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.