Welsh Journals

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WALES. Vol. IV.] JANUARY 1897. [No. 33. A NEW PATH TPHE aim of this magazine ia to serve ■*■ the literary awakening which is spreading from the Welsh to the English speaking parts of Wales. Its sole object is not to be a medium of communication between Welshmen who take an interest in everything literary or Welsh. There are still many parts of our country in which the young men and the young women have not learnt to make books their com¬ panions. It is one of the chief aims of Wales to appeal to these,—to tempt them to read and to think, to bring them into contact with ideals, to teach them to observe, and to arouse in them a desire for serving their country and their fellow men. Wales, as before, will deal only with questions upon which we are all agreed. Most Welshmen and Welshwomen are fully alive to the importance of re¬ ligious questions, all are well informed concerning political matters ; and in these directions I have no wish to wander. With religious literature of the most thoughtful and elevating nature Wales is plentifully supplied ; with political liter- O.V ITS WAY TO THK DEE. ature that is, at least, full of energy, it is also well provided. I keep from these well-trodden paths entirely. Village life, bits of interesting history, men who are helping the development of intellectual and social life, stories of sacrifice and heroism among peasants,—my province will include anything that throws light on the every day life of Wales, and on attempts,— modest and humble many of them,—to make it better. I would be glad to help my country men to cultivate habits of minute observation; the garden, the forest, the birds, will claim attention. From this will follow, I hope, more neatness and greater beauty in our country vill¬ ages and cottage homes. It must be confessed that Welsh cottages, especially in the mountain districts, are squalid and comfortless to an extentthat poverty does not excuse. We have villages, it is true, that compare favourably, in point of white-washed neatness and profusion of window flowers, with the prettiest English villages. But there are others, and the mission of Wales will not have been in