have their poetical literature characterized by rhythmical and accentual versification and by rhyme, and that the metres of Virgil and Horace and Catullus have given place to rhyme and accent, even in the Italian peninsula. Of some of these hymns (some, indeed, which have been better translated by others) I have made more than one translation. Without assigning any satisfactory reason why I should thus be willing to come into comparison with others of established reputation, I may say that the reason which would induce me to make one translation might well induce me to make several different tastes being gratified by various forms of presenting the same thoughts. As to the translations of the Dies Iræ, I will also say that the second in order was published many years ago, before the thought of using English double rhyme for so serious a purpose, had entered my mind. The third was afterwards written in double rhyme, and, finally, the other was the result of an attempt to use nothing but the Gothic-English language, discarding entirely the use of Latin derivatives. This one being more agreeable to my taste, I have given it the first place.

All these early Latin hymns were written before the invention of printing, and copies were often taken down from memory or learned from oral tradition, which, doubtless, furnishes the reason why, sometimes, one or more stanzas are omitted in some copies, and why the arrange

ment of the stanzas differs, in different copies of the same hymn. I have followed what seemed to me the best authority for the text, and I have not hesitated to adopt the arrangement of the stanzas which seemed to me the most forcible and beautiful. In like manner I have also substituted a word and changed the arrangement of words in a line, where the rhythm so plainly demanded it as to compel the belief that such was the author's arrange

ment.

I have preceded most of the hymns with a brief sketch of the supposed author, or a sort of argument of the hymn, or brief commentary upon it. I am, however, far from believing that the authorship of them is thus attributed on sufficient evidence in all cases. There is hardly one that has not been attributed, with equal confidence, to more than one author, and there are few of them whose authorship can be considered as settled, on evidence.

A word more as to the thread by which these hymns are here connected-so slight that, perhaps, it might not be perceived, unless it were pointed out. The Christian faith, life, and hope, founded upon the being and attributes of God; the birth, teachings, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension, and commemoration of our Lord, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, are exhibited in the order which I have adopted, while the doctrines of faith and grace, and the spirit of devotion, animate the whole.

The careful and learned remarks of the Rev. Dr. Williams in his "Miscellanies," p. 72, of Dr. Coles in his "Dies Iræ," of Dr. Schaff in his "New Stabat Mater," of Dr. Neale in his "Medieval Hymns," and, above all, the Preface, Introduction, and notes of Archbishop Trench in his "Sacred Latin Poetry," are worthy of careful study by all who desire to be informed on the subject of Latin hymnology. I have read them with the greatest interest, and have borrowed much from them, as well in this preface as elsewhere, for which I desire to make this acknowledgment, because I have almost always neglected to do so in the text of my remarks.

TABLE OF HYMNS.

Alpha et 2, magne Deus

Astant angelorum chori -

Apparebit repentina dies magna

Cur mundus militat

INDEX.