Christmas Evans, the Preacher of Wild Wales: His country, his times, and his contemporariesHood, Edwin Paxton
History
Christmas Evans, the Preacher of Wild Wales: His country, his times, and his contemporaries
Hood, Edwin Paxton
Evans, Christmas, 1766-1838
Those poetical pieces which he wrote at intervals, and which are called
“The Welshman’s Candle,” appear only to have been gathered into a volume,
and published, after his death. The room in which he lived, and wrote,
appears to be still standing; and Mr. Borrow says: “Of all the old houses
in Llandovery, the old Vicarage is, by far, the most worthy of attention,
irrespective of the wonderful monument of God’s providence, and grace,
who once inhabited it;” and the old vicar’s memory is as fresh in
Llandovery, to-day, as ever it was. While Mr. Borrow was looking at the
house, a respectable-looking farmer came up, and was about to pass; “but
observing me,” he says, “and how I was employed, he stopped, and looked
now at me, and now at the antique house. Presently he said, ‘A fine old
place, sir, is it not? But do you know who lived there?’ Wishing to
know what the man would say, provided he thought I was ignorant as to the
ancient inmate, I turned a face of inquiry upon him, whereupon he
advanced towards me, two or three steps, and placing his face so close to
mine, that his nose nearly touched my cheek, he said, in a kind of
piercing whisper, ‘_The Vicar_!’ then drawing his face back, he looked me
full in the eyes, as if to observe the effect of his intelligence, gave
me two or three nods, as if to say, ‘He did indeed,’ and departed. _The_
Vicar of Llandovery had then been dead nearly two hundred years. Truly
the man in whom piety, and genius, are blended, is immortal upon earth!”
“The Welshman’s Candle” is a set of homely, and very rememberable verses,
putting us, as far as we are able to judge, in mind of our Thomas Tusser.
Mr. Borrow gives us a very pleasant taste in the following literal,
vigorous translation, which we may presume to be his own:—
“GOD’S BETTER THAN ALL.”
“God’s better than heaven, or aught therein;
Than the earth, or aught we there can win;
Better than the world, or its wealth to me—
God’s better than all that is, or can be.
“Better than father, than mother, than nurse;
Better than riches, oft proving a curse;
Better than Martha, or Mary even—
Better, by far, is the God of heaven.
“If God for thy portion thou hast ta’en,
There’s Christ to support thee in every pain;
The world to respect thee thou wilt gain;
To fear thee, the fiend, and all his train.
“Of the best of portions, thou choice didst make,
When thou the high God to thyself didst take;
A portion, which none from thy grasp can rend,
Whilst the sun, and the moon on their course shall wend.
“When the sun grows dark, and the moon turns red;
When the stars shall drop, and millions dread;
When the earth shall vanish, with its pomp, in fire,
Thy portion shall still remain entire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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