often purely imitative of French models, like Musset and Gauthier. both in style and sentiment, and consequently lacked strength and originality. It might be thought that in this new country poets would be inspired by original conceptions — that the intellectual fruition would be i'r.'sh and vigorous like some natural products that grow so luxuriantly on the virginal soil of the new Dominion, and not like those which grow on land which is renewed aad enriched by artiiiciai means after centu- INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 23 TWB of i^rowth. Perhaps the literature of a colonial d-'pendenry, or a relatively new country, mu?t necessarily in its first stages be imitative, and it is only now and then an origriual raiud bursts the fetters of iutellectnul subordination. In the United States Emerson and Hawthorne probably best represent the oriirinal thought and imagination of that comparatively new country, just as A Id rich and Howells represent in the first case English culture in poetry, and in the other the sublimated essence of reportorial realism. The two former are original thinkers, the two others pure imitators. Walt Whitman's poems certainly show at times mu- h power and originality of conception, but after all they are simply the creations of an eccentric genius and illustrate a phase of that Realism towards which fiction even in America has been tending of late, and which has been already degraded in France to a Naturalism which is positively offensive. He has not influenced to any perceptible extent the intellect of his generation or elevated the thoughts of his coun- trymen like the two great minds I have just named. Yet even Whitman's success, relatively small as it was in his own coun- try, arose chieiiy from the fact that he attempted to be an Ameri- can poet, representing the pristine vigour and natural freedom of a new land. It is when French Canadian poets become thor- oughly Canadian by thti very force of the inspiration of some Canadian subject they have chosen, that we can s^e ihem at their best. Frechette has all the finish of the French poets, and while it cannot be said that he has y't originated great thoughts which are likely to live among even th*> people whom he has so often instructed and delighted, yet he has given us poems like that on the discover/ of the Mississippi,* which proves that he is capa- ble of even better things if he would always seek inspiration from the sources of the deeply interesting history of his own coun- try, or enter into the inner mysteries and social relations of his own people, rather than dwell on the lighter shades and inci- dents of their lives. Perhaps in some res{>e( ts C]*''mazie had greater capabilities for the poems of deep passion or vi\'id imagi- nation than any of his sucrcs^or' iu literature; the few national * See Appendix to this work, note 40, for an extract from thi.s fine poem 24 i REVTEW OF CANADA'S poems he left behind are a promise of what he could have pro- duced had the circumsiances of his later life been happier.* After all, the poetry that lives is the poetry of human life and human sympathy, of joy and sorrow, rather than verses on moun- tains, rivers and lakes, or sweetly worded sonnets to Madame B, or Mademoiselle G. When we compare the English with the French Canadian poets we can see what an influence the more picturesque and interesting history of French Canada exert.'ises on the imagination of its writers. The poets that claim Ontario for their home give us rhythmical and pleasing descriptions of the lake and river scenery of which the varied aspects and moods might well captivate the eye of the poet as well as of the painter. It is very much painting in both cases ; the poet should be an artist by temperament equally with the painter who puts his thoughts on canvas and not in words. Descriptions of our mea- dows, prairies and forests, with their wealth of herbage and foliage, or artistic sketches of pretty bits of lake scenery '-^ve their limitations as respects their iulhience on a peoplf\ Great thoughts or deeds are not })red by scenery. The American poem that has captured the world is not any one of Bryant's delightful sketches of the varied landscape of his native land, but Long- fellow's Evangeline, which is a story of the " aifection that hopes, and endures and is patient." Dollard, and the Lady of Fort La Tour are themes which we do not find in prosa.'c On- tario, whose history is only a century old — a history of stern materialism as a rule, rarely picturesque or romantic, and hardly ever heroic except in some episodes of the war of 1812-lo, in which Canadians, women as well as men, did their duty faith- fully to king and country, though their deeds have never yet been adequately told in poem or prose. The story of Laura Secord's toilsome journey on a June day eighty years ago *'' seems as sus- ceptible of strong poiitii* treatment as Paul Revere's Ride, told in matchless verse by Longfellow. I think if we compare the best Canadian poems with the same class of literature in Australia the former do not at all lose * See Appendix to this work, uote 40, for an extract from one of Itis national poems. INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 25 by the comparison. Thanks to the thoughtfulness of a friend in South Australia I have had many opportunities of late of study- irqj the best work of Australian writers, chieliy poets and novel- la" .''^ and have come to the conclusion that at least the poets of both hemispheres — for to fiction w^e cannot make even a pretense — reflect credit on each country. In one respect indeed Cana- dians can claim a superiority over their fellow-citizens of the British Empire in that far ofi Australian laud, and that is, in the fact that we have poets, and historians, and essayists, who write the languages of France and England with purity and even ele- gance ; that the grace and precision of the French tongue have their place in this country alongside tlie vigorous and copious expression of the English language. More than that, the Cana- dians have behind them a history which is w^ell calculated to stimulate writers to give utterance to national sentiment. I mean national in the sense of being thoroughly imbued with a love for the country, its scenery, its history and its aspirations. The pt'O})!'' of that great island continent possess great natural beauties and riches — flowers and fruits of every kind flourish there in rare profusion, and gold and gems are among the trea- sures of the soil, but its scenery i.'^ far less varied and f)icturesque than ours and its history is but of yesterday compared with that of Canada, Australians cannot point to such historic ground as is found from Louisbourg to Quebec, or from Moatreal to Cham- plain, the battle ground of nations whose descendants now live under one flag, animaied by feelings of a common interest and a common aspiration for the future ! Perhaps if I were at any time inclined to be depressed as to the future of Canada, T should find some relief in those poems by Canadian authors which take frequently an elevated and patri- otic range of thought and vision, and give expression to aspira- tions worthy of men born and living in this country. When some men doubt the future and would, see us march into the ranks of other states, with heads bowed down in confession of our ftr'lure to hold our own on this continent and build up a new nation always in the closest conn^'ction with England, J ask them to turn to the poems of Joseph IJowe and read that inspiring 26 REVIEW OF CANADAS poetic tribute to th>' mother country, " All hail to the day when the Britons came over " — " Every flasli of her genius oar pathway .-uliL'htens, JIvery fit'ld ■'he explores we are borkoned to tread, Each laiirol she gathers, our fu'ure day brightens-- We joy with iior liviug and mourn with iier dead."*'' Or read that tribute which the Frenc^h Canadion laureate, Frechette, has been fain to pay to the Knglish flag under whose folds his country has enjoyed so much freedom and protection for its institutions : " Regarde me disait men ptre Ce drapeau vaillainmeiit porte ; ^l 11 fait t'Hi pays prospere Et respecte ta liberie. " ("'est le drapoau de I'Angleterre ; San« tat he, sur le firmament, Presque t\ tois ies points de la terre 11 liotte gloriensement." Or take up a volume by Eobens and read that frequently quoted poem of which these are the closing lines : "Sliail net oar love this rough sweet land make sure? Her bounds preserve inviolate, t)iong]\ we die, O string hearts of the North. Lot flame V'/'.r loyalty forth, And put the onwen and base to an open shame, Till eartii shall kn-w the Child of Nations by her name." Even Mr, Edsrar has t\)rgotten the astute la'vyer and the politician in his national song, "This Canada of Ours," and has given expression to the deep sentiment that lies as I have said in the heart of every true Canadian and forces him at times to words like these : " Strong arms shail j.niard our cherished homes When dar; a-^t d:n,a:er lowers, Anti with our life-bluod we'll defend This Canada of ours, Fair Can.uia, Dear Canada, This Canada of ours." INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS, 2*7 Such poems are worth a good many political speeches even in parliament so tar as their effect upon the Jiearts and sympa- thies is conct-rned. We all remember a famous man once said, "Let me make all the ballads, and T care not who makes the laws of a people." VI. But if Canada can point to some creditable achieTement of recent years in history, poetry and essay-writmg — lor I think if one looks from time to time at the leading magazines and reviews of the two continents he will find that Canada is l.tirly well represented in their pages" — there is one respect in which Cana- dians have never won any marked success, and that is in the novel or romance. '' Wacousta, or the Prophecy ; a Tale of the Cana- das," was written sixty years ago by Major John Richardson,^'" a native Canadian, but it was at the best a spirited imitation of Cooper, and has not retained the interest it attracted at a time when the American novelist had created a taste for exaggerated pictures of Indian life and forest scenery. Of course attempts have been made time and again by other English Canadians to describe episodes of our history, and portray some of our national and social characteristics, but with the single exception of "The Golden Dog," ^^^ written a few years ago ]>y Mr. William Kirby, of Niagara, T cannot point to one which shows much imaginative or literary skill. If we except the historical romance by Mr. Mar- mette, '" Francois de Bienville," *" which has had f,everal editions, French Canada is even weak in this particular, and this is the more surprising because there is abundance of material for the novelist or writer of romance in her peculiar society and institu- tions, and in her historic annalh and traditions. But as yet neither a Cooper, nor an Irving, nor a Hawthorne has appeared to d»'light Canadians in the fruitful field of fiction that their country offers to the pen of imaginative genius. It is true we have a work by De Gaspe, " Les Anciens Canadiens,'" '' which has been translated by Roberts and one or two others, but it has rather the value of historical annals than the spirit and form of true romance. It 23 REVIEW OF CANADA'S is the very poverty of our production in what oug"hf to be a rich source of literary iiispirariou. French Cantidian life and history, that has given currency to a work whose signal merit is its sim- plicity of style and adherens; to historical fact. As Parkraau many years ago first (commenced to illumine the too often dull pages of Canadian history, so othtn- American writers have also ventured m the still Iresh field of literary effort that romance offers to the industrious, inventive brain. In the " Ilomance of Bollard," " Tonty," and the >' Lady of Fort St. John," Mrs. Mary Hartwell Gatherwood has recalb-d most interesting episodes of our past annals with admirable literary taste and a deep enthu- siasm for Canadian history in its romantic and picturesque as- pects.^"^ When we road Conan Doyle's "■Eefugees'' — the best historical novel that has appeared from the Plnglish Press for years — we may well regret that it is not Canadian genius which has created so fascinating a romance out of the materials that exist in the history of the ancien regime. Dr. Doyle's knowledge of Canadian life and history is obviously rery superficial ; but slight as it is he has used it with a masterly skill to give Canada a part in his story — to show how closely associated were the for- tunes of the colony with the French Court, — with the plans and intrigues of the king and his mistresses, and of the wily ecclesi- astics who made all subservient to their deep purpose. It w^ould seem from our failure to cultivate successfully the same popular branch of letters that Canadians are w^anting in the inventive and imaginative faculty, and that the spirit of materialism and practi- cal habits, which has so long necessarily cramx>ed literary effort in this country, still prevents happy ventures in this direction. It is a pity that no success has been won in this country, — as in Austra- lia by Mrs. Campbell Praed, " Tasma," and many others, — in the way of depicting those characteristics of Canadian life, in the past and present, which, when touched by tl/p imaginative and cultured intellect, will reach the sympathies and earn the plau- dits of all classes of readers at home and abroad. Perhaps. Mr. Gilbert Parker,'' now a resident of London, }«ut a Canadian by birth, education and sympathies, will yet succeed in his laudable ambition of giving forra and vitality to the abundant materials INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 29 that exist in the Dominion, among the habitants on the old seig- neuries of the French province, in that historic j^ast of which the ruins still remain in Montreal and Quebec, in the Northwest with its quarrels of adventurers in the fur trade, and in the many other sources of inspiration that exist in this country for the true story- teller who can invent a plot and give his creations a touch of reality, and not that doll-like, savv-dust appearance that the vapid characters of some Canadian stories assume from the very poverty of the imagination that has originated them. That imagination ;ind humour have some existence in the Canadian mind — though one sees little of those qualities in the press or in public speeches, or in parliamentary debates— we can well believe when we read "The Dodge Club Abroad," by Pro- fessor De Mille,'^' who was cut oil' in the primc^ of his intellectual strength, or "A Social Departure," by Sara Jeannette Duncan,"' who, as a sequence of a trip around the world, has given us not a dry book of travels but a story with touches of genial humour and bright descrix)tions of life and nature, and who is now Ibllow- ing up that excellent literar}'- elTort by promising sketches of East Indian life. A story which attracted some attention not long since for originality of conception and ran through several edi- tions, "Beggars All."' is written by a Miss L. Dougali, who is said to be a memher of a Montreal family, and though this book does not deal with incidents of Canadian life it illustrates that fertility of invention which is latent among our people and only requires a favourable o})portunity to develop itself The best literature of this kind is like that of France, which has the most intimate correspondence with the social life aiid development of the people of the country. '" The excellence of a romance," writes Chevalier Bunsen in his critical preface to Gustav Freytag's "Debit and Credit," " like that of an epic or a drama, lies in the apprehension and truthful exhibition of the course of human things The most vehement longing of our tiuies is manifestly aittr a faithful mirror of th^" present." With us, all etlbrts in this direction have beeii most common place — hardly above the average of "Social Notes" in the columns of Ottawa news- papers. 30 KEVIEW OK CANaDA.'S I do not for one depreciaie the influence of good fiction on the minds of a reading community likf ours ; it is inevitable that a busy people, and espooially women distracted with household cares, should always find that relief iji this branch of literature which no other reading can give them ; and if the novel has then become a ne<;essity of the times in which, we live, at all events t hope Canadians, who may soon venture into the field, will stiuly the better models, endeavour to infuse some originality into their creations and plots, and not bring the Canadian fiction of the future to that low level to which the school of realism in France, and in a minor degrt i> in England and the United States, w^ould degrade the novel and story of every-day life. To my miud it goes without saying that a history written with that fidelity to original authorities, that picturesqueness of narration, that philosophic insight into the motives and plans of statesmen, that study and comprehension of the character and life of a people, which should constitute the features of a great work of this class, — that such a history has assuredly a much deeper and more useful purpose in th-} culture a)id education of the world than any work ol fiction can possibly have even when animated by a lofty genius. Still as the novel and romance will be written as long as a large proportion of the world amid the cares and activities of life seeks amusement rather than knowledge, it is for the Canadian Scott, or Hawthorne, or " George Eliot," or Dickens of the future, to have a higher and purer aim than the majority of novel writers of the present day, who, with a iVw notable exceptions like Blac-k, Besant. Barrie, Stephenson or Oli- phaut, weary us by their dulaess and la 'k of the imaginative and inventive faculty, and represent rather the demands of the publishers to meet the requirements of a public which must have its new novel as regularly as the Scotchman must have his porridge, the Englishman his egg and toast, and the American his ice- water. If it were possible within the comp»ass oi'this address to give a list of the many histories, poems, essays and pamphlets that have appeared from the Canadian press during the first quarter of a century since the Dominion of Canada has been in existence, INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH ANT) WEAKNESS. 31 the number would astonish mauy pt^rsous who have not Ibllowed our literary activity. Of courso the greater part of this work is ephemeral in its character and has no special value ; much of the historical work is a dreary collection of facts and date^ which shows the enterprise of school publishers and school teachers and is generally wanting in that pieturosqueness a>id breadth of view which give interest to history and leave a vivid impression on the mind of the student. Most of these pamphlets have been w^ritten on religious, political or legal questions of the day. Many of the poems illustrate rather the aspirations of the school boy or maiden whose etlnsions generally appeared in the poet's corner of the village newspaper. Still there are even among these more literary "transients" evidences of power of incisive argu- ment and of some literary style. In fact., all the scientihc, histor- ical and poetical contributions of the period in question, make up quite a library of Canadian literature. And here let me ob- serve in passing, some persons still suppose that ht/les-leifres, works of iiction, poetry and criticism, alone constitute literature. The word can take in its complete sense a very wide range, for item- braces the pamphlet or monograph on the most abstruse scientific, or mathematical or g»'Ographical or physical subject, as well as the political essay, the brilliant history, or the purely im.iginativ^e poem or novel. It is not so ranch the subject as the form and style which make them worthy of a phue in iiterature. One of the most remarkable books ever written, the " Esprit dcs Lois " by Montesqui'.u, has won the highest place in literature by its admirable style, and in the science of polities by the importance of its matter. The works ( f Lyell, Huxley, Hunt, Dawson, Tyu- d-all and Darwin owe their great value not entirely to the scien- tifii- ideas and principles and proldems there discui=^S( d, but also to the lucidity of style in which the whoh' subj' ct is presented to the reader, wheih<-r v«>rsetl ir not in science. " Literature is a large word,'" say.s Matthew Arnold, ' discussing with Tyndall this very subject; "it may mean everything written with letters or printed in a book, Euclid's Elements and Newton's Principia are thus literature. All knowledge that reaches us through books is literature. Eut as I do not mean, by knowing ancient 32 REVIEW OF CANADA'S Roin.\ kiiowinff merely mort' or less of Latin beJ/es- lei ires, and takiiiff no account of Rome's military, and political, and legal, and administrative work in the world ; and as, by knowing ancient G-reece, I understand knowing her as the giver of Greek art, and the guide to a free and right nse of reason and to scien- tific methods, and the founder of our mathematics, and phys.ic8, and astronomy, and biology, I understand knowing her as all this, and not merely knowing certain Greek poems, and histories, and treatises and spee('hes, so as to the knowledge of modern nations also. By knowing modern nations, 1 mean not merely knowing their hellea-ltUres, but knowing also what has been done by such men as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin." I sub- mit this definition of literature by a great English critic and poet who certainly knew what he was writing about, to the stu- dious consideration of Principal Grant who, in an address to the Royal Society two years ago,^^ appeared to have some doubt that much of its work could be called literature ; a doubi that he forgot for the moment aciually (.-onsigned to a questionable level also his many devious utterances and addresses on political, re- ligious and other questions of the day, and left him entirely out of the ranks of litterateurs and in a sort of limbo which is a world of neither divinity, nor politics, nor letters. Taking this defini- tion of the bright apostle oi English culture, I think Canadians can fairly claim to have some position as a literary people even if it be a relatively humble one, on account of the work done in history, belles-lettres, political science and the sciences generally Science alone has had in Canada for nearly half a century many votaries who have won for themselves hisrh distinction, as the eminent names on the list of membership of the Royal Society since its foundation can conclusively show. The literature of science, as studied and written by Canadians, is remarkably com- prehen-sive, and finds a place in every well furnished library of the world. The doyen of science in Canada, Sir William Dawson,''^ we are all glad to know, is still at work after a long and severe ill- ness, which was. no doubt, largely due to the arduous devotion of years to education and science. It is not my intention to INTEr.I,K hrst pij^M-s to the Citizen oi Ottawa, then Bytown, altervvardr< to liav.- j:reatness thrown upon it and made the political capital of Canada. VII, Here I come natiirally to answer the questions tha-t may be put by some that have not followed the history atid the work of the Royal ^Dciety of Canada,— What measur.> of success h.i,' it wolop:y, education and chemistry — I may go on to say that the result of the Montreal meetiu«i"was the establishment of a society which met for the first time at Ottawa in the May of 1H82, with a membership of eig'hty Fellows under the presidency of Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Dawson, and the vice-presidency of the Honourable P. .1.0. C'hau- veau, a distinguished French Canadian who had won a high name, not only in literature, but also in the political world where he was for years a conspicuous figure ; noted for his eloquence, his culture and his courtesy of manner. The society was estab- lished in no spirit of isolation from other literary and scientific men because its membership was confined at the outset to eighty Fellows who had written " memoirs of merit or rendered emi- nent servi<'es to literature or science " — a uumb by publishing graiiimars. vocabularies aiid other inonogianhs relating to Indian tongues niid atiliquities. The Ai»be (,'Moq, one of the most eruuit- scholars of this ■■ontineut in this special branch of knowledge, has marly compiet- d in the 'Tiausactions ' what will be a monuin"!i';'! work of learning on ^hc Alu<>nquitt language. A Haida grammar and dictionary are alsn nov, tiv\ lit- ing the completion of the Abbe (Juoq's work to be published in the same way. A great deal of light has been thrown on Car- 38 REVIEW OF CANADA'S tier's and Cliamplain's voyages in the gulf, and consequently on its cartography, by the labours of the Abbe Verreau, Prof. Ganoug and others. The exct'leut work of the Geological Survey has been «ui>plemented by important contributions from its statt', and consecjueutly there is to be found in the ' Transactions ' a large amount of information, both abstract and practical, on the econo- mic and other minerals of the Dominion. Ohieliy owing to the efforts of the society, the government of Canada some time ago commenced to take tidal observations on the Atlantic coasts of Canada — an enterprise of great value to the shipping and com- mercial interests of the country — and has also co-operated in the determination of the true longitude of Montreal which is now being prosecuted under the able superintendence of Professor McLeod. It is in the same practical spirit of investigation and action that the society has published a treatise by that veteran scholar. Dr. Moses Harvey, of St. John's, Newfoundland, on "The Artificial Propagation of Marint? Food fishes and Edible Crusta- ceans"; and it is satisfactory to understand from a statement made in the House of Commons last sei-sion that a question of such deep interest to our great fishing industry in the maritime provinces is likely to result in some ^Tactical measure in the direction sug"gested. The contributions of Sir Daniel Wilson ou the "Artistic Faculty in the Aboriginal Kaces,"' "The Pre-Ar^v'an American Man," "The Trade and Commerce of the Stone Age," and "The Huron-Iroquois Race in Canada," that typical race of American Indians, were all intended to supplement in a measure that scholarly work, " Prehistoric Man," which had brought him fame many years before. Dr. Patterson of Nova Scotia, a most careful student of the past, hps made vahuible contributions to the history of Portuguese exploration in North American waters, and of that remarkable lost tribe known as Beothikir or Red In- dians of Newfoundland. Sir William Dawson has contributed to almost every volume of the ' Transa< tions ' from his stores of geological learning, while his distinguished son has followed closely in his footsteps, and has made valuable additions to our knowledge, not only of the geology of the Northwest, but also of the antiquities, languages and customs of the Indian tribes of INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 39 British Oolun.«bia and the adjacent ishmds. Thi opinions and t]ieori.\s of Dr. Thomas Storry Hunt on tht! " Taconic Question in G-eology,"' and the " Relations of the Taconic Series to the later Crystalline and the Cambrian Rocks," were giv<'n at h'nirth in the earlier volumes. Mr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, Niuv Bruns- wi* k, w^ho is a verv industrious student, has elaborated a work on the '• Fauna of the St. John Group. ' Not only have our geologi- cal conditions been more fully explained, but our flora, ferns, and botany generally have been clearly set forth by Proft-ssors Law- s(»u, Macoun and Penballow. All thef;e and many other papers of value have been illustrated l,y expensive plates, generally exe- cuted by Canadian artists. The majority of the names 1 have just given happen to be English Canadian, but tlie French language has been represented in science by such eminent mopular information or purely literary practice — but always those essays and works of Tiioderate compass whii.h illustrate original research, experi- ment and investigation in ail branch. ^s oi hi^lorical, arch-eoloa'i- cal, ethnological ond scieiitilic studies, and which will form a nermanent and instructive refereiK'e library for scholars and stu- dents in the same branches of thought and study all over the world. In fact, the essays must necessarily be such a.-- cannot be well published except through the assistance graiited y)v a gov- ernment, as in our case, or by the liberality of private individuals. The society, in fact, is in its way attempting just such work as is done by the Smithsonian Institute, on a large scale, at Wash- ington, so fr;r as the puhli«';diou of important transacti :>ns is con- cerned. I admit that sometimes essays ha^e appeared, but many more are offered from time to time, better suited to the periodi- 40 REVIEW OF CANADA'S cals of the day than to the pages of a work of which the object is to perpetuate the labours of students and scholars, and not the efforts of the mere literary amateur or trifler in helles-fellres. But while there must be necessarily such limitations to the scope of the ' Transactions,' which are largely scientific in their treatment, room will be always made for papers on any economic, so> ial or ethical subject which, by their acute reasoning, sound philosophy and originality of thought, demand the attention of students everywhere. Such littrary criticism as finds place now and then in the dignified old ' Quarterly lieA'iew ' or in the ' (Contem- porary ' will be printed whenever it is written by any Canadian author with the same power of keen analysis and judicious ap- preciation of the thoughts and motives of an author that we iind notably in that charming study of Tennyson's " Princess,'' by S- E. Dawson," who is a Canadian by birth, education and feel- ing. No doubt there is room in the Dominion for a mairaziue combining the features of ' Blackwood,' the ' Contemporary ' and the 'Quarterly Review '; that is to say, poetry, fiction, criticism, reviews of topics of the day, and, in fact, original literary effort of the higher order, which, though mostly ephemeral in its char- acter, must have much influence for the time being on the cul- ture and the educatiou of the public mind Since the days of the old ' Canadian Monthly,* which, with all its iniporfe<::tions, contained much excellent work, all efforts in the same direction have been deserving of little encourageiaent ; and, in fact, if such a venture is to succeed hereafter it must have behind it sufficient capital to engage the assistance of the best Canadian writers, who now send their work to American and English periodicals. Such a magazine must be carefully edited, and not made the dumping- ground for the crude efforts of literary dabblers or for roma-itic gush and twaddle, but must be such a judicious selection of the best Canadian talent as will evoke comparison with the higher class of periodicals I have mentioned. We have only one liter- ary paper of merit in this country, and that is ' The Week.' which, despite all the indifference that is too apt to meet a journal not influenced by party motives, has kept its literary aim always before it, and endeavoured to do such a work as ' The New York INTELLECTUAL ftTEENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 41 Nation ' has been doing for years under far greater advantages in the neighbouring country wiih marked success and ability. In the meantime, until a magazine of the eharacter I advocate is establi.-hed. the ' Transactions of the Koyal Society ' cannot be expected to ocfupy the same ground unless it is prepared to give up that important held which it and the societies with which it is associated alone can fill in this country. In one respect, indeed, the Royal Society, in my opinion — and I have endeavoured to impress it on my fellow -members — can reach a much larger class of readers than it is now possible by means of its somewhat for- midable though handsomely printed and well illustrated volumes, which necessarily are confined, for the most part, to libraries and institutions, where they can be best consulted by students who find it necessary to iiiform themselves on such Canadian subjects as the society necessarily treats. It is quite possible that by select- ing a more convenient form, say royal octavo, and publishing the purely scientific sections in one volume and the purely literary department in another, a larger inducement will be given to the public to purchase its ' Transactions ' at a moderate cost and in a more convenient shape for reading, whenever they contain mono- graphs or large works in which Canadians generally are interested or on which they wish special information. Of course, in making this change care must be taken to maintain the typographical appearance and the character of the scientific illustrations and the usefulness of the cartography. Not only may the Royal So- ciety in this way reach a larger reading public, but it may stimu- late the eiForts of historic and other writers by gi\iiig them greater facilities for obtaining special editions of their w^orks for general sale. As it is now, each author obtains a hundred copies of his paper m })amphiets, sometimes more; and if the form is now made smaller and moiv handy, to use a common word, he will be induced to orJer a larger edition at his own cost. Even as it is now, some four or live thousand copies of essays and monographs — in special cases many more — are annually distrib- uted by authors in addition to those circulated in the bound vol- umes of the ' Transaction."' ' ; and in this way any value these works may have is considerably enhanced. If it should be de- 42 REVIEW OF CANADA^S cided to continue the large form, at all evnts it v/ill be in the interest oi' the society, and of the author of any monograph or history of more than ordinary value, to print it not only in the 'Transactions' but also in a smaller \.lnme for gtneral circula- tion. Traotically this would meet the object in view— th*- larger distril>ution of the })est work of the section devoted to hit^toricnl and general literature. But whether this change is adopted or not'' I think the Royal Society, by showing even still greater zeal and earnestness in the work for which it was iVnuub-d, by co-operatinu- with scholars and students throughout the Domin- ion, by showing every possible sympathy with all those engaged in the work of art, culture and education, « an look forward hope- fully to the future ; and all it asks from the Canadian public at large is confidence in its work and objects, which are in no sense selfish or exclusive, but are influenced by a sincere desire to do what it can to promote historic truth and scientific research, and give a stimulus in this way to the intellectual development of this young Dominion, yet in the infancy of its literary lile."' * VIIL This necessarily brief review of the work of the Royal So- ciety could not well be left out of an address like this ; and T can now pass on to some reflections that occur to me on the general stibject. ' In the literature of biography, so susceptible of a treatment full of human interests and sympathies —as chatty Boswell's " Life of Johnson," and Lockharfs - Life of Scott," notably illus- trate— w^e have little to show, except it be the enterprise of pub- lishers and the zeal of too enthusiastic friends. Nor is it necessary to dw^ell on the literature of the law, which is becoming in a mea- • " * In the ooi:rse of a speech by the Earl of 1 'erby, in answer to a farewell ad- dress from tho Royal Society, he tiou to make some reniariis with refer- ence to its work and u.sefulness, which liave be«n given in full in the Appendix (Note 5So) as the impartial opinion of a governor general who always took a deep interest in all matters afleciuig ihe intellertual aa well as materia! development of the Dominion. INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 48 sure more of a technical and less of a learned profession in the larger sense, unless, indeed, our university schools of politi<'al science evimtually elevate it to a wider range of thought. Sev- eral excellent books of a purely technical character have been compiled i'rom year to year, but no Kent, or Story, or Cooley has yet appeared to instruct us by a luminous exposition of principle, or breadth of knowledge. Those who know anything of Dr. Ed- ward Blake's great intellectual power, of his wealth of legal learning, of his insight into the operations of political constitu- tions, cannot deny that he at least could produce a work which might equal in many respects those of the great American.-* here named ; but it looks very much at present as if he, and others 1 could mention, will give up their best years to the absorbing and uncertain struggles of politics, rather than to the literature of that profession to which they might, under dilferent conditions, raise imperishable memorials. From the pulpit many of us hear from time to time eloquent and well reasoned elibrts which tell us how much even the clas.s, necessarily most conservative in its traditions, and confined in its teachings, has been iorced by mod- ern tendencies to enlarge its human sympathies and widen its intellectual horizon ; ])ut the published sermons are relatively few in number ; and while, now and then, at intervals, after a public celebration, an important anniversary or ceremonial, or as a sequence of a controversy on the merits or demerits of creed or dogma, we see a pile of pamphlets on the counter of a bookstore, we do not hear of any printed book of sermons that appears to have entered of recent years into the domain of human ihought and discussion in the great world beyond our territorial limits. 1 shall not attempt to dwell at any length on the intellectual standard of our legislative bodies, but shall confine myseli to a few general observations that naturally suggest themselves to an observer of our political conditions. Now, as in all times of our history, political life claims many strong, keen and cultured in- tellects, although it is doubtful whether the tendency of our democratic institutions is to encourage the most highly educated organizations to venture, or remain, should once they venture, in the agitated and unsafe sea of political passion and controversy. 44 REVIEW OF Canada's The first parliament of the Dominion, and the first legislatures of the provinces, which met after the federal union of 1867, when tht' system of dual representation was pennissible — a s3's- tem whose advantasc^*'"^ art> more obvious now— hrouu'ht into public life the most brilliant and astute inteJlccts of Canada, and it will probably be a lonjr time before we shall again see assfra- blages so ilistinguished for oratory, humour and intellectual power. A. federal system was, doubtless, the only one feasible under the racial and natural cojiditions tliat met the Quebec Conference of 18t)4 ; but, while admit ting its political necessity, we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact -hat the great drain its numerous Ifgislative bodi"S aud -jcv 'rnraents make upon the mental resources of a limited population — a drain increased by the abolition of dual representation — is calculated to weaken our intellectual strength in our legislative halls, when a legislative union would in the nature c: things concentrate that strength in one powerful current of activity and thought. A pojmlation of five millions of people has to provide not only between six and seven hundred representatives, who must devote a lar^e amount of time to the public service for inadequate compensation, but also lieutenant-governors, judges and high officials, holding posi- tions requiring intellectual qualifications as well as business capacity if they are properly filled Apart from these consider- ations, it must be remem})ered that the opportunities of acquir- ing w^eaith and success in business or professional vocations have naturally increased with the material development of the Dominion, and that men of brains have consequently even lesB inducement than formerly to enter on the uncertain and too often ungrateful pursuit of politics. We have also the danger before us that it will be with ru-:, as it is in the United States and even in England under the new conditions that are rapidly developing there . the professional politician, who is too often the creation of factions and cliques, and the low'er iiilluences of political intrigue and party management, will be found, as time passes, more common in our legislative halls, to the detriment of those higher ideals that should be the animating prin<;iples of public life in this young country, whose future happiness and INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKVESS. 45 grt-atiie-s depend so niiuh on the r>r'Sartv ffov- ernment. lie all this us it may be, ojie may 8till tairly chiim lor our k'gishitive Iwdieb that thrir inteUeetual standard can compare lavonrablv with that of thf Tonur. ss at WaKhiufton or the ,^tate legish^tures of Massachusetts and New Eoghiud a'enin-- aliy After all, it is not for brilliant int.llectual pyrotechnics we should no-.v so mucit look to the legislatirf bodies of Canada, but rather for honesty of purpose, keen coiuprehensiou oi the public interests, and a business capacity which can grasp the actual material wants and utM-essities of a country which has to face the competition, and ev^n opposition, of a great people full of industrial as well as intellcruuil energy. Nowhere in this review have I cliimed for this country any very striking results in the ( ourseof the half century since which we have shown so much political and material activity, I can- not boast that we have produced a great poem or a great history which has attracted the attention of the w^orld beyond us, and assuredly we tind no noteworthy attempt in the direction of a novel of our modern life ; but what J do claim is, looking at the results generally, the work we have done has been sometimes above the average in those fields of literature — and here I in- clude, necessarily, science — in which (Jauadiaus have worked. Tliev have shown in many productions a t ou.scientious spirit of research, patient industry, and not a little literary skill in the management of their material. J tliiuk. on the whole, there have been enough good poems, histories and essays written and pub- lished in Canada for the last four or live decad' s to prove that there has been a steady intellectual growth on the part of our people, and that it has kept pace at all events with the mental growth in the pul])it. or in the legislative halls, where, of late years, a keen practical debating style has tak»m the place of the more rhetorical and studied oratory of old times. I believe ihe intellectual faculties of Caniidians only leciuire larger opijortuni- ties for their exercise to bring forth a rich fruition. I believe the progress in the years to come will be far greater than that we have yet shown, and that necessarily so, with the wider distri- bution of wealth the dissemination of a higher culture, and a 46 REVIEW OF CANADA'S greater confidence in our own mental strength, and in the re- sor'-ces that this country otiVrs topen and p«;Ucil. The time will come when that great river, associated with meraorios ot Oartier, Champhiin, La Salle, Frontenac, Wolfe and Montcalm, — that river already immortalized in history by the pen of Purkman — will be as noted in song and story as the l?hine. and will have its Irvmg to make it as famous as the lovely Hiidsou. 01' course ihere are many obstacles in the way of successful literary pursuits in Canada. Our population is still small, and separated into two distinct nationalities, who for the most part necessarily read books printed in their own tongue. A book published in Canada then has a relatively limited dientf'le in the country itself nud cannot meet much encouragement from pub- lishers in England or in the lTnit«:'d States who have advantages for placing their own puldications which no Canadian can have under existing conditions. Conseqaontly an author of ambition and merit should perforce look for publishers outside his own country if he is to expect anything like just appreciation, or to have a fair chance of reaching that literary world which alone gives fame in the true sense. It must be admitted too that so much inferior work has at times found its way from Canada to other countries that publishers are apt to look askance at a book when it is offered 10 them from the colonies. Still, while this may at times operate against making what is a fairly good bar- gain with the publisher — and many authors, of course, believe with reason that a publisher, as a rule, never makes a good bar- gain vi'ith an autlior. and certainly not with a new one — a good book will sooner or later assert itself whenever Canadians write such a book. Let Canadians th"n persevere conscientiously and confidently in their efforts to break through the indifference which at present tends to cramp their efforrs and dampen their energy. It is a fashion with some colonial writers to believe thai there is a settled determination on the part of English critics to ignore their best work, when, perhaps, in the majority of cases it is the lack of good work that is at fault. Such a conclusion sometimes finds an argument in the fact that, w-hen so able a Canadian as Edward Blake enters the legislative halls of England, some ill- INTELLECTl \L STHE.N'dTH AND MEAKXESS. 47 naturod critic, wlio represents a spirit of ii.>nlar Emrlish snob- bery, has only t sm-or ior " thi< Caiiadiuii lawyer' who had l)etter ''stay at home," and not [)r.'^iiiae if, ihiuk that, he, a mere colonist, eould have auythimi' to sny in inaiters alle. ting ihe^ood government of the British Illmpire. Ihit: tlie time has loiiu »ince passed for sneers at colonial selt-government or eolonial iiitellect, and we are more likely hereafter to have a < anadian llonse of Commons held up as a modtil of decorum lor so-eailed l*]nglish gentlemen. Such able and impartial critical journals as Tlie Athena nm ar" more ready to \ve!r(ejie than ignore a good book in th.se days of second-rate literatiir.- in England itseli' If we pro- duce such a good book as Mrs. Campbell Praed's "Australian Life," or Tasma's " Uncle Piper of Pipers Hill" we muv be sure the English papers will do us justiee Let me frankly insist that we have far too much hasty and slovenly literarv \\ ork done in Canada. The literary canon which every ambitious writer should have ever m his mind has been stated by )io L-ss ;»ji authority than Sainte-Beuve : -'Devoted to my profession as a criii. , I have tried to be more and more a good and if possible an able work- man." A good style means artistic workmanship. Ii is too soon ior us in this country to look for a Matthew Arnold or a Sainte- Beuve — such <-. iitial charac- teristics of the two authors I have named, the eii'^H t would be probably in the dirv'ction of encouraging [tromising writers, and weeding out some literary dabblers. " What I have wished," said the French critic, " is to sav not a word more than I thoujiht. to stop even a little short of \vhat I believed in certain cases, in order that my words might acquire more weit>lii as historical Ics- timony." Truth tempered by consideration for iittirary genius is the essence of sound criticism. We all know that the literary temperament is naturally sen- sitive to anything like inditTcrenr.. and is too apt, perhajis, to exaggerate the importance of its calling in the prosaic world m which it is exercised. The pecuniary rewards are so few, rela- 48 REVIEW OK CANADA'S lively, ill this country, that the man of imagiiialive mind — the purely literary worker — naturally thinks that he can, at least, ask for generous appreciation. No ut it is well sKvays to rt-raember that a great deal ot rough work h'ls to be done in a country like Canada before its Augustan age can come. No doubt litrrary stimulus inufit be more or less wanting in a colony where there is lattmt at times in some quarters a want of self-ooniidence in ourselves and in our institutions, arising from that sense of de- pendency and habit of imitation and borrowing from others that is a liccessity of a colonial condition. The tendency of the absence of suffi speaker whose brilliamy sometiraet. leads one to forget his higher criti ism — I refer lo Dr. Chauncoy Depew — " Speed is the virtue and vice of our generation "We demand that morniu^'- glories and <*entury plants shall submit to the same conditions and llower with equal frecjuency." Even some of our universities from which we naturally expect so much seem disposed from time to time to lower their standard and yield too readily to the demand for purely practical education when, after all, the great reason of all education is to draw forth the best qualities of the young man, elevate his intelligence, and stimulate his highest intellectual forces. The animating pj-inciple with the majority of people is to make a young man a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, or teach him some other vocation as soon as pos.sible, and the ten- dency is to consider any education that does not immediately effect that result as superfluous. Whilst every institution of learning must necessarily yield something to this p<*rvading spirit of immediate utility, it would be a mistake to sacrifice all the methods and traditions of the past when sound scholars at least were made, and the world had so many men famous in learning, in poetry, in romance, and in history. For one I range my self among those who, like James Kusseli Lowell and Matthew Arnold, still consider the conscientious and inteiliffent study cf the ancient classics — the humanities as they are called — as best adapted to create cultured men and women, and as the noblest basis on which to btiild up even a practical education with which to earn bread and capture the world. Goldv/in iSmith very truly says, " A romantic age stands in need of science, a scientific and utilitarian age stands in need of the humanities." "- The study of Greek, above all others of the humanities, is calculated to stimti- D 60 REVIEW OF CANADA'S late the hiijfher qualities of our nature. As Matthew Aruold adds in the same discourse irora which I have quoted, " The instinct for beauty is set in human nature, as surely as the instinct for knowltdge is set there, or the instinct for conduct. If the instinct Uy beauty is served by Greek literature and art as it is served by no other literatur*^ or art, we may trust to the instinct of self- preservatiou in humanity for keeping Greek as part of our cul- ture '" With the same great critic and thinker, I hop^ that in Canada " Greek will be increabing-Iy studied as men feel the need in them for beauty, and how powerfully Greek art and Greek literature r practical not-ds like Canada. When we consider the despatch with which a large newspaper has to be made up, how reports are cauL^ht on the wing and published without .sulticienr verification, how editorials hare tobe w^ritten currenle calamo, and often alter midnight when important despatches con-e in, we may well wonder that the daily issue of u. ne ws])aper is so well done. With the development of confederation the L,:viding CauLi'iif!)) ]>ipers h;ive taken, through the influence of the new condition of things, a larger range of thought and expression, and the gross personalities which so fre- quently discredited the press before 1867 have now become the exception. If I might refer to an old and enterprising paper as an example of the new order of things, I should point to the Toronto Globe under its present editorial management and com- pare it with two or three dv('ades ago. It will be seen there is a deeper deference to an intelligent public opinion by an acknow- ledgment of the right of a community to hear argument and rea.son even on matters of party politics, and to have fair reports of speeches on both sides of a question. In point of appearance, make-up, and varied literary matter— especially in its literary department, its cri+ic'sms of new bo ,ks in all branches of litera- ture — the Australasian press is d. cidedly superior to that of Canada as a rule. The Melbouriie /irg,'/.v^ and the Sydnev He.ahl compare with the best London journals, and the r. ason is mainly because there is no country press in Australia to limit the e)!l-cr- prise and energy of a ne\vs|)aper publisher. Perhaps it is ;is w ell for the p.'Heral insiiuction of ;i coinmiinity like ours that there should l>e a iaia" tiMc,. acir^': .o-iuirv rc-c-s, jiud the people not too much under the guidance of a ic\\ .■ , , : i-mr,. ils in important centres ot pt li{i( al t'loughi and action. For one I have more jniih in the good sense and reason of the community a.s a whole than in the motives and disinterestedness of a few leaders in one or more cities or towns. But 1 must also add that when we <'onsider ■\9 REVIEW OF Canada's the influence a widely dir^seminated press like that of Canada must exer.-ise on the opinions and sentiments of the large body of persons of whom it is the principal or only literature, one must wish that there was more independence of thought and honnstv of criticism as well as a greater willingness, or capacity rath.r/to study a hi-h ideal on the part of the press generally However improved ihe tone of the Canadian press may have be- come of late years, however useful it may be as a daily re.ord of passing events -of ourse, outside of party politics-Lowever ably it mav diseuss in its editorial <-olumns the topics ol the aay, it i^ not yet an iniluence always caleulated to strengthen the mind and bring out the best intellectual fatuities of a reader like a book which is the result of calm reilection, sound philosophic thouo-ht, originality of idea, or the elevated sentiment of the great poet OT theliistorian. As a matter of fact a newspaper is too otten in Canada a r-llex of the average rather than ot the higher irit^dlic^en..; of the country, and on no other ground can we ex- plain ^W space devoted to a football match, or a prize light, or a murd.'r trial, or degrading incidents in the criminal hie of inen and women. For one, I am an admirer of athletic and other sports calculated to develop health and muscle, as long as they are not pursued to extremes, do not become the end and aim ot youth or al]o^^ ed to degenerate into brutality. All of us do not forget the great iniluence of the Olympian, the Pythian and other publir rrames on the Greek character when the land was " living Greece •' indeed ; but we must also remember that art and song had a part in those contests of athletes, that they even inspired the Ivric odes of Pindar, that the poet there recited his drama or epi<' 'the painter exhibited his picture, and the intellectual was mad. a part of the physical struggle in those palmy days ol Greek culture. I have not yet heard that any Canadian poet or painter or hiscorian has ever been so honoured, or asked to take part in those ail.h'tic -ames and sports to which our public journals de- vote a numbei^ of pages which have not yet been set apart for Canadian or any literature. The newspaper reporter is nowadays the only representative of literature in our Pythia or Olympia, and h(> assuredly cannot be said to be a Pindaric singer when he INTELLEi'TUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 53 exalts the triumphs of lacrossp or tlh- p.'ni.nemeiils of the basi- bail champion. X. In drawinn- to a conclusion I -.'ome now to r«'f\ perhaps, been spoke 'i of beior. , the condition of Art in the Dominion. As our public libraries ''' aiv- small comi>ared with those in the neighbouring uniou, aiul csnlined to thrcf o- four citit's — Montreal being- in some res[>f'! i- i>. hind Toronto — .so our publi. and privai • -rt galleries are ver^- lew in number and insig- nilicant as respectis the value and the eiv, ri;- s~ o; iii • piiiniins's. Even in ihe House of Commons, not louo: since, regn't wl.s expressed at thi smallness of tho Dotninion contribution, one thousand dollar^ f'»iy, tor the supx>ori of a socaihjd Nidional Art Grallery at Otiinva, and tin- greater par! of this paltry sum, it appeared, went to pay, not the addition ..f uoot' ]>aintiue's, but actually the current expenses of keepino- it up, Hopes were thrown out by more than one member oi ; he government, in the course of the discussion on the subject, that ere long a much larger amount would be annually voted to make the gallery more representative of the best Canadian art, and it w^as very properly suggested that it should be the rule to purchase a num- ber of Canadian pictures regularly every year, and in this way stimulate the talent of our artist.s. Montreal at preN.-nt has one fairly good museum of art, thanks to the libera].'' tc two or thr» e of her rich men, but so public spirited o .-itv >> Toronto, which numln'r.s among its citi/'ms a uam].>er of artists of undoubted merit, is ronspicuous for its d<.'arth of good pictures ev -n in pri- vate collections, and for the entire absence of any piibli ■ ^-^slh^r}. In Montreal there are also some V'-ry valuable .ind repre- .ni -'ive painting.s of foreign artists in the residences of her Wfairliy iaen of business ; but whilst it is necessary that we should have brought to this country from time to time such examples of art- istic genius to educate our ov.'n people for better things, i( is still desirable that Canadian millionaires and men of means iiud taste 54 REVIEW OF CANADA'S should encourage the best efforts of our own artists. It is said sometimes — and there is some truth in the remark — that Cana- dian art hitherto has been imitative rather than creative ; but while we have pictures like those of L. R. O'Brien, W. Brymner, F. A. Verner, O. R. Jaeobi, Geor^^e Reid, F. M. Btll-Smith, Homer Watson, W. Kaphael, Robert Harris, C. M Manly, J. W. L. Forster, A, D. Patterson, Miss Bell, Miss Muntz, ,T. Pitihey, J. C. Forbes, Paul Peel — a 3'^ouug man of great promise too soon cut off — and of other excellent painters,'"* native born or adopted Canadians, illustrating in many cases, as do those of Mr. O'Brien notably, the charm and picturesqueness of Cai adian scenery, it would seem that only sufficient encouragemeiit is needed to develop a higher order of artistic performance among us. The Marquess of Lorne and the Princeys Louise, during their too short residence in the Dominion, did something to stimulate a larger and better taste for art by the establishment of a Canadian Academy and the hold- ing of several exhibitions; but such things can be of little prac- tical utility if Canadians do not encourage the artists who are to contribute. It is to be hoped that the same spirit of generosity which is yearly building commodious science halls, and other- wise giving our universities additional op})ortunities tor useful- ness, will also ere long establish at least one fine art gallery in each of the older provinces, to illustrate not simply English and Foreign art, but the most original and higlJy executed work of Canadians themselves. Such galleries are so many object les- sons — like that wondrous " White City " which has arisen by a western lake as suddenly as the palaces of eastern story — to edu- cate the eye, form the taste and develop the higher faculties of our nature amid the material surroundings of our daily life No doubt the creative and imaginative facttlties of our people have not yet been developed to any noteworthy extent ; the poems and painting's of native Canadians too frequently lack, and the little fietion so far written is entirely destitute of the essential elements of successful and permanent work in art and literature. Eui the deficiency in this respect has arisen not from the poverty of Cana- ''* * Some extended notes on the artists of Cunada and their uork appear in the Appendix, note (14. INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNES?<. 55 diaii intelL.H^f, but rnth.^r from the absejice ( f that general distri- bution of wealth on which art can alone ihnve, ilie con.>^equent want of galleries to onitivute m taste among the people for the best artistic productions, and above ail from the existeiiee of that spirit of inteljectual self-depreciatioii which i< essentially colonial, and k-ads not a few to belime that no good work of this kind can be done in mere dependeuvdes. The exhibition of American art ai the world's fair is remark- able on the whole for individual expression, exreih-uT euhnir and ettecti^e composition. It proves to a demonstration that the tendency is progrej^sive, and that it is not too mu<-h to expect that a few decades hence this continent will produce a Corot, a r3aubigny, a Bonnat, a Bouguereau or a Millai-^. Not ih.« hast gratifying feature of the exhibition has been the revelation to the foreign world— and probably to many Canadians as w^ell— ihat there is already some artistic perlbrinanee of a much hi^-her order than was believed to exist in Canada, and that it has been adjudged w^orthy of special mention among the masterpieces that surround the paintings of our artists This success, \ ery mod- erate as it is, must stimulate Canadian painters to still greater efforts in the future, and should help to create a wider interest in their work among our own people, heretofore too indifferent to the labours of men and w'omen, w^hose rewarde have been small in comparison with the conscientiousness and earnestness they have given to the prosecution of their art. The opportunities which Canadian artists have had of com- paring their own work with that of the most artistic examples at the exhibition should be beneficial if they have made of them the best possible use. American and French art was particularly well represented at the exhibition, and w^as i^robably most inter- esting from a Canadian point of view% si^ice our artists w^ould naturally inake comparisons with their fellow^-workers on this continent, and at the same time closely study the illustrations of those French schools which now^ attract the greater number of students from this country, and have largely inilueu<;ed.- -perhaps too much so at times— the later efforts of some well-known paint- ers among us. A wriier in the New York Nation has made some 56 REVIEW OF CANADA 8 oompari^^ons between the best worlds of the artists of France and th.- United States, which are supported by ihet. stinony of critics who in-e able to speak with aiithonty on the babicct. Thrlrpnch notably excel " in s.'iion.ue^^s of pu- p -- ^i^^l iroiuT:.l ex,-ellen(M^ of work from atechnual point of view, ■ ^p.^ially m the thorou-h knowl"dy restoriiio, on the edge of thivS immense capita], airiid parks and waters, that great ce itral square whi>h, vv -re it only built of enduring materials, would stand without a rival in modern architecture." Perhaps the fine arts in the Dcnunion — where sculpture would be hardly heard of were it not for the French Canadian llebert — may ihemselves even gain some stimulus from the examples of a hiixher conception of artistic achievement that is shown by this exhibition to exist in a country where a spirit of materialism has obtained th^ mas- tery so long. Canadian av. hilecuire hith-rto has not been dis- tinguished ibr originality of design— much more than art it has been imitative. In Montreal and Quebec the old buildings which represent the past have no architectural beauty, however inter- esting tbey may be to the antiquarian or the historian, and how- ever well many of them harmonize with the heights of pi<>tur- esque Quebec. Montreal is as.sUTe' that, unlike a droani, ir wili 1« av(» a j>ermanonl impref^s on the mtelli'ctual devoloi)Uii'Ht ot the peoph' \\'iio h;T.- .•on';.'i\ » u an ^'xhibitiou t';,s*-sses a noble heritage which has descended to ns as the r-Milt of the achu'\em<>nt of French- men, Englishmen, ricotchm.'o. una Irishmen, who through ':en- turieH of trial and privation, showed an indomitable c-ourage, patience and industry which it is our duly to imitate with the far greater opportunities \vc now en joy of developing the latent material and intelletdual r.-sourees of ihi.s fair land. Possessing a country rich in natural treasurer and a population inheriting the institutions, the traditions and qualities of their ancestors, having a remarkable capacity for 8ea-governmeut, enjoying ex- ceptional facilities for the acquisition of knowledge, having before us always the record of ditlicullies overcome against great odds in endeavouring to establish ourselves on this continent, we may well in the present be animated by the spirit of hope, rather than by that feeling of despair which some despondent thinkers and writers have too frequently on their lips whi-. it is a question of the destinv in store for Canada, In the ( nrse of the coming decades— perhaps in four or live, or ^ess-- Canada will probably have determined her destiny— her position among the communities of the world ; and, for one, I have no doubt the results will be far more grantyiug to our national pride than the results of even the past thirty years, when we hav. been laying broad and deep the foundations of our present svstem of govern- ment. We have reason to believe that the material success of this confederation will be fully equalled by the intellectual efforts of a people who have s])rung from nations who^e not least endur-^ injr fame has been the fact that they have given to the world of letters a Shakespeare, a Moliere, a Montesquieu, a Balzac, a Dickens, a Dudevant, a Tennyson, a Victor Hugo, a Longfellow, INTELLECTUAL STKENGTH AND WEAKXKS.s. 59 a Hawthorne, a Th-'ophile Ganfin'. r, and ini'iy othiT names that rep^es^nlt tlie best lirt-rary gt-uius ;,i tlv KwAinh and Fti'iuh racs. All the t'videnco betor«^ us n nv : h > lo prove that the Frencfi language will coutiuue into aji uidcnnit-' future to he the lan- guage of a large and inilueiinal so.tiuii of th.^ pojuilation ot Canada, and that it must coiis^-u. ntly exen i,>- a decided iiiilii- euce on the culture and i]*: i of the Dominion. It has b^t-n within the last four decades that the best intellectual work— both in literature and stat.'smausbij) — has been produced in French and English Canada, and thr vjous of intellectual activity in the same direction do not lessen with the expaii^sion of the Dominion. The history of England from the di-y the Norm ui ■: .mie into the island until he Vv-as absorbed in the ori-inil Sitson element, is not likely to be soon rep;NUed in Canada, but in all probability the two nationalities will rerainn side by side for an unknown period to illustrate on the northern half of the continent of Amer- ica the culture and genius of the two -strongest and bris^htest powers of civilization. As botli of th"se nationalities have vied with each other in the past to build up this confederation on a large and generous basis of national strength and arreatness, and have risen time and again superior to those racial antagonisms created by differences of opinion at great crises of our history — antagonisms happily dispelled by the common sojise. reason and patriotism of men of both races— so we should in the future hope for that friendly rivalry on the part of the best raiiids among French and English Canadians whi* h w411 best stimulate the genitis of their people in art, history, poetry and romance In the meantime, while this confederation is lighting its way out of its political difficulties, ai,d resolving wealth and refinement from the original and rugged elements of a new country, it is for the respective nationalities not to stand aloof from one another, but to unite in every way possible for common intellecitial im- provement, and give sympathetic encouragement to the study of the two languages and to the mental efforts of each other. It was on this enlightened principle of sympathetic interest that the Royal Society was founded and on which alone it can expect to obtain any permanent measure of success. If the English and 60 REYIEW OP rANAPiri Frent h always endeavour to meet oarh other on this IVieiully ba.Ms in iill th.-, .omiri unities ^vher.' they live side by side ns well as on all o this Vv^deuing of the sympathies of our two national el-meuts, we can see in the Dominion generally less oi" that provincialism which means a narrowness of menial Tision on th<' part of our literary aspirants, and prevents Cana- dian authors nnichinci' a u^nj'V audience in other countries, then we shall rise superior to those weaknesses of our intelleetuid chava«tter which now impede our mental development, and shall be able to give larger scope to what original and. irar.ginativc genius may exist aniong our people. So with the expansion of our mental horizon, with lue growth of '^xperiimce and know- ledge, with the creation of a wider symiiaihy for native talent, with the disappearance of tliat tendency to self-depreciation which is so essentially colonial, and with the encouragement of more self-reliance and coniidence in our own intellectual re- sources, we may look forward with some degree of hopefulness to coiiditiuns of higher development, and to the iniluence on our national character of what can best edevate Conadiaas and make them even happier and wiser, " The love of coantry. soaring far above all party slrile ; The love .)1" learning, art and song,— tlie crowuint-' f.'rai» of "iifp.''<^' BIBLIOaiUPHlCAL. ART AND (lENErvAJ. NOTES. LOWKI.LS ADUUEriSES. (ii P-aco 1.- Sec "T'tetn.irrncv, and Other A.I.lres.so.s," l.v .1,,i.i.s liM.-scU T.(.%m-I1 (Ii(,Mi.ti and .N.'U \ text, .should be cartfullx i. ,i i ;ii,. tMuu'lii hy theia that the p.:)wer of int.i|,.,-i ;,, hciuh;."U(l ii. pmixirtjou as it is III i i,. ;j:ra,iou.s by measure aia! -xmiurtiv. (;i\i- u- -,( ii-nce. iim>, hnt iri^e, first i)f all and last of ail, th( ,rii.|a-.. t i,a. .'h 'a ^ , - 'ii',- an.| mala < ,1 ;., mm . >iis. - . Manv-siiic{iiM'ss <.f cuitirr iiia.i-ci s ymu- vi.,;,iii , Ir.-uvr aiil kcaiift in jiat I iculars. Fnr,af!i-r all. 'i aiiali-^t delitiitioii of Science is tha! iiraadUi aiui inipaii ia'ii \ of \ it \v Aiiah !;!■. i-iU's the Kiiiid ri-uih -licci:,;! II -, aiid i.|al.lc.-, it t * (a:_:aii!/. ,';;atfvtr . p. 10. CHAMPLATxV. (3) Page ft.—Editions of Ohamplains works appeare, Idi^o. ir,-.'7. UV\2 and I(>40 ; at Quebec in IK^O and 1870. An Ihiiilish t lansLil m, , ix.-..., piil.lishfd by the Prince Society of Boston in lfi7.S-8(). The Abbe Lavenlicre- e-.i: ■ iii, in six volun)es, -tto., (Quebec, bSTO), is the most perfect modern puhli. aa i-a. .,' i hi- works.' It: printed for the lii-st time the te.xt of tlie voyage of biDO ItKtl. For hililiu- graphical notes of (.'ham plain's works see Bourinot'.s " Cape Breton," 'Traits, iiov. Soc. (."an.,' vol. ix., Sec. II. , App. VIII. talso in sepamte form, Montreal, 1^2}; Winsor's ^Var. and Crit. Hist. Am.,' iv., l30-i:.54; Harri.sse's "Notes sur la biblio- graphic de la Nouvelle France." French Canadian writers like Garneau and Ferland have exhau.sted the language of eulogy in describing the character and life of Samuel Chaniplain. but no one who follows his career can doubt the truth of this latest tribute to the Frenc's colonizer 62 BIBLIOORAPIIICAL, AI?T of Canada by Dr. N. E. Diotiiu' in '■.Siiniucl ('h.uiiiilaiii. fond!it«Mir de Qnohec rt pen? dc la Xouvi-lle Fruru'i; : ilisttiirt' dc su vii- tt dc .-.os voyiiKes,'* Queboi-, IM)1 : " II posse dait a iin haut d»>ji;r« \e ftmie colon Lsateur, et c'est dans ro role*, .si difficile de tout temps, <(n'il tit prcuvf d«' sajresse <^t do clairvoyance, et dans le dioix des colons, et dans la direction iju'il .sut iniprinier a Icur>< premiers efforts. liiatelliKencc de Cliamplain se revele dann de notnhreux ecrits, oil Tobsei vateur judicioux et pene trant couas pamni Its adniiratetirsdes leuvre^ t'nincaises, hii ont rendu le teiiioignage d'a voir fait entn^r la science carrutrraplii^iiie dans nne nouveile ere de i)ro!j;res. N'aturaliste, p'oi^raplie, niarin, eosiiio^iraplit- ; Ohainplain etail t"nt cela a la (ois, el dans une mesure hante- nient reinarquablc pour lepoque ou il vivait Pas un gouverneur smis Tancien rc^rinie n'a donne d'aussi brands i-xeniples de foi, de piete. et de droiture d'intention." It is (Captain .John Smith of Vir-jinia who, among the colonizers of Vmerica, can best compare with the founder of Quebec. The follouinj? estimate of his character, Riven by the historian (Jeorjie Bancroft (i., l.'li^-USt), e