World, an institution
which has religiously preserved this holy alliance and the traditions of
the older universities, the Laval University of Quebec."

Mgr. de Laval, while busying himself with the training of his clergy,
watched over the instruction of youth. He protected his schools and his
dioceses; at Quebec the Jesuits, and later the seminary, maintained even
elementary schools. If we must believe the Abbe de Latour and other
writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the children of the
early colonists, skilful in manual labour, showed, nevertheless, great
indolence of mind. "In general," writes Latour, "Canadian children have
intelligence, memory and facility, and they make rapid progress, but the
fickleness of their character, a dominant taste for liberty, and their
hereditary and natural inclination for physical exercise do not permit
them to apply themselves with sufficient perseverance and assiduity to
become learned men; satisfied with a certain measure of knowledge
sufficient for the ordinary purposes of their occupations (and this is,
indeed, usually possessed), we see no people deeply learned in any
branch of science. We must further admit that there are few resources,
few books, and little emulation. No doubt the resources will be
multiplied, and clever persons will appear in proportion as the colony
increases." Always eager to develop all that might serve for the
propagation of the faith or the progress of the colony, the devoted
prelate eagerly fostered this natural aptitude of the Canadians for the
arts and trades, and he established at St. Joachim a boarding-school for
country children; this offered, besides a solid primary education,
lessons in agriculture and some training for different trades.

Mgr. de Laval gave many other proofs of his enlightened charity for the
poor and the waifs of fortune; he approved and encouraged among other
works the Brotherhood of Saint Anne at Quebec. This association of
prayer and spiritual aid had been established but three years before his
arrival; it was directed by a chaplain and two directors, the latter
elected annually by secret ballot. He had wished to offer in 1660 a more
striking proof of his devotion to the Mother of the Holy Virgin, and had
caused to be built on the shore of Beaupre the first sanctuary of Saint
Anne. This temple arose not far from a chapel begun two years before,
under the care of the Abbe de Queylus. The origin of this place of