The parish pastor was, of course, a most economical man.  Yet no act of his life savoured in the least degree of meanness or avarice.  On the other hand, his conduct throughout life displayed the greatest disinterestedness and generosity.  He knew very little of luxuries, and he cared less.  Tea was only used in his house for visitors.  The family used milk, which was indeed far better.  Excepting milk, the only other drink used in the house was water—­clear water drawn from the mountain spring.  The clothing of the family was comely and decent; but it was all home-made:  it was simple, like their diet.  Occasionally one of the mountain sheep was killed for purposes of food; and towards the end of the year, a cow was killed and salted down for provision during winter.  The hide was tanned, and the leather furnished shoes for the family.  By these and other means, this venerable clergyman reared his numerous family; not only preserving them, as he so affectingly says, “from wanting the necessaries of life,” but affording them “an unstinted education, and the means of raising themselves in society."[1]

Many men, in order to advance themselves in the world, and to raise themselves in society, have “scorned delights and lived laborious days.”  They have lived humbly and frugally, in order to accomplish greater things.  They have supported themselves by their hand labour, until they could support themselves by their head labour.  Some may allege that this is not justifiable—­that it is a sin against the proletariat to attempt to rise in the world,—­that “once a cobbler always a cobbler.”  But, until a better system has been established, the self-application of individuals is the only method by which science and knowledge can be conquered, and the world permanently advanced.

Goethe says, “It is perfectly indifferent within what circle an honest man acts, provided he do but know how to understand and completely fill out that circle;” and again, “An honest and vigorous will could make itself a path and employ its activity to advantage under every form of society.”  “What is the best government?” he asks:  “That which teaches us to govern ourselves!” All that we need, in his opinion, is individual liberty, and self-culture.  “Let every one,” he says, “only do the right in his place, without troubling himself about the turmoil of the world.”

[Footnote 1:  The best account of Mr. Walker is to be found in the Appendix to the Poems of Wordsworth.  The poet greatly appreciated the clergyman’s character, and noticed him in his “Excursion,” as well as in the Notes to the Sonnets entitled “The River Duddon.”]

At all events, it is not by socialism, but by individualism, that anything has been done towards the achievement of knowledge, and the advancement of society.  It is the will and determination of individual men that impels the world forward in art, in science, and in all the means and methods of civilization.