Our Intellectual Strength and Weakness: A Short Historical and Critical Review of Literature, Art and Education in CanadaBourinot, John George
History
Our Intellectual Strength and Weakness: A Short Historical and Critical Review of Literature, Art and Education in Canada
Bourinot, John George
Canada -- Intellectual life; Canadian literature -- History and criticism; French-Canadian literature -- History and criticism
[Footnote 59: Page 40.--"A Study, with Critical and Explanatory
Notes, of Lord Tennyson's Poem, The Princess." By S. E. Dawson.
Montreal, 1882, 12mo. 2nd ed. 1884. The preface contains a long and
interesting letter from the poet, which "throws some light upon some
important literary questions regarding the manner and method of the
poet's working." Tennyson describes the "Study" truly as an "able and
thoughtful essay."]
THE OLD 'CANADIAN MONTHLY.'
[Footnote 60: Page 40.--It first appeared in Toronto in 1872 (Adam
Stevenson & Co.), soon after Prof. Goldwin Smith took up his permanent
residence in that western city. Much of its reputation for years
necessarily depended on the contributions of a writer who, if he has
failed to identify himself of late with the national or Canadian
sentiment of the people, has at all events done something in the past
to improve the style of Canadian _littérateurs_ and to elevate the tone
of journalism. The 'Monthly' was the ablest successor of a long list
of literary aspirants in the same field, the majority of which had a
still shorter existence. See Bourinot's "Intellectual Development of
the Canadian People" (Toronto, 1881), chap. iv. and 'Canadian Monthly,'
March, 1881.]
FORM OF ROYAL SOCIETY 'TRANSACTIONS.'
[Footnote 61: Page 42.--Since the delivery of the presidential address
the Royal Society decided by a considerable majority--chiefly made up
of the two scientific sections--to continue the quarto form for the
present. Under these circumstances the compromise suggested may be
adopted--that of printing separate editions of important monographs and
works from time to time by some understanding with the author.]
THE STUDY OF THE CLASSICS.
[Footnote 62: Page 49.--The following is a fuller quotation from Prof.
Goldwin Smith's very apposite remarks delivered before the Classical
Association of Ontario (see 'The Week,' April 28th, 1893): "No age has
stood more in need of humanizing culture than this, in which physical
culture reigns. One of the newspapers the other day invited us to take
part in a symposium the subject of which was 'How to Produce a Perfect
Man.' The problem was large, but one help to its solution might have
been a reminder to keep the balance. A romantic age stands in need
of science, a scientific and utilitarian age stands in need of the
humanities. Darwin avows that poetry gave him no pleasure whatever.
This surely was a loss, unless the whole side of things which poetry
denotes is dead and gone, nothing but dry science being left us; in
which case the generations that are coming may have some reason, with
all their increase of knowledge and power, to wish that they had lived
nearer the youth of the world." See _supra_, Note 1, for Mr. Lowell's
remarks on the same subject.]
CANADIAN LIBRARIES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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