[BURWASH] INAUGURAL INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II 7 
mother country alone gave another impulse to the rising movement. 
The birth of imperialism was not so much a cause as another phase, 
and finally industrial prosperity, influx of population, and discovery of 
new resources for the production of wealth, have all followed to give 
impetus and confidence to the new sentiment, until now we all feel 
the strong pulses of our young national life. One of the most imme- 
diate results of this new life has been a vision of the future, an 
optimism and a hopefulness which gives new energy to all our work. 
Our captains of industry and commerce have made large plans. All 
our sources of wealth are being exploited. Three transcontinental 
railways with interlacing branches in every direction are being built 
up. The great waterways are brought into requisition, new forces of 
nature are harnessed for our work, and the wealth of the country is 
multiplied beyond all previous anticipation. Nor is this material side 
the only line of advancement. On the spiritual side our churches are 
all rising with magnificent faith to meet their enlarged obligations. 
Our great educational institutions keep pace with the onward move- 
ment. The little colleges of fifty years ago have now become univers- 
ities with continental or even world-wide reputation, and with thousands 
of students gathered from all parts of the Dominion and from beyond 
the seas. And last, but not least, our literature has grown in quality 
and quantity until we are no longer ashamed to call it Canadian. 
Fourteen years ago one of the most honoured members of this Royal 
Society made the following guarded statement :—“ If Canada can point 
in recent years to some creditable achievement in history, poetry and 
essay writing...... there is one respect in which Canadians have never 
won any marked success, 1.e., in the novel or romance.” When these 
words were penned our literature was only beginning to feel the stir- 
tings of the new life of Canada. To-day even the critical judgment 
of Sir John G. Bourinot would bear a far more favourable testimony. 
Not only has our parliamentary oratory matured in dignity and grace 
until even England is charmed by the diction of a Laurier, but our 
history has added to industry and scientific accuracy, elegance of style 
and beauty of lofty sentiment, our poetry has passed from fine word 
painting of our unrivalled scenery to the deeper expression of human 
character and action, and it can no longer be said that no Canadian 
writer has achieved success in the field of fiction or story, especially in 
dealing with a Canadian subject, or that our best material for literary 
treatment is being exploited by foreign writers. It is proving true 
in Canadian history, as in all national history, that the birth of a 
national life brings literary as well as material achievement. 
