WEAKNESS***


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Royal Society of Canada Series.

No. 1.

OUR INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS.


      *      *      *      *      *      *

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Parliamentary Practice and Procedure, with a review of the origin,
growth, and operation of parliamentary institutions in Canada. And
an Appendix containing the British North America Act of 1867 and
amending acts, Governor-General's commission and instructions, forms of
proceeding in the Senate and House of Commons, etc.; 2nd ed., revised
and enlarged, 8vo., pp. 970, cloth and calf. Montreal: Dawson Bros.,
1892. $8.

A Manual of the Constitutional History of Canada, from the earliest
period to the year 1888, including the B. N. A. Act of 1867, and a
digest of judicial decisions on questions of legislative jurisdiction.
12mo. pp. 238. Montreal: Dawson Bros. Cloth, $1.25.

Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics: I. Canada and English
Institutions; II. Canada and the United States; III. Canada and
Switzerland. Large 4to. pp. 100. Montreal: Dawson Bros. Cloth, $1.

Local Government in Canada. 8vo. pp. 72. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Studies. Paper, 50c.

Federal Government in Canada. 8vo. pp. 172. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Studies, 1889. Paper, 50c.

Parliamentary Government in Canada: an historical and constitutional
study. Annals of American Historical Association. 8vo. pp. 98.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893. Paper, $1.

Descriptive and Historical Account of the Island of Cape Breton,
and of its Memorials of the French Regime, with bibliographical,
historical and critical notes, and old maps; plans and illustrations
of Louisbourg. Large 4to. pp. 180. Montreal: Foster Brown & Co., 1892.
Fancy cloth, $3.

      *      *      *      *      *      *


Royal Society of Canada Series.

OUR INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

A Short Historical and Critical Review of Literature,
Art and Education in Canada,

by

J. G. BOURINOT, C.M.G., LL.D., D.C.L., D.L. (LAVAL).

Author of "Cape Breton and Its Memorials of the French Regime," and of
Several Works on Federal and Parliamentary Government
in the Dominion of Canada.






Montreal:
Foster Brown & Co.

London:
Bernard Quaritch.

1893

Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada by J. G. BOURINOT, in
the Office of the Minister of Agriculture, in the year 1893.

Gazette Printing Company, Montreal.




                             To my Friends
              SIR J. W. DAWSON, (C.M.G., F.R.S.C., LL.D.)
                                  AND
                  MONSIGNOR HAMEL, (M.A., F.R.S.C.),
   WHO REPRESENT THE CULTURE AND LEARNING OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH
                   ELEMENTS OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE,
                              I dedicate
           THIS SHORT REVIEW OF THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
                         OF THE NEW DOMINION.




PREFATORY NOTE.


This monograph on the intellectual development of the Dominion was
delivered in substance as the presidential address to the Royal Society
of Canada at its May meeting of 1893, in Ottawa. Since then the author
has given the whole subject a careful revision, and added a number of
bibliographical 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 continent. This little volume, as the title page shows, is intended
as the commencement of a series of historical and other essays which
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.




ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.


  I.--P. 1.

  Introductory remarks on the overestimate of material success in
        America; citation from an oration on the subject by James
        Russell Lowell; application of his remarks to Canadians.

  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
        culture in Quebec and Montreal; the foundation of the Jesuit
        College and the Seminaries; Peter Kalm on the study of science;
        the mental apathy of the colony generally in the days of French
        supremacy.

  III.--P. 9.

  The period of political development from 1760-1840, under English
        government; low state of popular education; growth of the press;
        influence of the clergy; intellectual 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 concession of responsible government; political life
        still claims best intellects; names of prominent politicians and
        statesmen from 1840-1867; performance in literature and science;
        gross partisanship of the press; poems of Crémazie, Howe,
        Sangster and others; histories of Christie, Bibaud, Garneau and
        Ferland.

  V.--P. 19.

  Historical writers from 1867-1893--Dent, Turcotte, Casgrain, Sulte,
        Kingsford, etc.; Canadian poets--LeMay, Reade, Mair, Roberts,
        Carman and others; critical remarks on the character of French
        and English Canadian poetry; comparison between Canadian and
        Australian writers; patriotic spirit of Canadian poems.

  VI.--P. 27.

  Essay writing in Canada; weakness of attempts at fiction; Richardson's
        "Wacousta"; De Gaspé's "Anciens Canadiens"; Kirby's "Golden
        Dog"; Marmette's "F. de Bienville," among best works of this
        class; Professor De Mille and his works; successful efforts of
        Canadians abroad--Gilbert Parker, Sara Jeannette Duncan and L.
        Dougall; general remarks on literary progress during half a
        century; the literature of science in Canada eminently
       successful.

  VII.--P. 33.

  A short review of the origin and history of the Royal Society of
        Canada; its aim, the encouragement of the literature of learning
        and science, and of original ethnographical, archæological,
        historic and scientific investigation; desirous of stimulating
        broad literary criticism; associated with all other Canadian
        societies engaged in the same work; the wide circulation of its
        Transactions throughout the world; the need of a magazine of a
        high class in Canada.

  VIII.--P. 42.

  The intellectual standard of our legislative bodies; the literature of
        biography, law and theology; summary of general results of
        intellectual development; difficulties in the way of successful
        literary pursuits in Canada; good work sure of appreciative
        criticism by the best class of English periodicals like the
        "Contemporary," "Athenæum," "English Historical Magazine,"
        "Academy," etc.; Sainte-Beuve's advice to cultivate a good style
        cited; some colonial conditions antagonistic to literary growth;
        the necessity of cultivating a higher ideal of literature in
        these modern times.

  IX.--P. 49.

  The condition of education in Canada; speed and superficiality among
        the defects of an otherwise admirable system; tendency to make
        all studies subordinate to a purely utilitarian spirit; the need
        of cultivating the "humanities," especially Greek; remarks on
        this point by Matthew Arnold and Goldwin Smith; the state of the
        press of Canada; the Canadian Pythia and Olympia.

  X.--P. 53.

  Libraries in Canada; development of art; absence of art galleries in
        the cities, and of large private collections of paintings;
        meritorious work of O'Brien, Reed, Peel, Pinhey, Forster and
        others; establishment of the Canadian Academy by the Princess
        Louise and the Marquess of Lorne; necessity for greater
        encouragement of native artists; success of Canadian artists at
        the World's Fair; architecture in Canada imitative and not
        creative; the White City at Chicago an illustration of the
        triumph of intellectual and artistic effort over the spirit of
        mere materialism; its effect probably the development of a
        higher culture and creative artistic genius on the continent.

  XI.--P. 58.

  Conclusion: The French language and its probable duration in Canada;
       the advantages of a friendly rivalry among French and English
       Canadians, which will best stimulate the genius of their peoples
       in art and letters; necessity for sympathetic encouragement of
       the two languages and of the mental efforts of each other; less
       provincialism or narrowness of mental vision likely to gain
       larger audiences in other countries; conditions of higher
       intellectual development largely dependent on a widening of our
       mental horizon, the creation of wider sympathy for native talent,
       the disappearance of a tendency to self-depreciation, and greater
       self-reliance and confidence in our own intellectual resources.




BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, ART AND GENERAL NOTES.


    (1) P. 61.--Lowell's remarks on the study of the Liberal Arts.

    (2) P. 61.--Jamestown, Va.

    (3) P. 61.--Champlain's Works; his character compared with that of
                    Captain John Smith.

    (4) P. 62.--Lescarbot's "Histoire de la Nouvelle France."

    (5) P. 62.--Charlevoix's "Histoire et Description Générale de la
                    Nouvelle France."

    (6) P. 63.--Hutchinson's "History of Massachusetts."

    (7) P. 63.--Sagard's "Le Grand Voyage," etc.

    (8) P. 63.--P. Boucher's "Mœurs et Productions de la Nouvelle
                    France."

    (9) P. 63.--Jesuit Relations.

    (10) P. 63.--Père du Creux, "Historia Canadensis."

    (11) P. 63.--La Potherie's "Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale."

    (11_a_) P. 63.--The Jesuit Lafitau and his work on Indian customs.

    (12) P. 64.--C. le Clercq, "Etablissement de la Foy."

    (13) P. 64.--Cotton Mather's "Magnalia."

    (13_a_) P. 64.--Dr. Michel Sarrazin.

    (13_b_) P. 64,--Peter Kalm and the English colonies.

    (14) P. 65.--Education in Canada, 1792-1893.

    (15) P. 65.--Upper Canada, 1792-1840.

    (16) P. 66.--Canadian Journalism.

    (17) P. 66.--Howe's Speeches.

    (18) P. 66.--"Sam Slick."

    (19) P. 66.--Judge Haliburton's History of Nova Scotia.

    (20) P. 66.--W. Smith's History of Canada.

    (21) P. 67.--Joseph Bouchette's Topographical Works on Canada.

    (22) P. 67.--M. Bibaud'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.

    (25) P. 67.--The poet Crémazie.

    (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 Heavysege's Works.

    (30) P. 69.--Todd's Parliamentary Government.

    (31) P. 69.--Christie's History of Lower Canada.

    (32) P. 70.--Garneau's History of Canada.

    (33) P. 70.--Ferland and Faillon as Canadian Historians.

    (34) P. 70.--Dent's Histories of Canada.

    (35) P. 71.--Turcotte's History since Union of 1841.

    (36) P. 71.--B. Sulte, "Histoire des Canadiens Français," etc.

    (37) P. 71.--Abbé Casgrain's Works.

    (38) P. 71.--Kingsford, Dionne, Gosselin, Tassé, Tanguay, and other
                    Canadian historians.

    (39) P. 72.--A Canadian Bibliography.

    (40) P. 72.--Later Canadian Poets, 1867-1893: Fréchette, LeMay, W.
                    Campbell Roberts, Lampman, Mair, O'Brien, McColl,
                    Suite, Lockhart, Murray, Edgar, O'Hagan, Davin, etc.
                    Collections of Canadian poems. Citations from
                    Canadian poems.

    (41) P. 77.--"In My Heart." By John Reade.

    (41_a_) P. 78.--"Laura Secord's Warning," from Mrs. Edgar's "Ridout
                    Letters."

    (42) P. 79.--Australian poets and novelists.

    (43) P. 80.--Howe's "Flag of Old England."

    (44) P. 81.--Canadian essayists: Stewart, Grant, Griffin and others.

    (45) P. 81.--W. Kirby's "Golden Dog" and other works.

    (45_a_) P. 82.--Major Richardson's "Wacousta," etc.

    (46) P. 82.--Marmette's "François de Bienville," and other romances.

    (47) P. 82.--De Gaspé's "Anciens Canadiens."

    (48) P. 82.--Mrs. Catherwood's works of fiction.

    (49) P. 83.--Gilbert Parker's writings.

    (50) P. 83.--DeMille's fiction.

    (51) P. 83.--Sara Jeannette Duncan's "A Social Departure," etc.

    (52) P. 83.--Matthew Arnold on Literature and Science.

    (53) P. 83.--Principal Grant's Address to Royal Society.

    (54) P. 84.--Sir J. W. Dawson's scientific labours.

    (55) P. 84.--Elkanah Billings as scientist.

    (56) P. 84.--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.

    (58_a_) P. 85.--The Earl of Derby's farewell address to the Royal
                    Society. His opinion of its work and usefulness.

    (59) P. 86.--S. E. Dawson on Tennyson.

    (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.

    (63) P. 87.--Canadian Libraries.

    (64) P. 87.--List of artists in Canada. Native born and adopted. Art
                    societies. Influence of French school. Canadian
                    artists at the World's Fair. J. W. L. Forster on
                    Canadian art.

    (64_a_) P. 89.--Architectural art in Canada. List of prominent
                    public buildings noted for beauty and symmetry of
                    form.

    (65) P. 91.--"Fidelis."




[Illustration]

  OUR INTELLECTUAL
  STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS.

  A SHORT REVIEW OF
  LITERATURE, EDUCATION AND ART IN CANADA




I.


I cannot more appropriately commence this address than by a reference
to an oration delivered seven years ago in the great hall of a famous
university which stands beneath 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 completed their education within its walls, but because it
represents that culture and scholarship which know no national lines
of separation, but belong to the world's great Federation of Learning.
The orator was a man who, by his deep philosophy, his poetic genius,
his broad patriotism, his love for England, her great literature and
history, had won for himself a reputation not equalled in some respects
by any other citizen of the United States of these later times. In
the course of a brilliant oration in honour[1][A] of the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Harvard, James Russell
Lowell took occasion to warn his audience against the tendency of a
prosperous democracy "towards an overweening confidence in itself and
its home-made methods, an overestimate of material success and a
corresponding indifference to the things of the mind." He did not deny
that wealth is a great fertilizer of civilization and of the arts that
beautify it; that wealth is an excellent thing since it means power,
leisure and liberty; "but these," he went on to say, "divorced from
culture, that is, from intelligent purpose, become the very mockery
of their own essence, not goods, but evils fatal to their possessor,
and bring with them, like the Nibelungen Hoard, a doom instead of a
blessing." "I am saddened," he continued, "when I see our success as
a nation measured by the number of acres under tillage, or of bushels
of wheat exported; for the real value of a country must be weighed in
scales more delicate than the balance of trade. The garners of Sicily
are empty now, but the bees from all climes still fetch honey from the
tiny garden-plot of Theocritus. On a map of the world you may cover
Judea with your thumb, Athens with a finger-tip, and neither 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 good, but
only as the 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, Parkman, and many others,
representing the brightest thought and intellect of this continent.
These writers were 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
array of historians, essayists, poets and novelists, as I have just
named, as the latest results of New England culture, he felt compelled
to utter a word of remonstrance against that spirit of materialism
that was then as now abroad in the land, tending to stifle those
generous intellectual aspirations which are best calculated to make a
people truly happy and great.

Let us now apply these remarks of the eminent American poet and thinker
to Canada--to ourselves, whose history is even older than that of New
England; contemporaneous rather with that of Virginia, since Champlain
landed on the heights of Quebec and laid the foundations of the ancient
capital only a year after the English adventurers of the days of
King James set their feet on the banks of the river named after that
sovereign and commenced the old town which has long since disappeared
before the tides of the ocean that stretches away beyond the shores of
the Old Dominion.[2] If we in Canada are 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 achievements 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 effort 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 insignificance alongside of those
of New England. It may be said, too, of Canada, that her history in
the days of the French regime, during 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 laying
broad and deep the foundations of a new nationality across half a
continent, as those great Virginians to whom the world is ever ready
to pay its meed of respect. These Virginian statesmen won their fame
in the large theatre of national achievement--in laying the basis of
the most remarkable federal republic the world has ever seen; whilst
Canadian public men have laboured with equal earnestness and ability in
that far less conspicuous and brilliant arena of colonial development,
the eulogy of which has to be written in the histories of the future.

[Footnote A: In all cases the references are to the Notes in the
Appendix.]




II.


Let me now ask you to follow me for a short time whilst I review some
of the most salient features of our intellectual progress since the
days Canada entered on its career of competition in the civilization
of this continent. So far there have been three well defined eras of
development in the country now known as the Dominion of Canada. First,
there was the era of French Canadian occupation which in many respects
had its heroic and picturesque features. Then, after the cession of
Canada to England, came that era of political and constitutional
struggle for a larger measure of public liberty which ended in the
establishment of responsible government about half a century ago.
Then we come to that era which dates from the confederation of the
provinces--an era of which the first quarter of a century only has
passed, of which the signs are still full of promise, despite the
prediction of gloomy thinkers, if Canadians remain true to themselves
and face the future with the same courage and confidence that have
distinguished the past.

As I have just said, the days of the French regime were in a sense days
of heroic endeavour, since we see in the vista of the past a small
colony whose total population at no period exceeded eighty thousand
souls, chiefly living on the banks of the St. Lawrence, between Quebec
and Montreal, and contending against great odds for the supremacy on
the continent of America. The pen of Francis Parkman has given a vivid
picture of those days when bold adventurers unlocked the secrets of
this Canadian Dominion, pushed into the western wilderness, followed
unknown rivers, and at last found a way to the waters of that southern
gulf where Spain had long before, in the days of Grijalva, Cortez and
Pineda, planted her flag and won treasures of gold and silver from an
unhappy people who soon learned to curse the day when the white men
came to the fair islands of the south and the rich country of Mexico.
In these days the world, with universal acclaim has paid its tribute of
admiration to the memory of a great Discoverer who had the courage of
his convictions and led the way to the unknown lands beyond the Azores
and the Canaries. This present generation has forgiven him much in view
of his heroism in facing the dangers of unknown seas and piercing their
mysteries. His purpose was so great, and his success so conspicuous,
that both have obscured his human weakness. In some respects he was
wiser than the age in which he lived; in others he was the product of
the greed and the superstition of that age; but we who owe him so much
forget the frailty of the man in the sagacity of the Discoverer. As
Canadians, however, now review the character of the great Genoese, and
of his compeers and successors in the opening up of this continent,
they must, with pride, come to the conclusion that none of these men
can compare in nobility of purpose, in sincere devotion to God, King
and Country, with Champlain, the sailor of Brouage, who became the
founder of Quebec and the father of New France.

In the daring ventures of Marquette, Jolliet, La Salle and Tonty,
in the stern purpose of Frontenac, in the far-reaching plans of La
Galissonière, in the military genius of Montcalm, the historian of the
present time has at his command the most attractive materials for his
pen. But we cannot expect to find the signs of intellectual development
among a people where there was not a single printing press, where
freedom of thought and action was repressed by a paternal absolutism,
where the struggle for life was very bitter up to the last hours of
French supremacy in a country constantly exposed to the misfortunes
of war, and too often neglected by a king who thought more of his
mistresses than of his harassed and patient subjects across the sea.
Yet that memorable period--days of struggle in many ways--was the
origin of a large amount of literature which we, in these times, find
of the deepest interest and value from a historic point of view. The
English colonies of America cannot present us with any books which,
for faithful narrative and simplicity of style, bear comparison with
the admirable works of Champlain, explorer and historian,[3] or with
those of the genial and witty advocate, Marc Lescarbot,[4] names that
can never be forgotten on the picturesque heights of Quebec, or on
the banks of the beautiful basin of Annapolis. Is there a Canadian
or American writer who is not under a deep debt of obligation to the
clear-headed and industrious Jesuit traveller, Charlevoix,[5] the
Nestor of French Canadian history? The only historical writer that can
at all surpass him in New England was the loyalist Governor Hutchinson,
and he published his books at a later time when the French dominion had
disappeared with the fall of Quebec.[6] To the works just mentioned we
may add the books of Gabriel Sagard,[7] and of Boucher, the governor of
Three Rivers and founder of a still eminent French Canadian family;[8]
that remarkable collection of authentic historic narrative, known as
the Jesuit Relations;[9] even that tedious Latin compilation by Père
du Creux,[10] the useful narrative by La Potherie,[11] the admirable
account of Indian life and customs by the Jesuit Lafitau,[11_a_]
and that now very rare historical account of the French colony, the
"Etablissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France," written by the
Recollet le Clercq,[12] probably aided by Frontenac. In these and other
works, despite their diffuseness in some cases, we have a library of
historical literature, which, when supplemented by the great stores
of official documents still preserved in the French 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
writers were Canadians in the sense that they were born or educated
in Canada, but still they were 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 originated a class of writers
who produced work of equal value, or indeed of equal literary merit.
Religious and polemic controversy had the chief attraction for the
gloomy, disputatious puritan native of Massachusetts and the adjoining
colonies. Cotton Mather was essentially a New England creation, and
if quantity were the criterion of literary merit then he was the most
distinguished author of his century; for it is said that indefatigable
antiquarians have counted up the titles of nearly four hundred books
and pamphlets by this industrious writer. His principal work, however,
was the "Magnalia Christi Americana, or Ecclesiastical History of New
England from 1620 to 1698,"[13] a large folio, remarkable as a curious
collection of strange conceits, forced witticisms, and prolixity
of narrative, in which the venturesome reader soon finds himself
so irretrievably mystified and lost that he rises from the perusal
with wonderment that so much learning, as was evidently possessed
by the author, could be so used to bewilder the world of letters.
The historical knowledge is literally choked up with verbiage and
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 cult 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 Seminaries in the same place, in connection with which, in
later times, rose the University with which is directly associated the
name of the most famous Bishop of the French regime. The influence
of such institutions was not simply in making Canada a most devoted
daughter of that great Church, which has ever exercised a paternal and
even absolute care of its people, but also in discouraging a purely
materialistic spirit and probably keeping alive a taste for letters
among a very small class, especially the priests, who, in politics
as in society, have been always a controlling element in the French
province. Evidences of some culture and intellectual aspirations in
the social circles of the ancient capital attracted the surprise of
travellers who visited the country before the close of the French
dominion. "Science and the fine arts," wrote Charlevoix, "have their
turn, and conversation does not fail. The Canadians breathe from
their birth an air of liberty, which makes them very pleasant in the
intercourse of life, and our language is nowhere more purely spoken."
La Galissonière, who was an associate member of the French Academy of
Science, and the most highly cultured governor ever sent out by France,
spared no effort to encourage a systematic study of scientific pursuits
in Canada. Dr. Michel Sarrazin,[13_a_] who was a practising physician
in Quebec for nearly half a century, devoted himself most assiduously
to the natural history of the colony, and made some valuable
contributions to the French Academy, of which he was a correspondent.
The Swedish botanist, Peter Kalm, who visited America in the middle of
the last century, was impressed with the liking for scientific study
which he observed in the French colony. "I have found," he wrote, "that
eminent persons, generally speaking, in this country, have much more
taste for natural history and literature than in the English colonies,
where the majority of people are entirely engrossed in making their
fortune, whilst science is as a rule held in very light esteem."
Strange to say, he ignores in this passage the scientific labours
of Franklin, Bartram and others he had met in Pennsylvania.[13_b_]
As a fact such evidences of intellectual enlightenment as Kalm and
Charlevoix mentioned were entirely exceptional in the colony, and
never showed themselves beyond the walls of Quebec or Montreal. The
province, as a whole, was in a state of mental sluggishness. The germs
of intellectual life were necessarily dormant among the mass of the
people, for they never could produce any rich fruition until they
were freed from the spirit of absolut