The Rev. Lewis Edwards, D.D. [1809-1887], Founder and Principal of the Bala Theological College.

To face p 132.

The Rev. Edward Morgan [1817-1871], Dyffryn Ardudwy.

and courteous, and who sets such an example of Christian meekness to us poor heathens!

Is it not a mercy also that we are occasionally allowed to see a great ecclesiastic in a thoroughly bad temper?

66

In the next letter, dated February 20, 1864, Lewis Edwards explains that both Mr. Parry and himself had declined the invitation from South Wales, but he still thinks that he may be driven from Bala. There is a diabolical spirit" abroad, and it is time to put an end to this continual treachery among the preachers and elders, or the best men will feel themselves under the necessity of going from the North to South Wales for the sake of peace". He then tries to persuade Edward Morgan either to go to South Wales or to accept the offer of a pastorate in Worcester, "that you may be able to snub these men who talk against the Merionethshire English

a dark saying that I do not understand. "I forgot to say", he adds, "that this church at Worcester belongs to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. And I have heard from another source that they are very respectable people. One of their leading men was a few years ago the Mayor of Worcester. Think of it seriously. But still, I should prefer your going to South Wales. Perhaps D. C. Davies might eventually go to Aberystwyth, and then I might say, with Pedr Fardd,—

Ar eich ol, O wyr, o chaf

Yn drydydd minnau droediaf ".

But the next letters, too long to quote here, show Dr. Edwards, still inclined to be irritable, but immersed in the work and the future of the college he had brought into being.

I certainly did expect (he writes in a passage that shows the large vision of the man) that when we got this fund, we should be able to extend the usefulness of the Athrofa, and make it some

thing like a University for Wales. Instead of that it is narrowed more and more from one Association to another.

In another letter, dated June 18, 1864 :

There are two things requisite to make an effective and attractive College. The first is . . . . . . a thorough education in classics and mathematics. This is by far the most important. But in these days of competition, we cannot do without the second, and that is, a few good scholarships . . . . . . These two things are what I should like to have at Bala. But as Sidney Smith said that it required a surgical operation to make a joke enter the head of a Scotsman, so it requires some operation that I am not master of to make my brethren understand how to have a good college.

I have been speaking in a great measure of what would be best. But taking human nature, that is, Welsh Methodist human nature, as it is, it may be doubted whether all this is now attainable.

He adds, in the same very long letter, in which he is evidently fighting hard for his own ideal college against the narrower views of the Hen Gorff at the time :

As long as the college is looked upon as an Athrofa i Bregethwyr the lay students will be few and far between. The present barriers must be broken down and all exclusive privileges must be given up before there can be any great accession of strength from this source. And after all, I should not expect more than some half-dozen if this were done. There are but few among us that have any notion of giving their sons a classical education. What they want is to teach their sons the three R's, Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic.

So much for Dr. Lewis Edwards. I would like to turn for a moment-I can only make very brief quotationsto the letters of an obscure friend of his, Lewis Jones of Llwyn Einion, near Bala. Lewis Jones, who died in 1854, at the age of 46, was a minister, the editor of "Y Geiniogwerth", and the author of "Cofiant Richard Jones, Y Bala " and "Oriau Olaf Iesu Grist". All his letters in this collection are written to Mrs. Richard Humphreys and are in a strain different from anything

we have hitherto met with. The excellence of his Welsh is refreshing; he succeeds in making himself understood. But let the letters speak for themselves :

Annwyl Mrs. Humphreys (he writes in 1850, when his correspondent had undergone a severe operation), Yr oeddwn wedi hir ddisgwyl cael clywed pa fodd yr ydych. Nid oeddwn wedi amgyffred. ....... eich bod yn analluog i ysgrifenu pe buasai eich iechyd cyffredinol yu goddef hynny. Ond yn bresenol deallaf fod y llaw a arferai ysgrifenu yn anhwylus. Yr oedd yn dda dros ben genyf glywed eich bod cystal ag yr ydych, ac hefyd fod gobaith mor dda am eich adferiad. Er y credaf mai i'r nefoedd yr ewch pan yr ymadawoch a'r fuchedd hon; eto nid wyf yn teimlo yr un ysgogiad at allu bodloni i chwi fyned yno mor fuan. Mae hyn yn anghysondeb, mae'n wir, ond felly yr wyf yn teimlo. Y gwir yw, pe byddai i chwi ymadael a'r byd, teimlwn i fod rhan fawr iawn o'm cysur i ynddo wedi ymadael i'ch canlyn. Then comes a passage that I will read without comment.

Ond yr hyn sydd gan' mil mwy, inae ein Harglwydd Iesu Grist yn cydymdeimlo a chwi......... Fel Duw Hollwybodol buasai yn gwybod am ein gofidiau ac am ein teimladau ninnau danynt, pe heb ddyfod yn ddyn. Ond ni allasai gydymdeimlo heb ddyfod yn ddyn a dioddef hefyd. Ond yn bresenol mae yn gallu. Ac y mae yn cyd-ddioddef gyda'n gwendid ni. Nid rhywbeth mewn enw yw hyn. Nid rhywbeth fel cydymdeimlad pobl fydol-foesgar y ddaear hon a'u gilydd ydyw. Na, na, mae yn ei galon ef deimlad gwirioneddol. Mae'n ddrwg ganddo ef fod yn rhaid i chwi ddioddef. Mae yntau yn dioddef o'r herwydd. Bydd ei ddedwyddwch yn fwy pan dderfydd eich dioddefiadau chwi O, am nerth i orffwys mewn ymddiried i drugaredd anfeidrol mewn iawn anfeidrol. Mae enaid y credadyn yn rhwymyn y bywyd gyda'r Arglwydd ei Dduw. Gan fod Duw wedi rhoddi addewid o fywyd; a chan fod y credadyn yn pwyso ar yr addewid honno am ei fywyd; yna, mae bywyd y ddau, sef y credadyn a'i Dduw, yr un ffordd. Os cyll y credadyn fod yn etifedd bywyd, yna ni bydd Duw yn Dduw y gwirionedd. Ac y mae hynny yr un peth ag i'r Bod mawr beidio a bod. Fel hyn, os collir y naill, collir y llall, ac os cedwir y naill, cedwir y llall. Mae eu bywyd yr un ffordd, yn yr un rhwymyn. O! drefn gadarn. Os syrthia un credadyn yn fyr o fywyd diffydd y Creawdwr a'r greadigaeth o fod yn y fan.

I make no comment upon the theology, but I think that