'Your gathering acquires more interest every year. Let me venture to
say that you have to avoid two dangers in order to work all the good
which your friends could desire. You have to avoid the danger of
giving offence to practical men by retarding the spread of the
English language in the principality. I believe that to preserve and
honour the Welsh language and literature is quite compatible with not
thwarting or delaying for a single hour the introduction, so
undeniably useful, of a knowledge of English among all classes in
Wales. You have to avoid, again, the danger of alienating men of
science by a blind partial, and uncritical treatment of your national
antiquities. Mr. Stephens's excellent book, The Literature of the
Cymry, shows how perfectly Welshmen can avoid this danger if they
will.
'When I see the enthusiasm these Eisteddfods can awaken in your whole
people, and then think of the tastes, the literature, the amusements,
of our own lower and middle class, I am filled with admiration for
you. It is a consoling thought, and one which history allows us to
entertain, that nations disinherited of political success may yet
leave their mark on the world's progress, and contribute powerfully
to the civilisation of mankind. We in England have come to that
point when the continued advance and greatness of our nation is
threatened by one cause, and one cause above all.
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