South Wales. The chief actors concerned believed, and not without reason, that they were engaged in a work no less momentous than the regeneration of the principality; and their earnestness, as might have been expected, made an indelible impression on the open mind of young Richard, whose earliest memories are of fervent "revivals," "seasons of refreshing," &c.
From the doctrines imbibed in his childhood he has never appreciably departed; yet the tenacity with which he sticks to his creed is not to be confounded with bigotry. In the sphere of civil action there is not in all England a more enlightened advocate of the broadest freedom. His human sympathies are as generous and keen as they were fifty years ago. In his case there has been none of that—
"Hardening of the heart that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth,"
such as, I am bound to say, it has been mine to observe in but too many victims of early Calvinistic training.
But it must not be supposed that his education was altogether of a religious complexion. At an early age he was sent to Llangeltho Grammar School, and subsequently, when eighteen, he became a student of the Highbury Independent College, London, the Calvinistic Methodists having then no theological school of their own. At both places the instruction was sound so far as it went; and Richard, as was to be expected from a youth of his conscientious disposition, did not fail fully to avail himself of his opportunities. At the close of his theological curriculum he joined the Independent Communion, and became minister of Marlborough Chapel, Old Kent Road. The congregation was mori-
