Wales (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1901 Excerpt: ... CONCLUSION My story is at an end. My task is to relate, not to condemn or to justify. The development of Wales has been twofold--in national intensity and in the expansion of imperial sympathy. From Cressy and Agincourt to Albuera and Inkerman, its levies and regiments have done their duty; from David Gam and Roger Williams to Picton and Nott, its sons have been where the surge of the advancing British wave has beaten fiercest. To the cause of capital it has given a Lord Overstone, to the cause of labour a Robert Owen. If its best and strongest thought has been given to Welsh literature, it has given to England thoughts that have not been entirely forgotten, from George Herbert to Henry Vaughan, and from John Dyer to William Morris. In the development of British art it is represented by Richard Wilson, John Gibson, and Burne Jones. The life of Wales, in the intense conservatism of its unbroken continuity, has not been selfish. The desire to give has been as strong as the desire to retain. No colonist throws himself more readily into the life of his adopted country, but the new country will have an Eisteddvod and a Sunday school. His conservative desire for independence is strong enough to send him to almost superhuman toil in inhospitable Patagonia, and to maintain Welsh newspapers and magazines, full of old-world poetry and half-legendary history, among the modern and practical organs of the opinion of the United States. But the reminiscences of the old life are but a recreation of mind. In the struggle for American Independence, in the developing patriotism of the British Colonies, the Welshman has been among the foremost in devotion and energy. The first period of Welsh history ends with the poet's lament for its fallen princes; the second ends with the p..