Faithful Intellect: Samuel S. Nelles and Victoria University (review)

This is an ambitious biography, its aim being not merely to recreate the life of Nelles (1823–87), but through this to present the intellectual and religious culture of English Canada between 1830 and 1880. This is a tall order; but Nelles's life does touch on important issues. As an influential church leader he helped Methodism to evolve from its emotional and populist roots into a more urbane Christianity. As head of Victoria University in Cobourg, Ontario, 1850–87, he defined Methodist higher education. In fact he may be said to have saved the fledgling college from oblivion, since he arrived at a low moment in its history. In September 1850 he was the only professor, while the student body was down to four or five, though reinforcements trickled in during the fall term. In building up the institution he became involved in the struggle over the provincial educational endowments, for many years claimed by Anglican or secular institutions. As an educator in a church-related college he was confronted with the nineteenth-century dilemma of the perceived clash between religion and science and the proper approach to the Bible. Finally, he was involved in the negotiations for the federation of the University of Toronto. One of the most interesting chapters shows this movement from the outside, with University College as the villain. Nelles negotiated in good faith but finally voted against federation. However, the Methodist Conference voted in favour, leaving Nelles privately depressed and appalled at this 'one huge blunder and misfortune' which seemed to negate his life's work.

All these social and political issues are integrated into the text. Indeed, sometimes we lose sight of the central character for pages at a time, while the separate school question or the history of medical education is discussed: this is definitely a scholarly rather than a popular biography, with 88 page notes to 279 pages of text. Neil Semple is the author of an authoritative history of Methodism in Canada, The Lord's Dominion (1996), and is able to draw on such primary sources as minutes of Conference, correspondence of missionary societies, articles in the Christian Guardian, and the papers of Egerton Ryerson or George Hodgins, besides having a mastery of recent secondary material. Nelles himself, perhaps mindful of a future biographer, kept copious records which are now in the Victoria University Archives: letters received, speeches, sermons, diaries, meditations, many Random Thoughts and Mental Records, and even poems (which are less compelling than his voluminous prose output).

Nelles as archivist sounds somewhat like his biographer, and indeed one feature of this biography is the closeness between narrator and subject. Semple bends over backwards to recreate the beliefs of this bygone era in the terms which might have been used then. One is grateful for the absence of jargon, but at times might appreciate more critical distance, especially regarding such contentious issues as the establishment of Native schools, or verbal formulations that appear problematic. One is not sure whether Nelles himself was a consummate middle-of-the-roader, or whether this impression is created partly by Semple's refusal to favour one side of a dichotomy. He is presented as a progressive liberal-conservative who believed in individual liberty but wanted to preserve stability and order, an upholder of traditional values who accepted the challenges of the new learning, and even a nostalgic schoolboy nevertheless eager to face new challenges.

The Faithful Intellect of the title nicely captures Nelles's balanced legacy. He distrusted enthusiasm and the emotional Methodism of the revivals, stressing instead a rational faith (while recognizing that some truths that could be reached only through poetry and imagination). As a professor, initially trained in the Scottish 'common sense' school, he believed in free inquiry and introduced his students to a wide range of philosophical texts, from Richard Whately's Logic to natural theology. Yet he held that all these studies should be grounded in faith; optimistically, he...