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John Galt (novelist) Quotes

John Galt was a Scottish novelist, entrepreneur, and political and social commentator. Because he was the first novelist to deal with issues of the Industrial Revolution, he has been called the first political novelist in the English language.He was the first superintendent of the Canada Company that had been formed to populate a part of what is now Southern Ontario, then known as Upper Canada, in the first half of the 19th century. The company was successful and its achievement was later called "the most important single attempt at settlement in Canadian history".The area, known as the Huron Tract on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, was

1,100,000 acres in size and had been acquired from the Chippewa First Nation by the British government. The company surveyed and subdivided this massive area, built roads, mills, and schools and advertised it at affordable prices to buyers in Europe. The company then assisted in the migration of new settlers, bringing them to the area by means of a boat, which the company also owned. Initially settling in York he selected what later became Guelph, Ontario as the company's headquarters, and began to develop a town there. Galt is also considered to be the founder of Goderich, Ontario with his colleague William "Tiger" Dunlop. In 1829, he was recalled to Great Britain for mismanagement of the Canada Company , and was later jailed for failing to pay his son's tuition. Galt's Autobiography, published in London in 1833 includes a discussion of his life and work in Upper Canada.He was the father of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt of Montreal, Quebec.



✵ 2. May 1779 – 11. April 1839
John Galt (novelist) photo
John Galt (novelist): 7   quotes 2   likes

Famous John Galt (novelist) Quotes

“This work is not for the many; but in the unconscious, perfectly natural, irony of self-delusion, in all parts intelligible to the intelligent reader, without the slightest suspicion on the part of the autobiographer, I know of no equal in our literature…This and The Entail would alone suffice to place Galt in the first rank of contemporary novelists.”

John Galt (novelist)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, manuscript note written in his copy of The Provost; cited from Thomas Middleton Raysor (ed.) Coleridge's Miscellaneous Criticism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1936), p. 344.
Criticism

“The cloven-foot of self-interest was now and then to be seen aneath the robe of public principle.”

John Galt (novelist)

The Provost (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1822) p. 20.

“From the time of the North Briton of the unprincipled Wilkes, a notion has been entertained that the moral spine in Scotland is more flexible than in England. The truth however is, that an elementary difference exists in the public feelings of the two nations quite as great as in the idioms of their respective dialects. The English are a justice-loving people, according to charter and statute; the Scotch are a wrong-resenting race, according to right and feeling: and the character of liberty among them takes its aspect from that peculiarity.”

John Galt (novelist)

Ringan Gilhaize (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1823) vol. 3, p. 313.

“The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.”

John Galt (novelist)

Attributed to Muhammad, as quoted in The Wandering Jew (1820), p. 262 https://books.google.com/books?id=IARgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA262&dq=The+sword+is+the+key+of+heaven+and+hell;+a+drop+of+blood+shed+in+the+cause+of+Allah,+a+night+spent+in+arms,+is+of+more+avail+than+two+months+of+fasting+or+prayer:+whosoever+falls+in+battle,+his+sins+are+forgiven&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxyNix_-bcAhUaTY8KHT2oB74Q6AEIWTAJ#v=onepage&q=The%20sword%20is%20the%20key%20of%20heaven%20and%20hell%3B%20a%20drop%20of%20blood%20shed%20in%20the%20cause%20of%20Allah%2C%20a%20night%20spent%20in%20arms%2C%20is%20of%20more%20avail%20than%20two%20months%20of%20fasting%20or%20prayer%3A%20whosoever%20falls%20in%20battle%2C%20his%20sins%20are%20forgiven&f=false

“To rule without being felt…is the great mystery of policy.”

John Galt (novelist)

The Provost (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1822) p. 19.

“In a word, man in London is not quite so good a creature as he is out of it.”

John Galt (novelist)

The Ayrshire Legatees (Edinburgh: Blackwood, [1821] 1823) pp. 163-4.

“Galt was the first writer to show the effects of the burgeoning industrial revolution, making him the first political novelist in the English language, and though his reputation has been overshadowed by Scott and Hogg, he is now recognised as one of the great writers of the age.”

John Galt (novelist)

Carl MacDougall, "Reformers and radicals in Scottish literature" http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/writingscotland/learning_journeys/reformers_and_radicals/.
Criticism

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