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The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People

J >> John George Bourinot >> The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People




When we come to sum up the literary results of the century that has
passed since the two races entered conjointly on the material and
intellectual development of Canada, it will be seen that there has been
a steady movement forward. It must be admitted that Canada has not yet
produced any works which show a marked originality of thought. Some
humorous writings, a few good poems, one or two histories, some
scientific and constitutional productions, are alone known to a small
reading public outside of Canada. Striking originality can hardly be
developed to any great extent in a dependency which naturally, and
perhaps wisely in some cases, looks for all its traditions and habits of
thought to a parent state. It is only with an older condition of
society, when men have learned at last to think as well as to act for
themselves, to originate rather than to reproduce, that there can be a
national literature. The political development of Canada within forty
years affords forcible evidence of the expansion of the political ideas
of our public men, who are no longer tormented by the dread of what
others say of them, but legislate solely with respect to the internal
necessities of the country; and the same development is now going on in
other departments of intellectual life, and affords additional evidence
of our national growth. It must also be remembered that there is a
mental activity among the intelligent classes of the country, in itself
as significant as the production of great works. Like our American
neighbours, the mass of Canadians is able to think intelligently, and
come generally to a right conclusion, on all matters of local concern;
in this respect, no comparison need be made with the mass of Englishmen
or Frenchmen in the Old World, for the social and educational facilities
within the reach of the people of this country, give them undoubted
advantages over others. It is only necessary to consider the number of
pamphlets and volumes on matters affecting Canada, that annually issue
from the press in this country, to show the existence of a mental
activity in entire harmony with the industrial progress of the country.
[Footnote: For instance, we find in Morgan's 'Annual Register' for 1879,
that during that year there were no less than 166 publications issued
from the press, of which 17 were poetic; 12 historical; 15 educational;
17 legal; 24 religious; 66 miscellaneous, &c. Some of these were of
considerable merit, as 'Tasse's Pioneers,' F. Taylor's 'Are Legislatures
Parliaments?' Frechette's Poems, Hannay's 'Acadia,' &c. In this
connection it may be interesting to add that the Parliamentary Library
contains some 1,400 copies of pamphlets, bound in 200 volumes, since
Confederation, and that the total number of original Canadian
publications registered since that time is over 1,500--only a few of the
pamphlets being registered copyright. The Parliamentary Library,
however, is very defective yet in Canadian books, papers and pamphlets.
Laval University has a far more valuable collection. We ought to have a
National Library like the British Museum, where all Canadian
publications can have a place. Strange as it may seem, only a few copies
of old Canadian papers can be found in the Ottawa Library. Yet, if a
little money were spent and trouble. taken, a valuable collection could
be procured from private individuals throughout the Dominion.] It is
fair then to argue that the intellectual progress of a country like
Canada must not be measured solely by the production of great works
which have been stamped with the approval of the outside literary world,
on whose verdict, it must of course be admitted, depends true fame. We
must also look to the signs of general culture that are now exhibited on
all sides, compared with a quarter of a century ago, when the
development of material interests necessarily engrossed all the best
faculties of the people. The development of higher education, together
with the formation of Art Schools, Museums, and Literary Societies, is
illustrative of the greater mental activity of all classes. The
paintings of O'Brien and Verner are pleasing evidences of the growth of
art in a country where, hitherto, but few pictures of merit have even
been imported. It is no longer considered a sign of good taste to cover
the walls with oils and chromes whose chief value is the tawdry, showy
gilt which encases them and makes so loud a display on the walls of the
_nouveaux riches_. In the style of public buildings and private
dwellings, there is a remarkable improvement within twenty years, to
indicate not only the increase of national and individual wealth, but
the growth of a cultured taste. The interior decorations, too, show a
desire to imitate the modern ideas that prevail abroad; and in this
respect every year must witness a steady advance, according as our
people travel more in the older countries in Europe and study the
fashions of the artistic and intellectual world. There are even now in
prosaic, practical Canada, some men and women who fully appreciate the
aesthetic ideal that the poet Morris would achieve in the form, harmony,
and decoration of domestic furniture. If such aesthetic ideas could only
be realized in the decoration of our great public edifices, the
Parliamentary buildings at Ottawa, for instance, the national taste
would certainly be improved. At present huge portraits of politicians,
who by intrinsic merit or political favour have become speakers, stare
down from the walls in solitary grandeur, and already begin to overcrowd
each other. We search in vain for allegorical paintings by eminent
Canadian artists, or monuments of illustrious statesmen, such as we see
in the Capitol at Washington, or in the elegant structure nearly
completed at Albany.

In one respect we are still much behind hand, and that is in our Public
Libraries. The library of the Parliament of Canada still remains the
only institution worthy of much notice in the Dominion. It was certainly
an event in the history of literary culture in Canada when this library
was moved into the edifice whose architectural beauty is in itself an
illustration of the rapid advance in taste of the Dominion. As one looks
up at its chaste, vaulted ceiling, which lights the tiers of volumes,
arranged in a circle, one recalls the now forgotten poem of Crabbe, that
ardent lover of books:--

Come, Child of Care! to make thy soul serene,
Approach the treasures of this tranquil scene;
Survey the dome, and, as the doors unfold,
The soul's best cure, in all her cares, behold!
Where mental wealth the poor in thought may find,
And mental physic the diseased in mind.

* * * * *

With awe, around these silent walks we tread;
These are the lasting mansions of the dead:--
"The dead!" Methinks a thousand tongues reply:
"These are the tombs of such as cannot die!
"Crowned with eternal fame, they sit sublime
"And laugh at all the little strife of time."


But whilst we pay this tribute to its architectural grace, one wonders
at the same time at the shortsightedness which has sacrificed everything
to appearance, and given us a building not even equal to existing
demands--as if a library was a thing of the present, not to increase
with the intellectual requirements of the country. As it is now, the
library contains only some 100,000 volumes, many of which have no
particular value. The American and Canadian department is confessedly
inferior in many respects, although we ought to excel in that
particular. Of late years, the annual grant has been extremely small,
and chiefly devoted to the purchase of books for the law branch, for the
especial benefit of lawyers engaged in the Supreme Court. But we have as
yet no Free Libraries like those in the United States, of which the
Boston Library is a notable illustration. [Footnote: Boston, twenty
years ago, spent and spent well, in founding her great free library,
more than two dollars for each man, woman, and child within her limits,
and she has sustained it to this day with great spirit and liberality.
That library has now more than 360,000 volumes, and her citizens in 1879
took to their homes more than 1,160,000 volumes. Many smaller places in
New England and elsewhere, not without careful investigation, have
followed her example, finding in the practical results of her 20 years'
work, proof satisfactory to their tax-payers, that a free library is a
profitable investment of public money, while in the West the great
cities of Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis, with Western free-handed
energy, have already free libraries on such a scale that one at least of
them bids fair to rank among the greatest in the world--_Scribner's
Monthly_ for September, 1880, where the advantages of a free library are
very tersely shown.] But, nevertheless, the reading facilities of the
people generally have increased very largely within two decades. At the
present time, as far as we can estimate from the information within
reach, there are some 130,000 volumes in the Parliamentary Libraries of
the Dominion, 700,000 in the Universities, Colleges and Schools--all of
which are necessarily of a limited professional class--and 140,000 in
Mechanics' Institutes and Literary Societies. The grand total of library
and prize books despatched to the Public Schools of the Province of
Ontario alone within twenty-five years is over one million and a quarter
of volumes--comprising of course books of an educational character, but
nevertheless valuable in laying the foundation of general culture, and
bringing the means of acquiring knowledge to sections where otherwise
such facilities would be wanting. Last year, the value of the books
imported into Canada amounted to about a million of dollars, or an
increase of about 30 per cent. in ten years. Literary and Scientific
Institutes are increasing in number, and some are doing a useful, if not
a national work: the Quebec Historical Society, referred to on a
previous page, the Toronto Canadian Institute, which has made not a few
useful contributions to science and literature, and the Institut
Canadien which has erected in Ottawa one of the handsomest structures
yet raised in Canada by a literary association. In Ontario there are
also some 100 Mechanics Institutes, including nearly 11,000 members,
with an aggregate of 118,000 volumes in the libraries; [Footnote:
'Address of Mr. James Young, President of Mechanics' Institutes
Association of Ontario (_Globe_, Sept. 24th, 1880).] and it is
satisfactory to learn that institutions which may have an important
influence on the industrial classes are to be placed on a more efficient
basis. These facts illustrate that we are making progress in the right
direction; but what we want, above all things, are public libraries, to
which all classes may have free access, in the principal centres of
population. The rich men of this country can devote a part of their
surplus wealth to no more patriotic purpose than the establishment of
such libraries in the places where they live, and in that way erect a
monument for themselves far more honourable than any that may be
achieved by expenditures on purely selfish objects. All through the New
England and Central States we meet with such illustrations of private
generosity, but there are few similar examples in Canada. Perhaps the
handsome contribution recently made by Mr. Redpath towards the
establishment of a museum in connection with McGill College--itself a
memorial of private generosity--is a favourable augury of what we may
often look for in the future, as the number of our wealthy men increase
and they become more alive to the intellectual wants of those around
them.

In the columns of our ablest journals there is a growing tendency to
devote more space to the discussion of literary, artistic and scientific
topics which are engaging attention in the world of thought The
publication of a periodical like the _Bystander_ may justly be
considered an event in the political and literary annals of this
country. It illustrates the desire that exists for independent political
criticism amid the intense conflict of party opinion; and even those who
cannot agree with the views of the eminent gentleman who conducts this
work will frankly admit the originality and independence of thought in
all he says. But it is not only as a political writer that Mr. Smith is
doing good service to this country; every one who reads his reviews of
current events cannot fail to profit by the study of his graceful style
as well as by the versatility of his knowledge on all the social,
political and economic questions that are engaging attention at home or
abroad. The pages of the _Canadian Monthly_ have also for some time
shown that there is coming to the front a number of writers of
considerable intellectual power on the leading social and religious
problems to which so many able thinkers are devoting themselves
now-a-days. Herbert Spencer has his disciples and defenders, who prove
themselves no contemptible adversaries of the orthodox school of
religion. Very few of us probably sympathize with these modern
iconoclasts who would destroy all motive for right doing in this world,
by breaking down human faith in the existence of one Supreme Being; but,
at the same time, no one can deny the earnestness and ability these
writers bring to their work. It is quite obvious that such able thinkers
as Mr. Spencer and his followers in Canada, with Mr. Le Sueur at their
head, cannot be 'snubbed' cavalierly by the professed teachers of
religion. The tendency of modern thought, a wave of which has reached
us, is undoubtedly in the direction of bringing all subjects, however
sacred, to the crucial test of argument, fact and experience, and our
religious guides must not think they will prevail by the exhibit of mere
contemptuous indifference to the free thought that prevails around them.
If our great theological schools and seats of learning are to prove
themselves equal to the demands of the present day, it will be by moving
out of their grooves of worn-out tradition and routine, and by enlarging
their teachings so that the men they send out into the world may be more
equal than most of them appear now to meet in argument the Positivist,
Rationalist and Materialist, or whatever the disciple of the modern
schools of philosophy may call himself. The man of true liberality and
faith in the truth of his religious principles must be fully prepared to
allow the freest expression of opinion, however antagonistic it may
appear to the true happiness of society. This very conflict of ideas and
arguments between such opposite schools of opinion must, in the end,
evolve the truth, and necessarily give additional stimulus to
intellectual thought in this country, where, so far, there has been a
great dearth of original thinkers to elevate us above purely selfish,
material interests.

In the natural order of things, the next half century ought to witness a
far larger development of the intellect of this country. We have already
seen that, with the progress of the Dominion in population and wealth,
education has been stimulated to a remarkable degree, journalism has
become more of a profession, and not only have several books, of more
than ordinary value and merit, been produced in various departments of
knowledge, but there are already signs of a spirit of intellectual
emulation which must, sooner or later, have its full fruition. If Canada
makes the material progress within the next few decades that her people
hope, and her statesmen are endeavouring to accomplish, in the face, no
doubt, of many difficulties, we may confidently look forward to a
corresponding intellectual development. So much practical work of
immediate importance has to be performed in a comparatively new country
like this, that native talent has naturally found chief expression in
politics, the professions, and the press; but with greater wealth, and
an older condition of society, literature, science, and art, will be
cultivated to a far larger extent. 'It was amid the ruins of the
Capitol,' says Gibbon, 'that I first conceived the idea of writing the
"History of the Roman Empire."' Such a work could not have been written
among the forests of Canada, while men were labouring with the many
difficulties of a pioneer existence. But with the greater opportunities
of leisure and culture necessarily opening up to us in the future,
Canadians may yet have a literature, not merely imitative, as at
present, but creative and original. It is stated somewhere in an old
English review of American literature, that on this new continent we can
hardly expect the rich fruition which springs from that deep, humanized
soil of the old world, which has for ages been enriched by the ripe
droppings of a fertile national life, where, in the words of an American
poet,--

One half the soil has walked the rest,
In poets, heroes, martyrs, sages.


It is certainly true that the beauty and grandeur of external nature
alone will never inspire the highest and deepest writings; but human
life with its manifold experiences, its glooms and glories, sorrows and
rejoicings, pains, pleasures and aspirations. Every rood of ground in
the old communities of Europe has its historic associations to point
many a moral and adorn many a tale. Yet if this America of ours has a
history only of yesterday, it, too, has its memories and associations to
stimulate the genius of history, poetry and romance. Already in the
first century of American literature have poets and historians and
artists appeared to rival those of the older civilization of the world.
The works of Parkman and Longfellow illustrate that there is, even in
the early history and traditions of Canada, much to evoke the interest
of the great world beyond us, when a writer brings to the task the
genius of a true poet or the brilliancy of an accomplished historian. If
our soil is new, yet it may produce fruits which will bear a rich
flavour of their own, and may please the palate of even those surfeited
with the hothouse growth of older lands. Hawthorne, Emerson, Howells,
Bret Harte, Sam Slick, are among many writers who illustrate the
raciness and freshness of American production. Nor let it be forgotten
that American and Canadian, in 'the fresh woods and pastures new' of
this continent, have an equal heritage with the people of the British
Islands in that rich, humanized soil which has borne such rare
intellectual fruit. We, too, may enjoy its bounteous gifts and gather
inspiration from its treasures of 'English undefiled,' although we live
in another land whose history dawned but yesterday, and where the soil
is almost virgin.

In this land there is a future full of promise for literature as for
industry. Our soil speaks to the millions of poor in the old countries
of the world of boundless hope. Here there is no ancient system of
social exclusiveness to fix a limit to the intellectual progress of the
proletariat. Political freedom rests on a firm, broad basis of general
education. Our political constitution is not alienated from the
intellect of the country, but its successful working depends entirely on
the public intelligence. As our political horizon widens, and a more
expansive national existence opens before us, so must our intellectual
life become not only more vigorous, but more replete with evidences of
graceful culture:

'For through all the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.'

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