Letters to a Friend 



nificent forest trees, black as demons and mate 

 rial as the soil they move upon. I often think 

 of the Doctor's lecture upon the condition of the 

 different races of men as controlled by physical 

 agencies. Canada, though abounding in the ele 

 ments of wealth, is too difficult to subdue to 

 permit the first few generations to arrive at 

 any great intellectual development. In my long 

 rambles last summer I did not find a single 

 person who knew anything of botany and but 

 a few who knew the meaning of the word ; and 

 wherein lay the charm that could conduct a man 

 who might as well be gathering mammon so 

 many miles through these fastnesses to suffer 

 hunger &nd exhaustion was with them never 

 to be discovered. Do not these answer well to 

 the person described by the poet in these lines? 



" A primrose by the river's brim, 

 A yellow primrose was to him, 

 And nothing more." 



I thank Dr. Carr for his kind remembrance 

 of me, but still more for the good patience he 

 had with so inept a scholar. 

 [ 12] 



