What follows is not the biography of William Douw Lighthall, 1857-1954, but a chapter in the larger tradition of Canadian intellectual history. Lighthall remained a staunch imperialist, believing that Canada's future would find its fullest expression within the British Empire, and an adament idealist, asserting the primacy of individual responsibility and community rights. Together these two strains of thought, imperialism and idealism, formed the leitmotif of Lighthall's career: as a poet, novelist and anthologist Lighthall never questioned society's values and mores, he stressed them; similarly, as an urban reformer he underestimated the power of organized capital and, in the end, advocated repressive reforms. Although he was neither a particularly good writer nor a particularly effective reformer, Lighthall nonetheless preached a socialist vision of society--organic, collective, as something independent of the individuals who happened to live there.

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