have been, the impossibility of ascertaining the precise spot in which his remains were deposited.

At the Fifth Anniversary of the South Wales Auxiliary Missionary Society, held at Llandovery in 1819, David Davies, Esq. M. D., concluded a speech of considerable length, by alluding to the Vicar in the following terms: "I should feel myself guilty of a culpable omission, did I not on this occasion pay some tribute of respect to the memory of a very good man, who, some centuries ago, lived in this place--I mean the Rev. Rees Prichard, a native of this place, the Vicar of this parish, Rector of Llanedy, in this county of Carmarthen, and a Dignitary of the Church of St. David's. He lived in the times of James the First, and Charles the First, and by his writings, example and pious life, greatly assisted to reform the manners and morals of the age in which he lived. The country had not then long been emancipated from the chains and tyranny of popery, and was in a state of considerable ignorance and darkness. His poems in Welsh, called The Welshman's Candle, produced a most wonderful effect on the minds of the people; for they were even lisped by babes, and sung in every house, and to this day are read with great advantage and edification. They are written in a plain familiar style, and suitable to the taste and genius of the Welsh people. The recollection of so great and good a man cannot, I trust, be irrelevant to the princi

pal object of this Society; for although he was not a missionary, he was a great reformer; highly respected and beloved in his time, and lamented in his death.” Such being the high estimation in which the Welsh hold their favourite poet, it is presumed that the beautiful lines of Virgil, inserted as a motto in the title-page of this work, will not be deemed inappropriate. The following translation of those lines is given by Dryden:

"O heavenly poet! such thy verse appears,
So sweet, so charming to our ravish'd ears,
As to the weary swain, with cares opprest,
Beneath the silvan shade, refreshing rest;
As to the fev'rish traveller, when first

He finds a crystal stream to quench his thirst."

In the year 1771, the Rev. William Evans, Vicar of Llewhaden, in Pembrokeshire, published an English Translation of "The Welshman's Candle," without alteration or abridgment. This was the only translation ever offered to the public. It was printed by subscrip tion at Carmarthen; and not being sold any where in England, must have been entirely unknown beyond the principality, except to a few of the Translator's friends, who were induced to become subscribers. A second edition of Mr. Evans's work was recently printed at Merthyr Tydvil, with the omission of his preface. It is entitled "The Morning Star," and may be had from London on application to any Bookseller. Of this the Editor was not aware until the manuscript of the pre

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sent work was finished, when he was presented with a copy of the above edition, accompanied with the intimation, that a new one could not be wanted. It is however certain, that the Vicar of Llandovery is still generally unknown in England, though much more worthy of being known in that part of the kingdom, than many English works are of being known in Wales. And though it be readily conceded, that a mere reprint of of Mr. Evans's Translation "cannot be wanted,” it is presumed that the Poems of Mr. Prichard now appear with more advantage than on any former occasion, and will be much more acceptable to the English reader.

In his Preface, Mr. Evans has the following remarks on the mode Mr. Prichard thought fit to adopt for the instruction, and religious edification of his countrymen: "With but little trouble, we may trace it from the earliest antiquity: witness the Song of Moses,-of Deborah and Barak, and the divine compositions of the royal Psalmist, which, together with many other parts of Scripture, were written in Hebrew Verse. Calvin tells us, that remarkable and illustrious transactions used to be described in verse, that they might be in the mouths of all, and that a perpetual memorial of them might be established; for by this means, a point of doctrine becomes better known, than if it were delivered in a more simple manner.' Dr. Patrick, in the Preface to that most excellent Treatise De Veritate Christianæ Re

ligionis, says that Grotius wrote it, in his own language, in verse, because it was the ancient manner of delivering the most useful things; as he himself observes, in his Prolegomena to Stobaeus's Florilegium, where, as a proof of it, he alleges that of Homer, who observes, that Clitemnestra did not incline to vice, till she had lost him who used to sing to her ;* for precepts of wisdom, so taught, are exceedingly charming to the minds of youth, being not only more easily imprinted on the memory, but calculated to touch the affections more powerfully, than when otherwise delivered. Aristotle informs us, that the laws of kingdoms were, in more ancient times, thus written. With a view more easily to convey

The passage alluded to occurs in the third book of the Odyssey, and is thus translated by Mr. Pope :

"Virtue's image yet possest her mind,

Taught by a master of the tuneful kind :
Atrides, parting for the Trojan war,
Consign'd the youthful consort to his care.
True to his charge, the bard preserv'd her long
In honour's limits; such the power of song.
But when the gods these objects of their hate
Dragg'd to destruction by the links of fate;
The bard they banish'd from his native soil,
And left all helpless in a desert isle :
There he, the sweetest of the sacred train,
Sung dying to the rocks, but sung in vain,
Then virtue was no more; her guard away,
She fell, to sin a voluntary prey."

religion to people's minds, and fix it there, Apolinarius translated the five books of Moses, and the rest of the Bible, as far as the Reign of Saul, into heroic verse, in imitation of Homer's Poems. The early use, and powerful effect of this kind of composition in our own country, is evinced by the story of Adelmus, who, a little before the time of Edward the Confessor, by his skill in poetry and singing, did so much in civilizing the people, and instructing them in the duties of religion, that Lanfrank thought good by his own authority, to make him a Saint. I am told that, in the Protestant parts of Germany, instead of loose ballads, as in other countries, the people employ themselves, at their work, on the road, in the fields, and in the gardens, in singing Hymns, composed by Luther, and other good authors. Dr. Watts will be for ever remembered for his useful compositions of this nature. But I shall say no more on the advantages of this mode of propagating christian knowledge, than just to remark, that as many read more for amusement than instruction, they will frequently take up a volume of poems, when they would not be disposed to look into a system of divinity, or any long treatise on religious subjects in prose; so just and true are those often quoted lines:

A verse may catch him, who a sermon flies,

And turn delight into a sacrifice!""

As the original work of Mr. Prichard contains about