I happened to come upon business to this place; and being so near you, and having an hour’s leisure, I could not help sending this to remind you that there is such a one alive, who wishes you well, and who is really glad you have got into such a worthy family. I hope that you will make the best use of your time; you will not be able to see how precious it is till most part of it is gone. This world (or this age) is so full of people that take no time to think at all, that a young fellow is in the greatest danger as can be to launch out among them. The terrestrial part of men being predominant, is as apt as a monkey to imitate everything that is bad. So that the little good which is to be done, must be done in spite of nature.

I expected a line from you upon your being settled, and that you had time to look about you; and when you have leisure, I shall be glad to hear of your doing well. I make no doubt but you will follow your British studies, as well as other languages: for I suppose it will hardly leave you, whether you will or no. Therefore to whet your parts, and in order to improve yourself that way, I propose to you a correspondent, a friend of mine, an Anglesea man; who will be glad of your acquaintance, and I daresay you of his; especially when you have seen some of his performances. His name is Gronw Owen; and you may direct to him at Donnington, near Salop; he keeps a school there, and is curate of a place hard by. He is but lately commenced a Welsh poet; and the first ode he ever wrote, was an imitation of your ode on melancholy. His Cowydd y Farn is the best thing I ever read in Welsh. You will be more surprised with his language and poetry than with anything you ever saw. His ode is styled The Wish, or Gofuned Gronw Ddu o Fon; and is certainly equal, if not superior, to anything I ever read of the ancients.

I have shared the dominion of poetry in Wales among you. He shall have the north, and you the south. But he has more subjects, a hundred to one, than you have, unless Glamorgan affords some.

Mr. Gronw Owen has been for some years laying a foundation for a Welsh rational Grammar, not upon the Latin and Greek plan, but upon the plan that the language will bear. It would be unreasonable to expect an old archbishop to dance a jig and rigadoon with boys and girls; it is certain that the Greek and Latin are such when compared with the Celtic. He has desired of me to bring you acquainted together; and here I do it, unless it is your own faults. He does not know how to write to you, nor I neither; but direct this at a venture.

I am,
Your assured friend,
And servant,
Lewis Morris.

Llandeilo Vawr, April 23, 1752.

The same to the same.

Dear Sir,

My brother gave me yours of the third, with an excellent ode to the King of Prussia. The faults in it I take to be owing to your careless writing of it; for they are such as cannot be from want of knowledge, as the ode itself shows. However, as you desire my corrections (which seems to be a sort of menial office, like a plaisterer, who daubs mortar on a grand piece of building, designed by a great architect) I give you my labour for nothing, and choose whether you follow my opinion or no; for I am no oracle. In my last alterations, in Cowydd Teifi, your line—

Dy lif y loywaf afon—