se after 1830._--In the preceding periods, we have seen that
Welsh prose, though abundant in quantity, had a very narrow range. Few
writers rose above theological controversy or moral treatises, and the
humaner side of literature was almost entirely neglected. In this
period, however, we find a prose literature that, with the exception of
scientific works, is as wide in its range as that of England, and all
departments are well and competently represented, though by but few
names. Dr Lewis Edwards (1809-1887) struck a new note when he began to
contribute his literary and theological essays to the periodicals, but,
though many have equalled and even surpassed him as theological
essayists, few, if any, of his followers have attempted the literary and
critical essays on which his fame as writer must mainly rest. Together
with Gwilym Hiraethog (1802-1883), the author of the inimitable
_Llythyrau Hen Ffarmwr_, he may be regarded as the pioneer of the new
literature. Samuel Roberts (1800-1885), generally known as S.R., wrote
numerous tracts and books on politics and economics, and as a political
thinker he was in many respects far in advance of his English
contemporaries. It was in this period, too, that Wales had her national
novelist, Daniel Owen (1836-1895). He was a novelist of the Dickens
school, and delighted like his great master "in writing mythology rather
than fiction." He has created a new literary atmosphere, in which the
characters of Puritanical and plebeian Wales move freely and without
restraint. He can never be eclipsed just as Sir Walter Scott cannot be
eclipsed, because the Wales which he describes is slowly passing away.
He has many worthy disciples, among whom Miss Winnie Parry is easily
first. Indeed, in her finer taste and greater firmness of touch, she
stands on a higher plane than even her great master. The inspiring
genius of the latter part of this period is Owen M. Edwards (b. 1858),
and, as a stylist, all writers of Welsh prose since Ellis Wynn have to
concede him the laurel. His little books of travel and history and
anecdote have created, or rather, are creating a new school of writers,
scrupulously and almost pedantically careful and correct, an ideal
which, on its philological side is the outcome of the scientific study
of the language as inaugurated by Sir John Rhys and Professor Morris
Jones. One of the earliest, if not the ablest writer of this "new Welsh"
was the independent and original Emr