Cylchgronau Cymru

VOLUME XV THE NUMBER III WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision thelpeople perish NOTES OF THE MONTH BEFORE these words appear the annual opening of the oratorical flood gates will have taken place in Wales and among Welshmen all over the world. Wales and all places where Welshmen dwell will have been flooded with rhetoric. No reasonable person can or will object even to the conventional celebration of our national Saint's day with all its extrava- gances once in a way. By all means on occasion let us boast in the market place of the heritage of our past. It still travels with us from afar And what we have been makes us what we are." There is, perhaps, no harm once in a way in sur- veying with some amount of pride our present achievements and in contemplating our future with very considerable optimism. But the spree should be a very short one and a very infrequent one-for rhetoric boastings and gorgeous imagin- ings are heady liquors and any over-indulgence in them leaves the victim with very little taste for anything else. The real business of life in Wales ac the moment is serious self-criticism and ardu- ous thought and analysis,-what "A.E." called "intellectual brooding." His words are worth quoting "The basest love will wreck everything, even the life of the beloved, to gratify ignoble de- sires. The highest love conspires with the imagin- ative reason to bring about every beautiful cir- cumstance around the beloved which will permit of the highest development of its life. There is no real love apart from this intellectual brooding. Men who love Ireland ignobly brawl about her in their cups, quarrel about her with their neighbour, allow no freedom of thought of her or service for her other than their own, take to the cudgel and the rifle and join sectarian orders or lodges to ensure that Ireland will be made in their own MARCH 1928 ignoble image. Those who love Ireland nobly de- sire for her the highest of human destinies. They would ransack the ages and accumulate wisdom to make their country's life as noble in men's eyes as any the world has known. The better minds in every race, eliminating passion and prejudice, by the exercise of the imaginative reason have re- vealed to their countrymen ideals which were im- plicit in national character. It is such discoveries we have yet to make about ourselves to unite us to fulfil our destiny." It is this gospel that Wales needs to-day and St. David is an eternal symbol of the unconquerable force of this intellectual brooding. The age of the Saint was also the age of mighty princes, but while the men of the sword and the cudgel failed the holy brooder conquered. It is not the name of Maelgwn that Welshmen and women remember on their national festival but that of the simple anchorite in the Vale of Roses. There are great forces at work in every depart- ment of our national life at this moment. In reli- gion, young men, and old men at their side, moved by a new vision of the people's needs and the hour's great opportunity are struggling for liberty of thought and expression. In literature, there is a new courage and a fresh spirit of adven- ture such as has not been witnessed in our nation- al life for many generations. In education there is a crusading spirit of tremendous portent. The last year alone saw the publication of the Report on Welsh in Education and Life-one of the most important State documents in connection with Wales ever published. It also saw the opening of Coleg Harlech, a magnificent effort to hand over to the future generations not only what the pres- ent owes to the efforts and sacrifices of the giants of the past but something more-a testimony to the fact that in our day the vision has not quite