institution he wrote the hymn which immortalized him. The well-known verses beginning "The Morning Light is Breaking," were also written by him while a student at Andover. He graduated in theology in the year 1832, and two years after was ordained to the ministry of the Baptist Church at Waterville, Maine. He remained there eight years, when he became pastor at Newton. His pastorate at this place lasted twelve years, and while a resident there he was professor of modern languages in Waterville College, now known as Colby University. Dr. Smith edited. for a time the Christian Review, published in Boston, and other publications of the Baptist Missionary Union. His latest conspicuous services to the missionary movement were in 187576 and 1882-83, when he visited the chief stations in Europe and Asia. He has been an exceedingly industrious student, translator and writer, and is the author of many hymns and several books, the chief of which are a Life of the Rev. Joseph Grafton and a History of Newton, the place of most of his literary activities. Mr. Smith and Oliver Wendell Holmes were classmates at Harvard, and maintain the acquaintance formed sixty years ago.

THE NATIONAL HYMN.

THE

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father's God, to thee,
Author of liberty,

To thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.

WELSH LANGUAGE AND
ITS DEVELOPMENT

BY PROFESSOR JOHN RHYS, OXFORD UNIVER-
SITY, ENGLAND.

There are at the present day three kinds of Welsh, viz., the Welsh of the authorized translation of the Scriptures, the Welsh of the vernacular Press, and the ordinary dialectsspeech of the Welsh people. This triplicate Welsh may be said to start with the 16th century. Previously to that we have the Welsh of the middle ages, extending backwards to the date of the Norman Conquest. Further back still we have the old Welsh period, dating from the seventh century, where we reach the confines of darkness, illuminated only by the glimmer of comparative philology, by the aid of which we feebly trace the remains of the early Celtic period. Speaking generally, it is found that

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing ;

Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim's pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

the main with the historical development of the Welsh people. Commencing with the orthography of the language, Professor Rhys proceeded to point out that the first letters used by the early Britons were not those of Coelbren y Beirdd; neither were they those of the Ogamic inscriptions. As for the so-called Coelbren, the late Mr. Thomas Stevens of Merthyr had shown that its letters were never in use except possibly for a short period

when he came

at the time of Owain Glyndwr. As a matter of fact, its letters are nothing more than the capital letters of the Latin alphabet cut in straight lines. Neither were the first Welsh letters Ogamic. The Ogam inscription is of Irish origin, although it can now be shewn that its first inventor must beforehand have seen how the Brythons of Dyfed wrote and spelt their language. The alphabet first learnt by the early Britons was the Latin alphabet, with which some of the peculiarities of the Greek alphabet intermixed. They learnt it from the Gauls, who obtained it from the Romans, but who had previously learnt the characters of the Greek alphabet from the Greeks of Marseilles. Cæsar, Gaul, found Greek inscriptions on the Helvetian tablets, and the inscribed stones of the period still remain to support his testimony. After the Roman invasion of Britain the Greek peculiarities gradually disappeared from the Brythonic alphabet, which retained its Latin style until it was deposed under Norman influences. At this day the Brythonic mode is to be found in Anglo-Saxon literature, there being not so much as a manuscript written in the Brythonic style to be found in Welsh literature. It can, however, be proved that the scribes of the Red Book and others must have copied their tales from earlier MSS. in an earlier style of writing. Having called Welsh printers to account for their remissness in improving Welsh orthography, Prof. Rhys proceeded to call attention to the literature of the language. As has already been said, nothing remains of the literature of the Brythonic period. From the old Welsh period we have but a few imperfect tribannau and some words occurring here and there in Latin MSS. by way of explaining Latin words. But the remains of the subsequent

259

period prove that the Welsh had a literature prior to the coming of the Normans. This brings us to Middle Ages, where the writing changes completely, and where the materials are plentiful. To this period belong the Red Book of Hergest, which contains the Brutts and the Mabinogion, the Book of Taliesin and the Book of Aneurin, and the oldest and most valuable of the whole, viz., The Black Book of Carmarthen, These collections consist in part of translations from other languages, or a paraphrase from older MSS. Amongst the translations of the period are theological books of the Romish Church, notably the MS., in Jesus College, known as Llyfr yr Aner from Llanddewibrefi, written in 1346, which will shortly be issued by the Oxford University Press, under the editorship of Professor Rhys and Professor J. M. Jones of Bangor University College. To the same period belongs a considerable quantity of original work, principally poetry, and that of a quality of which any nation might be proud. To the following period belongs the Welsh versions of the Bible, theological works, and the newspaper.

BOOKS ON WELSH SUBJECTS IN THE ASTOR LIBRARY, NEW YORK.

BY REV. B. W. CHIDLAW, D.D., CLEVES, 0.

Men that accumulate large fortunes, and establish institutes for the benefit of mankind, are real benefactors of the race. Such was John Jacob Astor, the princely merchant of New York. The library he founded and endowed has a magnificent building, and 320,000 volumes on its shelves. Spending an afternoon in this great treasury of choice literature, and, as a Welshman, anxious to find books relating to Welsh archeology and literature, through the kind