with them, if he could have done so without endangering that perspicuity, which he was particularly anxious to cultivate. And this solicitude was naturally increased by his consciousness of the general ignorance or misinformation, already adverted to, on subjects connected with Wales. In conclusion, it only remains for the author to advert to a departure from the common orthography of the Welsh language as received at the present day, that has been adopted in this volume. Allusion is here made to the substitution of v for F, and, except in the case of proper names, of F for FF; which, however, can only be regarded as an attempt to emancipate the letters in question from the abuses to which they have been too long exposed, and thus to restore them to their primitive rights. That this attempt, when opposed to the inveteracy of habit and the influence of authority, will prove abortive, there is too much reason to apprehend. Yet, it may be hoped, that what the example of a humble individual may fail to effect, will, at no distant day, be accomplished by the united efforts of the more enlightened natives of Wales, and especially in a case where the existing corruption has never been defended on any rational grounds. THE CAMBRIAN PLUTARCH. ARTHUR. To rescue truth from the embraces of fiction, and to erect on the ruins of fable the fair edifice of genuine history, must be, at all times, a work of no little hazard. And the task acquires a peculiar difficulty, when it concerns those legendary productions, in which our infancy has been wont to delight, and which are accordingly associated with our earliest prepossessions. The visions of childhood are not easily dissipated; for, whatever may be the influence of a maturer experience, it is not without reluctance that the mind emancipates itself from the spell of its former illusions. Where the genius of Romance has spread around her gorgeous creation, we love to linger near the visionary scenewe hold enraptured converse with all its fantastic population, and, when, at length, the charm is dissolved, we are loath to acknowledge those beings as merely human, whom we have been accustomed to regard as little less than divine. There can be no case more strongly illustrative of the justice of these observations than the history of the renowned Arthur; enveloped, as it has been, in the splendid disguises of chivalry, and in the extravagant decorations of romantic or mythological lore. To strip our hero of these delusive ornaments, and to present him to the world in his B |
