The delight of genius in the act of composition has been called the
keenest of intellectual pleasures; and this was the poet's almost
sole reward in Canada a generation ago, when nothing seemed to
catch the popular ear but burlesque, or trivial verse. In strange
contrast this with a remoter age! In old Upper Canada, in its
primitive days, there was no lack of educated men and women, of
cultivated pioneers who appreciated art and good literature in all
its forms. Even the average immigrant brought his favourite books
with him from the Old Land, and cherished a love of reading, which
unfortunately was not always inherited by his sons. It was a fit
audience, no doubt; but in a period when all alike were engrossed in
a stern struggle for existence, the poets, and we know there were
some, were forced, like other people, to earn, by labour of hand,
their daily bread. Thackeray's "dapper" George is credited with the
saying, that, "If beebles will be boets they must starve." If in
England their struggle was severe, in Canada it was unrelenting; a
bald prospect, certainly, which lasted, one is sorry to say, far
down in our literary history.
Probably owing to this, and partly through advice, and partly by
inclination, Miss Johnson took to the public platform for a living,
and certainly justified her choice of a vocation by her admirable
performances.
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