THE CANADIAN JOFRNAL. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. XCVII. — JANUAEY, 1878. 



YONGE STREET AND DUNDAS STREET. 



THE MEN AFTER WHOM THEY WERE NAMED.* 



B^Y HENRY SGADDING, D. D. 



When it lias happened that a town, city or region has received a 

 aame intended to be an enduring memorial of a particular personage, 

 it is natural to suppose that some interest in his history and character 

 will there be felt. In the many places, for example, which have been, 

 pr are sure to be, called Livingstone, we may expect that hereafter a 

 special acquaintance with the story of the great explorer and mis- 

 sionary will be kept up. But names quickly become familiar and trite 

 on the lips of men; and unless now and then attention be directed to 

 their significance, they soon cease to be much more than mere sounds. 



The inhabitants of Lorraine probably seldom give much thought 

 to the Lothaire, of whose realm, Lotharii regnum, their province is 

 the representative. Few citizens of Bolivia waste time in recalling 

 Bolivar. To the Astorians, Astoria speaks faintly now of John Jacob 

 Astor; and Aspinwall, to its occupants, has by this time lost the 

 personal allusion implied in the word. Ismailia, on the Upper Nile, 

 may be a momentary exception. That is altogether too fresh a crea- 

 tion. Who Ismail, the living Khedive, is, must be sufficiently well 

 known at present to the people there. 



Nevertheless, I suppose, even where the notability commemorated 

 has almost wholly departed out of the public mind, a recurrence to 



* Read before the Canadiaa Institute. 



