Excerpt from Canadian Essays Critical and Historical If it should appear that some authors whose contributions to Canadian literature are but slight have gained recognition in this volume, it is because such writers have cheerfully and patriotically given of their heart and brain whether lyric, story or historical sketch - to enrich the intellectual life-blood of our country, and deserve, therefore, to be gratefully remem bered in its literary annals. It is to be hoped, too, that the essay dealing with French Canadian life and literature may help to make better known to the people of Ontario and the other provinces the literary worth and character of the French Canadian people, who were the pioneers of our country's progress, and who to-day form such an impor tant part of this great Dominion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.