‘My father possessed a farm of 100 acres, about five miles from this, which we still hold. My mother and two sisters, one older, and the other younger than me, composed his family. Being active and industrious, he managed his little estate in such a way that we were enabled to live comfortably and respectably. He was a man of strong sound sense, though in point of education not much above the common, his attention being more turned towards the improvement of his farm than his mind, but he was very anxious that his children should be well informed. Our village school was none of the best, and had it not been for my mother, we would have made little improvement. She was a native of Dublin, where she had received an excellent education, and having a natural taste for literature, she found little pleasure in associating with her neighbours—thus concentrating all her pleasures in her little family. She led us to the source from which she had derived so much pleasure, and early imbued our minds with a thirst for knowledge, which she took care to gratify by every means in her power. But her system of teaching was not that of the schools, unless in learning to read: we had no formal tasks—her book was nature, which she first led us to admire, then to examine, and when our curiosity was raised, she drew speech from stones, sermons from brooks, and good from every thing. The phenomena of nature, as they occurred, furnished subjects for explanation and illustration. The growth and construction of a flower—the change of seasons—the succession of day and night—the thunder, whirlwind, and tempest,—were all pressed into her service; and when our young imaginations were excited, she seized the important moment to impress their nature and use on our minds. Thus we were every moment insensibly acquiring knowledge, not by formal study, or by being pent up in a room, poring over a book for six or eight hours a-day, getting question and answer by rote like a parrot, but by our judgments being brought into action. Books, however, were not excluded: when our curiosity was once excited, and we felt inclined to acquire more information on any subject, we were referred to those which contained it, and by its being made the theme of a subsequent conversation, our doubts were solved, and our perplexities removed. The filial affection which this mode of education cherished, I shall feel to my latest breath. Her instructions were the pleasure of our lives, the withholding them the greatest punishment. We looked up to her as our guide, our comforter, and friend on all occasions.