that he can guide it as he likes. With regard to the Church--the
body of religion--it is fortunate, in times of calm, if it is
established, to keep the spirit of religion alive; it is fortunate,
in times of fervour, if it is free, in order that the new life may
give it a more perfect shape.

Now we must remember that there can be no calm without a little
indifference, and that there can be no enthusiasm without a little
intolerance. So men call each other fanatics and bigots and
hypocrites, because they have not taken the trouble to realise that
there is much variety in human character and in the workings of the
human mind. Perhaps it is also worth remembering that an institution
is not placed at the mercy of a reformer, but gradually changed.

The eighteenth century was a century of indifference in religion in
Wales, the nineteenth century was a century of enthusiasm. The
Church at the beginning of the eighteenth century, at any rate as far
as the higher clergy were concerned, was apathetic to religion, and
alive only to selfish interests. The Whig bishops were appointed for
political reasons; they hated the Tory principles of the Welsh
squires, and they neglected and despised the Welsh people they had
never tried to understand. In England, the Defoes and the Swifts of
literature were encouraged and utilised by the political parties; in
Wales, where clergymen were the only writers, the Whig bishops
distrusted them, and silenced them where they could, because they
wrote Welsh. The Church did not show more misapplication of revenue
than the State, perhaps; but, while the people could not leave the
State as a protest against corruption, they could leave the Church.
And, during the middle of the eighteenth century, a great national
awakening began.