." This was the work that gave
him strength and health to do the great things that were before him. His
years in the district school were few, yet he made such good use of them
that when he was only fifteen years old he was asked to take the place
of one of his teachers during the latter's illness. Further instruction
from teachers was not given him till he came of age. Then he went to
Hamilton to study in the Gore district grammar school for one year. Here
he studied so strenuously that he was seized with an attack of brain
fever, which was followed by inflammation of the lungs. His life was
despaired of, but his good constitution and his mother's nursing
restored him to health.
Shortly afterwards he began his work as a Methodist preacher. When
twenty-three years old, he undertook a mission to the Indians at the
Credit and resided among them as one of themselves, to show them better
ways of living and working. This is part of his account: "Between
daylight and sunrise, I called out four of the Indians in succession
and, working with them, showed them how to clear and fence in, and
plough and plant their first wheat and cornfields. In the afternoon I
called out the schoolboys to go with me, and cut and pile and burn the
brushwood in and around the village."
In 1829 _The Christian Guardian_ newspaper was organized as the organ of
the Methodists, and the young preacher placed in the editorial chair; in
1841 he was chosen President of Victoria College.
In 1844 Dr. Ryerson was appointed Chief Superintendent of Education for
Upper Canada. He immediately set himself to awaken the country to a
proper estimate of the importance of education, and to improve the
qualifications of teachers. He urged the people to build better schools
and to pay better salaries, so that well-qualified teachers could be
engaged. He visited foreign countries to study their systems and methods
that he might make the schools of Upper Canada more efficient. A
Provincial Normal and Model School was established in 1847, better books
were provided for the pupils, more and better apparatus and maps for all
schools. All this was done in the face of many difficulties inevitable
in a new country--popular ignorance, apathy, lack of means to build
schools and support them, lack of time to attend them. The opposition of
many who did not set the same value on education that he himself did had
also to be faced. With unwearied zeal, steadfast courage, and unfai
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