Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/39

 coming to the room to—night, I would venture to say a word or two as to the feeling of joy with which we look upon the career and the great promise of a still greater career of our countryman, Mr. Goscombe John; and, at any rate, one can, in the absence of Sir Edward Burne-Jones, express the pride which every Welshman and Welshwoman must feel that it has been left to one of Welsh blood, and who is proud of his Welsh blood and lineage, to bring forth new powers and show forth new secrets in art, in the person of Sir Edward Burne- Jones. Who can measure the wealth of the thought and reading and fine literary discrimination which is signified by the command possessed by Burne-Jones over the entire range of Northern and Celtic and Greek mythology, or the tenderness and largeness of sympathy which have enabled him to harmonise these with the loveliest traditions of the Christian faith?

Before I touch upon my actual subject, I ought to refer to one other point. That is the change which has come over Wales in one respect during the last thirty or forty years