"I am fond of
all knowledge," he said--"of Reuben, Dan, and Issachar; but I
have a favourite, a Benjamin, and that is Astronomy. I would
sell all of them into Egypt, but preserve my Benjamin." His
story is briefly as follows:--
"I was born at Bryngwyn Bach, Anglesey, in 1818, and I am
sixty-five years old. I got the little education I have, when a
boy. Owen Owen, who was a cousin of my mother's, kept a school
at a chapel in the village of Dwyrain, in Anglesey. It was said
of Owen that he never had more than a quarter of a year's
schooling, so that he could not teach me much. I went to his
school at seven, and remained with him about a year. Then he
left; and some time afterwards I went for a short period to an
old preacher's school, at Brynsieneyn chapel. There I learnt but
little, the teacher being negligent. He allowed the children to
play together too much, and he punished them for slight offences,
making them obstinate and disheartened. But I remember his once
saying to the other children, that I ran through my little lesson
'like a coach.' However, when I was about twelve years old, my
father died, and in losing him I lost almost all the little I had
learnt during the short periods I had been at school. Then I
went to work for the farmers.
"In this state of ignorance I remained for years, until the time
came when on Sunday I used to saddle the old black mare for
Cadwalladr Williams, the Calvinist Methodist preacher, at Pen
Ceint, Anglesey; and after he had ridden away, I used to hide in
his library during the sermon, and there I learnt a little that I
shall not soon forget.
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