DE MILLE'S WORKS.
[50] Page 29.—James De Mille was a native of New Brunswick, and a professor in Dalhousie College, N. S., at the time of his death. His first work of fiction was "Helena's Household: a Tale of Rome in the First Century" (New York, 1858). His most popular works, "The Dodge Club Abroad" (1866), "Cord and Creese" (1867), "The Cryptogram" (1871), and "A Castle in Spain" (1883), first appeared in 'Harper's Monthly.' A strange, imaginative work, "A Curious MS. Found in a Copper Cylinder," was published in New York in 1888, and is understood to have been written by him. It was not until Rider Haggard's fiction became popular that the New York publishers ventured to print a book which so severely taxes the credulity of the reader. As a work of pure invention it is in some respects superior to those of the English author. Mr. De Mille died in 1880, at the age of 43, when much was expected of him. See Appleton's "Cyclo. Am. Biogr.," ii., 138, for a list of his published works except the one just mentioned.
SARA JEANNETTE DUNCAN.
[51] Page 29.—She is the author of three books. "A Social Departure" and "An American Girl in London" have had many readers and are full of promise. Miss Duncan, in company with another young lady, in 1889–90, went around the world, and made numerous contributions to the press of Canada during that tour, but its noteworthy result is the first mentioned volume. She is now married and a resident of India, whose striking aspects of social life she is studying and portraying in print. Her latest story, or rather sketch, of Indian customs, "The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib" (New York, 1893), has many touches of quiet humour. One must regret that her talent has not been directed to the incidents of Canadian life.
MATTHEW ARNOLD ON LITERATURE AND SCIENCE.
[52] Page 31.—The extract given in the text is taken from "Literature and Science," one of Mr. Matthew Arnold's "Discourses in America," published in book form in London, 1885. See pp. 90–92.
PRINCIPAL GRANT'S ADDRESS.
[53] Page 32.—This address to the Royal Society of Canada, to which reference is made in the text, is given in the ninth volume of the 'Transactions,' pp. xxxix-xl. Dr. Grant could never be uninteresting, but the address shows his ideas can now and then be a little chaotic or enigmatic. It is quite evident he has never studied with much care the volumes of the 'Transactions,' or comprehended the useful work the Society is doing in its own way. Never an active member himself, he has not done adequate justice to those who have been at all events conscientious labourers in the vineyard where he has planted no seed.
SIR J. W. DAWSON.
[54] Page 32.—This distinguished scientific man is a Nova Scotian by birth, who, before he became so closely identified with the prosperity of McGill College at Montreal as its principal, was superintendent of education in his native province. His scientific works are numerous, but the one which first brought him fame was his "Acadian Geology: an Account of the Geological Structure and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia and Portions of the Neighbouring Provinces of British America" (Edinburgh and London, 1855, 8vo.), which has run through many editions, and is now a very large volume compared with the little modest book that first ventured into the world of literature nearly forty years ago.