Canada emerged as a political entity with boundaries largely determined by the fur trade. These boundaries included a vast north temperate land area extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific and dominated by the Canadian Shield. The present Dominion emerged not in spite of geography but because of it.

Industrialism implies technology and the cutting of time into precise fragments suited to the needs of the engineer and the accountant.

The mixture of the oral and the written traditions in the writings of Plato enabled him to dominate the history of the West.

Graham Wallas has reminded us that writing as compared with speaking involves an impression at the second remove and reading an impression at the third remove. The voice of a second-rate person is more impressive than the published opinion of superior ability.

We have not yet realized that the Indian and his culture were fundamental to the growth of Canadian institutions.

The Middle Ages burned its heretics and the modern age threatens them with atom bombs.

The significance of a basic medium to its civilization is difficult to appraise since the means of appraisal are influenced by the media, and indeed the fact of appraisal appears to be peculiar to certain types of media. A change in the type of medium implies a change in the type of appraisal and hence makes it difficult for one civilization to understand another.