Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

statesmanship and imperial conceptions of that great Canadian, whose name must be always associated with the political developement of Canada since 1844; but it seems to us, while we may commend the natural effort of a devoted private secretary to eulogise and emphasise the services of his chief, he has been too forgetful of the claims of Sir George Cartier, and of his followers from French Canada, to recognition. Canadians, at all events, know full well that, without the aid of Cartier, Sir John Macdonald would have been helpless time and again, and could never have carried out his national schemes.

In this review it has been our object to refer only to those salient features of the developement of Canada which stand out in remarkable contrast with the state of things in 1837, and to point out how much reason Canadians have for congratulating themselves on the events of a reign in which they have laid the foundations of their happiness and prosperity as one of the great communities which make up the empire. It is not within the scope of this paper to point out the shadows that may obscure the panorama as it unfolds itself to us. It would be strange if, in the government of a country like Canada, many mistakes had not been made, or if there were not many difficulties in store for the youthful confederation. Dr. Goldwin Smith, from time to time, has been disposed to perform the part of the Greek Chorus to the gloomy predictions of the enemies and lukewarm friends of the confederation, but Canadians will hardly allow themselves to be influenced by purely pessimistic utterances in the face of the difficulties that they have hitherto so successfully encountered, and of the courage and hopes that animate them for the future. For a century and a half the French Canadians fought and bled for their country; they had to face famine and savages, war with the British, and, what was worse, the neglect and indifference of the parent state at the most critical period of their history; but since the conquest they have built up a large community by the banks of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, and even the superior energy and enterprise of the English Canadians have not prevented them from creating a province which is essentially French Canadian, and affords many evidences of prosperity due to the hardihood of the race that inhabits it. A century and more has passed since the English-speaking people sought their fortunes in the West or on the shores of the Atlantic. For years many of these hardy pioneers led toilsome lives

lives of solitude, among the great forests that overshadowed the whole country; but year by year the darkness of the woods was brightened by bursts of sunlight, as the axe opened up new centres of settlement and echoed the progress of the advance guards of civilisation. Years of hardship and struggle ensued, and political difficulties followed, to add to individual trials, but the people were courageous and industrious, and soon surmounted the obstacles of early times. The material developement went hand in hand with the political progress of the country. The magnificent heritage which the people of Canada now own is the result of unremitting toil and never-failing patience, and, summing up the achievements of the past, they may well look forward with hopefulness to the future, for of them it may be truly said:

'Men the workers, ever reaping something new; That which they have done but earnest of the things that they will do.'

What is to be the next great step in the political career of Canada is a question which frequently occurs to Imperial as well as colonial statesmen. One thing is quite certain, that the movement is towards the placing of the relations between the parent state and its great dependency on a basis which will strengthen the empire and at the same time give Canada even a higher position in the councils of the Imperial state. The federation of the empire, in the full sense of the term, may be considered by some practical politicians as a mere political phantasm, never likely to come out in a tangible form from the clouds where it is now concealed; and yet who can doubt that out of the grand conception which first originated in the brain of Franklin and Otis statesmen may yet evolve some scheme that will render the empire secure from the dangers which arise from continual isolation, and from the growth of peculiar and distinct interests, that naturally result from the geographical situation of communities so widely separated from each other throughout the world?

At the Ottawa Conference not a word was whispered of Imperial federation-Imperial defence was not even considered; but, despite this studied neglect of a scheme which, more than once, had been eloquently urged by several representatives-especially by the Finance Minister of Canada-it is probable that this colonial assemblage would never have met were it not for the efforts of enthusiastic supporters of the movement, for some years back, to create a deeper interest in colonial affairs and Imperial connexion.

At the Conference commercial questions absorbed the attention of the delegates, and perhaps some historical students may recall the fact that considerations of trade and finance led to the famous Convention that created a more perfect 'union' in 1787 for the American States, previously bound together by a loose confederation. While it is most improbable that English statesmen will, in these times, yield to the proposal of the Conference and return to a protection policy in favour of the colonies, yet strong reasons may be urged by not a few persons, from an Imperial point of view, for giving Imperial assistance to such practical propositions as a fast Atlantic and Pacific steam service between Canada, Australasia, and Great Britain, and the laying of a cable, 'free from all foreign control,' between the Dominion and Australasia. One can also see in the resolutions of the Conference advocating larger and freer commercial relations between the colonial dependencies, the removal of any restraints that may be imposed by Imperial treaties, some important evidence of the growing desire among colonial statesmen to give greater unity to the colonial empire.

Only a few words in conclusion. Looking at the history of the Canadian dependency for half a century, one can see in all the phases of its political developement there has run 'an increasing purpose.' The statesmen of England and her colonies have, perhaps, builded better than they knew. The destiny that shapes our ends, 'rough-hew them how we will,' has been carrying the Empire in a direction beyond the ken and conception of probably the most sanguine and practical minds. When we consider that the union of the two Canadas was followed in about a quarter of a century by the federation of all the provinces, and that this great measure has been also followed, after a lapse of twenty-seven years, by a conference of delegates from the most distant colonial possessions, we may well believe that the thoughts of men are indeed widened throughout England and her dependencies by the process of the suns,' and that the powerful current of human thought and progress which is everywhere making itself felt is carrying forward the Empire, not into an unknown sea of doubt and peril, where it may split into many fragments, but into a haven where it may rest in the tranquil waters of peace and security.

ART. II.-1. Luoghi degli Autori citati da Dante nel Convito. By PIETRO MAZZUCHELLI. Padua: 1827.

2. Nuova Centuria di Correzioni al Convito. By Dr. CARL WITTE. Leipzig: 1854.

3. Loci Auctorum in Libris de Monarchia. By Dr. CARL WITTE. Vienna: 1874.

[ocr errors]

4. Dante's classische Studien. Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie.' By Dr. SCHÜCK. 1865.

5. Dante e Ovidio: Studio. By GIOACHIMO SZOMBATHELY. Trieste: 1887-8.

N° o one can read a few pages of any of Dante's works, except perhaps the 'Vita Nuova' and the 'Canzoniere,' without being struck by the frequent use which the poet makes of Scripture and Classical authors in the way of quotation, allusion, and illustration. Nor could any one who pays but a little attention to the subject fail to be impressed by the extraordinary breadth of reading and variety of learning which are thus displayed by Dante. Our admiration is indefinitely increased when we remember the difficulties under which this surprising amount of learning was amassed; when we reflect that it was in the days before the invention of printing, when books existed only in manuscript, and were consequently very rare and difficult of access; when there were no helps for study in the way of notes and dictionaries, no veniences for reference, such as divisions of chapters, sections, paragraphs; above all, no indexes or concordances to help the fallible memory, though it was, no doubt, less fallible then in proportion to the reliance placed upon it; when, finally, we add to all this the consideration of the circumstances of Dante's own life, a turbulent, wandering, unsettled life, a life of which we may truly say 'without were fightings, within 'were fears;' one intensely preoccupied, with fierce political struggles and anxieties, when politics,' if we may use so misleading a term, were a question of life and death to those who engaged in them, and defeat meant, as in Dante's own case, exile, confiscation, ruin. The varied and extensive reading of which Dante's works give evidence would be admirable if it had been exhibited under the most favourable conditions of what we call learned leisure,' and with the help of modern appliances, but under the circumstances under which Dante accomplished it it is nothing less than amazing. Nor are these considerations materially affected

even when all allowance has been made for the occurrence of secondhand references and the occasional use of handbooks of extracts and quotations, or Florilegia,' on both of which matters we shall have a few words to say presently. As Mr. Eliot Norton has truly said, 'Dante was born a 'student, as he was born a poet, and had he never written a 'single poem, he would still have been famous as the most 'profound scholar of his times. Far as he surpassed his 'contemporaries in poetry, he was no less their superior in 'the depth and extent of his knowledge.'

This subject has, in a partial way, attracted the attention of several students of Dante. In a partial way, we say, because, although some writers have dealt with the quotations to be found in single works of Dante, and others have written monographs on Dante's use of particular authors, as in such works as those enumerated at the head of the present article, yet no complete and systematic collection or discussion of such passages has yet appeared. None, we mean, (1) covering all the works of Dante; (2) including all the earlier authors thus used by him; (3) embracing not only direct citations, but also allusions and references, many of which are no less certain and obvious than direct citations, though not introduced by any formal acknowledgement. Such a collection, so far as concerns Scripture and Classical authors, though not including the wide field of Scholastic theology and philosophy, now lies before us, and we propose to offer to our readers some of the broad results which such statistics, being at any rate systematic,' though naturally far from complete,' enable us to establish as to the comparative amount of use made by Dante of particular writers

a point on which some erroneous statements have before now been made-and also as to the extent or limits of his acquaintance with the writings of an individual author when these are many or various in character: the extent in some cases, and the limits in others, being alike remarkable.

The general result may first be briefly summarised as follows. If we include (a) direct citations, (b) obvious references or imitations, (c) allusions and reminiscences, we believe that at least 1,400 passages may certainly be found that fall under one or other of these heads; but it is obviously impossible to fix precise limits to the class 'c,' partly from differences of opinion as to the certainty of an allusion,' and still more from the fallibility of the memory and the imperfect scope of the reading of any one student, even with all the help to be gained from modern appliances, and after all the

VOL. CLXXXI. NO. CCCLXXII.

U

« AnkstesnisTęsti »