The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People | Page 2

Slick'--Professor Dawson--Charles

Heavysege--Poetry--Romance--History--Miscellaneous Works of
Merit--Mr. Alpheus Todd's Constitutional Researches-- Contributions
to Colonial Literature by Public Men--Talent in the
Legislature--Results of a Century of Progress summed up--Mental
Activity among the Intelligent and Educated Classes--Increasing Issue
of Works and Pamphlets from Canadian Press--Signs of General
Culture--Public Libraries--Literary and Scientific Societies--Mechanics'
Institutes--School Libraries--A Grand Opportunity for the Rich Men of
Canada--Literary, Artistic and Scientific Topics engaging greater
Attention--Writers of Intellectual Power on the Increase--Encouraging
Signs of Intellectual Development--Brighter Auguries for the Future.

CHAPTER I.
EFFECT OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES ON MENTAL
DEVELOPMENT.
Should the title of this review come by any chance under the notice of
some of those learned gentlemen who are delving among Greek roots
or working out abstruse mathematical problems in the great academic
seats on the banks of the Cam or Isis, they would probably wonder
what can be said on the subject of the intellectual development of a
people engaged in the absorbing practical work of a Colonial
dependency. To such eminent scholars Canada is probably only
remarkable as a country where even yet there is, apparently, so little
sound scholarship that vacancies in classical and mathematical chairs
have to be frequently filled by gentlemen who have distinguished
themselves in the Universities of the parent state. Indeed, if we are to
judge from articles and books that appear from time to time in England
with reference to this country, Englishmen in general know very little
of the progress that has been made in culture since Canada has become
the most important dependency of Great Britain, by virtue of her
material progress within half a century. Even the Americans who live
alongside of us, and would be naturally supposed to be pretty well
informed as to the progress of the Dominion to their north, appear for
the most part ignorant of the facts of its development in this particular.

It was but the other day that a writer of some ability, in an organ of
religious opinion, referred to the French Canadians as a people
speaking only inferior French, and entirely wanting in intellectual
vigour. Nor is this fact surprising when we consider that there are even
some Canadians who do not appear to have that knowledge which they
ought to have on such a subject, and take many opportunities of
concealing their ignorance by depreciating the intellectual efforts of
their countrymen. If so much ignorance or indifference prevails with
respect to the progress of Canada in this respect, it must be
admitted--however little flattering the admission may be to our national
pride--that it is, after all, only the natural sequel of colonial obscurity. It
is still a current belief abroad--at least in Europe--that we are all so
much occupied with the care of our material interests, that we are so
deeply absorbed by the grosser conditions of existence in a new country,
that we have little opportunity or leisure to cultivate those things which
give refinement and tone to social life. Many persons lose sight of the
fact that Canada, young though she is compared with the countries of
the Old World, has passed beyond the state of mere colonial pupilage.
One very important section of her population has a history
contemporaneous with the history of the New England States, whose
literature is read wherever the English tongue is spoken. The British
population have a history which goes back over a century, and it is the
record of an industrious, enterprising people who have made great
political and social progress. Indeed it may be said that the political and
material progress that these two sections of the Canadian people have
conjointly made is of itself an evidence of their mental capacity. But
whilst reams are written on the industrial progress of the Dominion
with the praiseworthy object of bringing additional capital and people
into the country, only an incidental allusion is made now and then to
the illustrations of mental activity which are found in its schools, in its
press, and even in its literature. It is now the purpose of the present
writer to show that, in the essential elements of intellectual
development, Canada is making not a rapid but certainly at least a
steady and encouraging progress, which proves that her people have not
lost, in consequence of the decided disadvantages of their colonial
situation, any of the characteristics of the races to whom they owe their
origin. He will endeavour to treat the subject in the spirit of an

impartial critic, and confine himself as closely as possible to such facts
as illustrate the character of the progress, and give much
encouragement for the future of a country even now only a little
beyond the infancy of its material as well as intellectual development.
It is necessary to consider first the conditions under which the