Part 4

"Strong arms shall guard our cherished homes When darkest danger lowers, And with our life-blood we'll defend This Canada of ours, Fair Canada, Dear Canada, This Canada of ours."

Such poems are worth a good many political speeches even in parliament so far as their effect upon the hearts and sympathies is concerned. We all remember a famous man once said, "Let me make all the ballads, and I care not who makes the laws of a people."

[Footnote B: A list of Canadian poems which have been printed in books (from 1867-1893) appears in the Bibliographical Notes (40).]

[Footnote C: Given in full in Appendix.]

[Footnote D: See Appendix to this work, note 40, for an extract from this fine poem.]

[Footnote E: See Appendix to this work, note 40, for an extract from one of his national poems.]

VI.

But if Canada can point to some creditable achievement of recent years in history, poetry and essay-writing--for 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 fairly well represented in their pages[44]--there is one respect in which Canadians have never won any marked success, and that is in the novel or romance. "Wacousta, or the Prophecy: a Tale of the Canadas," was written sixty years ago by Major John Richardson,[45_a_] 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,"[45] written a few years ago by Mr. William Kirby, of Niagara, I cannot point to one which shows much imaginative or literary skill. If we except the historical romance by Mr. Marmette, "François de Bienville,"[46] which has had several 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 institutions, and in her historic annals and traditions. But as yet neither a Cooper, nor an Irving, nor a Hawthorne has appeared to delight 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 Gaspé, "Les Anciens Canadiens,"[47] 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 is the very poverty of our production in what ought to be a rich source of literary inspiration, French Canadian life and history, that has given currency to a work whose signal merit is its simplicity of style and adherence to historical fact. As Parkman many years ago first commenced to illumine the too often dull pages of Canadian history, so other American writers have also ventured in the still fresh field of literary effort that romance offers to the industrious, inventive brain. In the "Romance of Dollard," "Tonty," and the "Lady of Fort St. John," Mrs. Mary Hartwell Catherwood has recalled most interesting episodes of our past annals with admirable literary taste and a deep enthusiasm for Canadian history in its romantic and picturesque aspects.[48] When we read Conan Doyle's "Refugees"--the best historical novel that has appeared from the English 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 régime_. Dr. Doyle's knowledge of Canadian life and history is obviously very 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 fortunes of the colony with the French Court,--with the plans and intrigues of the king and his mistresses, and of the wily ecclesiastics who made all subservient to their deep purpose. It would seem from our failure to cultivate successfully the same popular branch of letters that Canadians are wanting in the inventive and imaginative faculty, and that the spirit of materialism and practical habits, which has so long necessarily cramped 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 Australia 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 the imaginative and cultured intellect, will reach the sympathies and earn the plaudits of all classes of readers at home and abroad. Perhaps, Mr. Gilbert Parker,[49] now a resident of London, but a Canadian by birth, education and sympathies, will yet succeed in his laudable ambition of giving form and vitality to the abundant materials that exist in the Dominion, among the habitants on the old seigneuries of the French province, in that historic past 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, saw-dust appearance that the vapid characters of some Canadian stories assume from the very poverty of the imagination that has originated them.

That imagination and 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 Professor De Mille,[50] who was cut off in the prime of his intellectual strength, or "A Social Departure," by Sara Jeannette Duncan,[51] 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 descriptions of life and nature, and who is now following up that excellent literary effort by promising sketches of East Indian life. A story which attracted some attention not long since for originality of conception and ran through several editions, "Beggars All," is written by a Miss L. Dougall, who is said to be a member 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 opportunity to develop itself. The best literature of this kind is like that of France, which has the most intimate correspondence with the social life and 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 times is manifestly after a faithful mirror of the present." With us, all efforts in this direction have been most common place--hardly above the average of "Social Notes" in the columns of Ottawa newspapers.

I do not for one depreciate the influence of good fiction on the minds of a reading community like ours; it is inevitable that a busy people, and especially women distracted with household cares, should always find that relief in this branch of literature which no other reading can give them; and if the novel has then become a necessity of the times in which we live, at all events I hope Canadians, who may soon venture into the field, will study 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 degree in England and the United States, would degrade the novel and story of every-day life. To my mind 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 the culture and education of the world than any work of 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 few notable exceptions like Black, Besant, Barrie, Stephenson or Oliphant, weary us by their dulness and lack 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 compass of 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, the number would astonish many persons who have not followed our literary activity. Of course 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 dates which shows the enterprise of school publishers and school teachers and is generally wanting in that picturesqueness and 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 written on religious, political or legal questions of the day. Many of the poems illustrate rather the aspirations of the school boy or maiden whose effusions generally appeared in the poet's corner of the village newspaper. Still there are even among these mere literary "transients" evidences of power of incisive argument and of some literary style. In fact, all the scientific, historical and poetical contributions of the period in question, make up quite a library of Canadian literature. And here let me observe in passing, some persons still suppose that _belles-lettres_, works of fiction, poetry and criticism, alone constitute literature. The word can take in its complete sense a very wide range, for it embraces the pamphlet or monograph on the most abstruse scientific, or mathematical or geographical or physical subject, as well as the political essay, the brilliant history, or the purely imaginative poem or novel. It is not so much the subject as the form and style which make them worthy of a place in literature. One of the most remarkable books ever written, the "Esprit des Lois" by Montesquieu, has won the highest place in literature by its admirable style, and in the science of politics by the importance of its matter. The works of Lyell, Huxley, Hunt, Dawson, Tyndall, and Darwin owe their great value not entirely to the scientific ideas and principles and problems there discussed, but also to the lucidity of style in which the whole subject is presented to the reader, whether versed or not in science. "Literature is a large word," says Matthew Arnold,[52] 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. But as I do not mean, by knowing ancient Rome, knowing merely more or less of Latin _belles-lettres_, and taking no account of Rome's military, and political, and legal, and administrative work in the world; and as, by knowing ancient Greece, I understand knowing her as the giver of Greek art, and the guide to a free and right use of reason and to scientific methods, and the founder of our mathematics, and physics, and astronomy, and biology, I understand knowing her as all this, and not merely knowing certain Greek poems, and histories, and treatises and speeches, so as to the knowledge of modern nations also. By knowing modern nations, I mean not merely knowing their _belles-lettres_, but knowing also what has been done by such men as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin." I submit this definition of literature by a great English critic and poet who certainly knew what he was writing about, to the studious consideration of Principal Grant who, in an address to the Royal Society two years ago,[53] appeared to have some doubt that much of its work could be called literature; a doubt that he forgot for the moment actually consigned to a questionable level also his many devious utterances and addresses on political, religious and other questions of the day, and left him entirely out of the ranks of _littérateurs_ and in a sort of limbo which is a world of neither divinity, nor politics, nor letters. Taking this definition of the bright apostle of 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 high 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 comprehensive, and finds a place in every well furnished library of the world.

The _doyen_ of science in Canada, Sir William Dawson,[54] we are all glad to know, is still at work after a long and severe illness, which was, no doubt, largely due to the arduous devotion of years to education and science. It is not my intention to refer here to other well-known names in scientific literature, but I may pause for an instant to mention the fact that one of the earliest scientific writers of eminence, who was a Canadian by birth and education, was Mr. Elkanah Billings,[55] palæontologist and geologist, who contributed his first papers to the _Citizen_ of Ottawa, then Bytown, afterwards to have greatness thrown upon it and made the political capital of Canada.

VII.

Here I come naturally to answer the questions that may be put by some that have not followed the history and the work of the Royal Society of Canada,--What measure of success has it won? has it been of value to the Canadian people in whose interests it was established, and with whose money it is mainly supported? Twelve years have nearly passed away since a few gentlemen, engaged in literary, scientific and educational pursuits, assembled at McGill College on the invitation of the Marquess of Lorne, then governor-general of Canada, to consider the practicability of establishing a society which would bring together both the French and English Canadian elements of our population for purposes of common study and the discussion of such subjects as might be profitable to the Dominion, and at the same time develop the literature of learning and science as far as practicable.[56] This society was to have a Dominion character--to form a union of leading representatives of all those engaged in literature and science in the several provinces, with the principle of federation observed in so far as it asked every society of note in every section to send delegates to make reports on the work of the year within its particular sphere. Of the gentlemen who assembled at this interesting meeting beneath the roof of the learned principal of Montreal's well-known university, the majority still continue active friends of the society they aided Lord Lome to found; but I must also add with deep regret that, within a little more than a year, two of the most distinguished promoters of the society, Dr. Thomas Sterry Hunt and Sir Daniel Wilson, have been called from their active and successful labours in education, science and letters. As I know perhaps better than any one else, on account of an official connection with the society from the very hour it was suggested by Lord Lorne, no two members ever comprehended more thoroughly the useful purpose which it could serve amid the all-surrounding materialism of this country, or laboured more conscientiously until the very hour of their death by their writings and their influence to make the society a Canadian institution, broad in its scope, liberal in its culture, and elevated in its aspirations. Without dwelling on the qualifications of two men[57] whose names are imperishably connected with the work of their lifetime--archæology, education and chemistry--I may go on to say that the result of the Montreal meeting was the establishment of a society which met for the first time at Ottawa in the May of 1882, with a membership of eighty Fellows under the presidency of Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Dawson, and the vice-presidency of the Honourable P. J. O. Chauveau, 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 established 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 eminent services to literature or science"--a number subsequently increased to a hundred under certain limitations. On the contrary it asks for, and has constantly published, contributions from all workers in the same fields of effort with the simple proviso that such contributions are presented with the endorsation of an actual member, though they may be read before any one of the four sections by the author himself. Every association, whether purely literature or historical, or scientific, as I have already intimated, has been asked to assist in the work of the society,[58] and its delegates given every advantage at the meetings possessed by the Fellows themselves, except voting and discussing the purely internal affairs of the Royal Society. Some misapprehension appears to have existed at first in the public mind that, because the society was named "The Royal Society of Canada," an exclusive and even aristocratic institution was in contemplation. It seems a little perplexing to understand why an objection could be taken to such a designation when the Queen is at the head of our system of government, and her name appears in the very first clauses of the act of union, and in every act requiring the exercise of the royal prerogative in this loyal dependency of the crown. As a fact, in using the title, the desire was to follow the example of similar societies in Australia, and recall that famous Royal Society in England, whose fellowship is a title of nobility in the world of science. Certain features were copied from the Institute of France, inasmuch as there is a division into sections with the idea of bringing together into each for the purposes of common study and discussion those men who have devoted themselves to special branches of the literature of learning and science. In this country and, indeed, in America generally, a notable tendency is what may be called the levelling principle--to deprecate the idea that any man should be in any way better than another; and in order to prevent that result it is necessary to assail him as soon as he shows any political or intellectual merit, and to stop him, if possible, from attaining that mental superiority above his fellows that his industry and his ability may enable him to reach. The Royal Society suffered a little at first from this spirit of depreciation which is often carried to an extent that one at times could almost believe that this is a country without political virtues or intellectual development of any kind. The claims of some of its members were disputed by literary aspirants who did not happen for a moment to be enrolled in its ranks, and the society was charged with exclusiveness when, as a fact, it simply limited its membership, and demanded certain qualifications, with the desire to make that membership a test of some intellectual effort, and consequently more prized by those who were allowed sooner or later to enter. It would have been quite possible for the society to make itself a sort of literary or scientific picnic by allowing every man or woman who had, or believed they had, some elementary scientific or other knowledge to enter its ranks, and have the consequent advantages of cheap railway fares and other subsidiary advantages on certain occasions, but its promoters did not think that would best subserve the special objects they had in view. At all events, none of them could have been prompted by any desire to create a sort of literary aristocracy. Indeed, one would like to know how any one in his senses could believe for a moment that any institution of learning could be founded with exclusive tendencies in these times, in this or any other country! If there is an intelligent democracy anywhere it is the Republic of Letters. It may be aristocratic in the sense that there are certain men and women who have won fame and stand on a pedestal above their fellows, but it is the world, not of a class, but of all ranks and conditions, that has agreed to place them on that pedestal as a tribute to their genius which has made people happier, wiser and better, has delighted and instructed the artisan as well as the noble.

For twelve years then the Royal Society has continued to persevere in its work; and thanks to the encouragement given it by the government of Canada it has been able, year by year, to publish a large and handsome volume of the proceedings and transactions of its meetings. No other country in the world can exhibit volumes more creditable on the whole in point of workmanship than those of this society. The papers and monographs that have appeared embrace a wide field of literature--the whole range of archæological, ethnological, historical, geographical, biological, mathematical and physical studies. The volumes now are largely distributed throughout Canada--among the educated and thinking classes--and are sent to every library, society, university and learned institution of note in the world, with the hope of making the Dominion better known. The countries where they are placed for purposes of reference are these:

The United States: every State of the Union and District of Columbia, Newfoundland, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Guatemala, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Ireland, Ecuador, Italy, Greece, Norway and Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Germany, Roumania, Argentine Republic, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Mauritius, Denmark.