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
On the whole, there is considerable truth in these words, although author
and reader may alike take exception to some of them. The circumstances
and situation of the life of this singular man have been set so clearly
before the reader in these pages, that there can be no difficulty in
apprehending the unpropitious and unfavourable atmosphere through which
he was compelled to move. Few men can ever have more richly deserved the
epithet of self-made: no systematic tuition could he ever have received;
near to manhood before he even attempted to obtain, before he had even
presented to him any inducements to attempt, the most rudimental elements
of knowledge; we cannot gather that he had any teachers, who assisted him
with more than hints, or the loan of a grammar, a lexicon, or some volume
he desired to read; there are no indications of any particular kindness,
no friendly hands, no wicket, or gate of school, or college opened to
him. And as with the commencement of his career, so with its course; his
intercourse was, probably, mostly with men, and minds inferior to his
own; books, we have seen, he had few, although he read, with avidity,
wherever he could borrow; and as with his mental training, so with his
spiritual experience,—it appears all to have gone on within himself, very
much unrelieved, and unaided; he had to fight his own doubts, and to
gather strength in the wrestling, and the conflict. And as he thus
formed himself, without assistance, so, apparently without any human
assistance, he continued to labour on, amidst the popular acclamations of
fame. The absence of all, and every exhibition of gratitude, is
peculiarly affecting. Altogether, this strikes us as a grand,
self-sustained, and much-enduring life, always hard, and necessitous; but
its lines are very indelible, written as with a pen of iron, and as with
the point of a diamond. It is natural that, in his old age, he should
speak thus to a young man of the—
“VALUE OF INDUSTRY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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