33 MEMOIR OF DR. HAR VEY. 



and common mingled floating mass as to escape the notice of 

 an ordinary collector. 



Though apparently so contented with his home, the desire 

 of seeing the vegetation of foreign countries in its living beauty 

 was still strong within him, and an opportunity seemed at this 

 time afforded of realizing the cherished day-dream. Mr. Daniel 

 Wheeler, a friend of his father, was about to pay a missionary 

 visit to the South Sea Islands, and William thought it might 

 be practicable to accompany him ; but he soon became con- 

 vinced that his father's life was too uncertain to admit of his 

 leaving home, and filial duty and affection led him to abandon 

 for the present all idea of foreign travel. To the cousin who 

 frequently lectured him, both seriously and playfully, for his 

 fancy for roving, he wrote as follows : — 



" I do indeed find my place to be by my father's side, and not 

 in the ' Bay of Islands ;' and I hope I may keep my place in 

 this respect at least, however I may fail in other duties. Had 

 I not been convinced how the case stood, I should have been 

 more seriously bent on carrying my point, for I still think that 

 under common circumstances it would have been of the highest 

 advantage to me to have gone abroad ; but with my father so 

 delicate and advanced in life, 1 have done much better to stay 

 at home. Besides, I am the child of his old age, and he has 

 therefore the more peculiar claim on me. 



" You say that ' cultivating the mind is not neglecting our 

 duty.' Whether it be so or not entirely depends on the crop 

 we are rearing. E. A. 1 the other day enlarged very beautifully 

 on our first parents having been placed in the garden ' to dress 

 it and to keep it.' Now if I introduce into the garden of 

 my mind all sorts of wild plants, to the exclusion of what may 

 be called 'the olive and the grape,' will not such a cultivation 

 be a neglect of duty ? I find, by seeing the effects of science 

 on the most learned naturalists of the day, that the utmost 

 knowledge may be accompanied either by deep humility and 

 piety or by insufferable arrogance and hardness of heart. ' To 

 look through nature up to nature's God ' may be good in 

 jpQetry, but is by no means an obvious effect of knowledge in 

 fact. Yet what is more beautiful than to see a man who has 



1 A minister of the " Society of Friends." 



