An educator, clergyman, and writer, Thomas McCulloch was a major force in shaping the intellectual, religious, and cultural life of Nova Scotia in the first four decades of the nineteenth century. As the guiding power behind Pictou Academy and as the first principal of Dalhousie College, he did much to further the cause of liberal education in the province and to extend higher learning to those outside the established church. His endeavors on behalf of Secessionist Presbyterians led to his training an indigenous ministry, while his letters, sermons, and fictional sketches reveal his untiring efforts to challenge the patronage and complacency of colonial society. Often portrayed by his antagonists as an unbending and waspish man, McCulloch in fact recognized the efficacy of humor in translating moral works into successful agents of reform. His Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure (1860; first published serially in the Acadian Recorder, 22 December 1821-29 March 1823) illustrates...