The Spirit of Confederation: Professor Creighton, Biculturalism, and the Use of History

Abstract

IN Canada's First Century PROFESSOR C EIGHTON I-IAS GIVEN US another work with the admirable qualities which we have come, all too complacently perhaps, to expect of him: a book which is not only an absorbing historical narrative, as well as an invaluable work of synthesis and interpretation, but also, in an important sense, an achievement in the realm of art. I do not use the word art lightly, but in order to indicate the measure of Professor Creighton's achievement as an historian; for his greatness as an artist is inseparable from his greatness as an historian, and, as a result, his work affords us an insight into the true nature of the historical craft. One must be grateful that, at a time when many historians eek to justify their ways to God and man by means of an indiscriminate use of the language of the pseudo-sciences, Professor Creighton calmly reminds us that, while the historian shares to a limited degree the methodology of the scientist, the distinguishing features of his craft are those he shares with the artist. I do not refer, of course, to a graceful, rhythmic prose, to a skill of vivid portraiture, to an irresistible sense of drama, or even to the power of passionate commitment, hough all of these are Creighton's in full measure and should, in my opinion, be listed in the column marked assets rather than liabilities. And I certainly do not mean that Professor Creighton is either contemptuous or neglectful of the historian's obligations to 'science': anyone who has been his student, either in the classroom or through his writings, knows that few historians have shown a more scrupulous concern for the proper use of 'evidence.' What distinguishes the historian is not the amount of his evidence, or the manner in which he obtains it, but what he does with it; and the proper use of evidence requires those two skills which the historian shares with the artist: imagination and composition. (Those persons who are frightened by simple words might be reassured if I spoke of 're-enactment of past thought'