dedication to the 2nd edition to "Drych y Prif Oesoedd."
There is no record, however, of his having received an University education. If such had been the case, he would probably be at the University in 1715, but we find him at Penywenallt on the 13th of May in that year, writing his introduction to "Cydwybod y Cyfaill" (v. below).
There is moreover no record at Oxford of his ever being there.
We must not conclude from this that his parents were in straitened circumstances. The importance of University education was little recognised in Wales at that time.
The great educational revival which took such a firm hold upon Western Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries had scarcely manifested itself in Wales beyond the establishment of a few Grammar Schools. At the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, we find the bulk of the Welsh-speaking people of Wales profoundly ignorant of even the rudiments of learning. Not many could read, and fewer could write. Moreover, the stipends of the clergy at this time were so miserably small that the bishops were content to ordain candidates of the very scantiest scholastic attainments.
In 1715, Theophilus Evans published what seems to have been his first book:
"Cydwybod y Cyfaill gorau ar y Ddaear. . . In Saesoneg gan Henry Stubbs, wedi ei gyfieithu gan Theophilus Evans. Amwythig, Argraphwyd gan John Rogers, tros Theophilus Evans a Siôn Rhisiart. 1715."
This book, in 62 pages 12mo., is a translation of three sermons by Henry Stubbs. In the
