Joseph Evans. 209 



had occasion to express our acknowledgments in the 

 " Manchester Flora," is son of the renowned William. 

 Born in 1803, the lad, when only ten years of age, used 

 to be taken to the meetings, walking, of course, every 

 inch of the way, both there and back. He was also his 

 father's constant companion in the fields. Ah, how 

 much is imbibed under such kindly teaching, and how 

 much more than we actually learn is excited and 

 animated! It is not so much what a man, even one's 

 own father, tells us, tutor-fashion, that does the good 

 for one's entire life-time, as what he inspires us with. 

 The man, or the woman either, upon whom we look 

 back as having supplied the aurora of our mental day, 

 when we think it out carefully, is he or she who taught us 

 not so much how to write and cast accounts, as how to 

 see and to feel to see the wild-flowers, and the snow- 

 crystals, and the darting dragon-flies in their beautiful 

 blue corselets, to listen to the hum of the busy bees 

 and the songs of the birds, and to feel that "he prayeth 

 best who loveth best all things both great and small." 

 Evans was taught, when no more than ten years old, 

 how to contemplate the immortal beauty of nature. Like 

 his father before him, he had very little book-learning, 

 but he fed abundantly on the best and truest source of 

 all great and worthy ideas. A vigorous frame and an 

 admirable constitution enabled him to undertake jour- 

 neys on foot that to many would be positively affrighting. 

 He knew the contents of every wood and pond within 

 twenty miles of his home, the results of his long rambles 

 P 



