"The three foundations of genius—the gift of God, man's exertion, and the events of life.
" The three primary requisites of getthis—an eye that Can see nature, a heart that can feel nature, and boldness that dares follow nature.
"The three supports of gehiu.a—strong mental endowlitent, memory, and learning.
"The three supports of genius—prosperity, social acquaintance, and prai se.
" The three foundations of judgment—bold design, frequent practice; and frequent mistakes.
" The three fountains of knowledge—invention, study, and experience. "The three indMpensables of language—purity, copionsneas, and aptness." Other Triads are of it less general and more patriotic kind :— " There are three things for which a Cymru should be willing to die—his country, Ina good name, and the truth, wherever it be.
"There are three things highly disgraceful to a Cymro—to look with one eye, to listen with one ear, and tn defend with one hand.
" Three persons it especially behoves a Cyuiro to choose from his own country his king, his wife, and his friend.
" Three things a Cyinro ought to love beyond everything—the nation of the Cymry, the manners and customs of the Cymry, and the language of the Cymry." The Triads are of all ages. There are Instances of the throwing of Ideas into threes in some of the poems of Llywarch Hen, and it is pro bable that sotne of the Triads of Proverbs attributed to St. Cadog are as ancient as anything in the language. But the oldest record of them is, we believe, in the Red Book of Hergest, supposed to be of the date of 1370, and the greater part are only extant In transcripts and books of miaeellatiles of the 16th and 17th centuries. They are peculiarly a class of composition to which any ingenious transcriber would be tempted to add something of his own. But with regard to the Triode,' which stand only on their merits, and of which some are as pointless as those we have quoted are pointed, the fact of their anti quity is of much less interest than with regard to the ' Historical Triads,' which form part of the class. The math Value of these, of course, depends on their authenticity.
"The Historical Triads,'" says the Rev. T. Pidee, author of the History of Wales, "are extremely perplexing, to the historian, as it is difficult to decide whether they are to be considered as authentic records, or merely as Ingenious fabrications. The collection in which they were found was made by Thomas Jones, of Tregaronrabout the close of the 16th century, a tithe When the Trojan origin of the Britons bad scarcely been called in question, sod yet the Triads gave a totally different and more rational account of the colonisation of Britain. The character of this Jones as an antiquary and genealogist scarcely admits a suspicion of forgery on his part ; and the statement of Jones, respecting his being merely a transcriber, is also supported by certain indications of their being positively corrupted when he found thetn." The character of Jones Was, however, one that was peculiarly liable to suspicion, if not to Something worse. Mr. Thomas Jones of Tregaron was, according to Williams in his ' Lives of Emi nent Welshmen,' an eminent robber on the highWay, Who later in life reformed, married a rich heiress, and became an exemplary justice of the peace for the county of Brecon. Ilia life seems to have
resembled that of his countrymao, Sir Henry Morgan, the fatuous buccaneer, who closed his career in the reign of Charles 11. as governor of Jamaica. Dr. Bhp, the Welsh lexicographer, pays it compliment to Jones In the preface to his dictionary as an eminent antiquarian and genealogist; but what his humbler neighbours thought of him tnay be inferred from the fact that his name still survives in popular tra dition as that of a bandit and a conjurer. Mr. Thomas Jones of Tregaron is, in fact, no other than Twin Sion Catti, or Tom Jones Catty, who has been often denominated In recent times the Welsh Rob Roy." The statements of the Historical Triads' are the sole authority for much that has found its way into the works of recent writers on Wales, as if it were of the most unquestioned truth. According to these statements, Hu Gadarn, or Hu the Mighty, an ancient patriarch of the Cymry, was the first who brought the nation to the shores of Britain from a country called the Summer Land, and over a sea called the Hely Sea. The Summer Landis decided by some to have been Constantinople, and by others the Crimea. In a epeeeli by the Rev. It. W. Morgan at the Eiateddvod of Llangollen, in 1858, on presenting to the meeting a Corporal of the Welsh Fusiliers, who had served in the Crimean war, the orator remarked, " Very singular and instructive is the that to the Crimea, whence our forefathers first under Hn. Gadarn emigrated and colonised Britain, their children should from their British home return, a living nation and an im perishable tongue, to combat the gigantic.oppreasor of the North on his own moll, and to My their ashes by the side of the tumuli of their ancestors." In short, there are modern Welsh scholars who believe in 1111 Oadarn quite as firmly as their forefathers did in Brutus; The statements of the Triads tire, It is evident, directly at Issue with those of Geoffrey of Monmouth,and if they were really in being during the centuries that elapsed between the reign of Henry l., which is the time of Geoffrey, and the reign of Jaines I., which is the time of Twin Sian Catty, it seems hard to imagine why all Welsh antiquaries, heralds, and genealogists should have preserved so deep a silence on the subject. If, on the other hand, We suppose that Thomas Jones of Ttegaton was it person of the same turn of mind as Thomas Chatterton of Brimitb1,—that he bad a lively imagination, and a strong desire to impose the fruits of that imagination upon others far fact; if we suppose that a than of his far from strait-laced character was one of those " fib-mongers " who are denounCed by Edward Williams as so abundant in Welsh literature, the mystery is at once explained. To support the authotity of the Triads, however, a stew authority has in the course of the last seventy years been brought forward iu the shape of "Bat-die Tradition," to which, however, It will be unnecessary to advert, till the fourth stage in the history of Welsh literature is reached.