order to illustrate, first, the perfect metrical symmetry of the stanzas (in which the first, third and fourth lines are exactly the same from a metrical standpoint) and, secondly, the frequent rhymes occurring, like those of the Easter sequence, Victimae Paschali, in a somewhat haphazard way, yet plainly not without the knowledge, and doubtless the approval, of the composer. The perfect metrical symmetry seems to have escaped the notice of Daniel, who (Thesaurus, III, p. 293) prints the first line of the 3rd stanza ("Propitiare pius peccata "), of the 4th ("Angelus aetheriis sanctus") and of the 5th ("Haec medicina potens coeli ") with a superfluous word which should have begun the second line in each instance, and in the first two instances hides the rhymic effect— pius and benignus, aetheriis and astris.

Another obvious and interesting feature of the hymn is its responsorial character. The refrain:

Laudes, Omnipotens,

Ferimus tibi, dona colentes
Corporis immensi

Sanguinis atque tui

is placed at the head of the hymn, and is repeated in full, or in part, in alternate fashion after the stanzas of the hymn. It thus imitates exactly the Invitatory at Matins in the Divine Office, in which the refrain (e. g. "Regem Confessorum Dominum . . . Venite Adoremus") is repeated in whole or in part alternately after the verses of the Psalm (94), Venite exsultemus etc. The Latin text, with English prose version, is given in Guéranger's Liturgical Year (Time After Pentecost, Vol. I, pages 434-5).

Ad Regias Agni Dapes.

The hymn is Eucharistic in character, although assigned to the Eastertide offices (from Vespers of Low Sunday onward). It is a revision, in the interest of classical prosody, of an older hymn, whose first two stanzas will serve to illustrate the difficulties met by the "Correctors of the Breviary" under Pope Urban VIII:

Ad coenam Agni providi
Et stolis albis candidi,
Post transitum maris rubri
Christo canamus principi.

Cujus corpus sanctissimum
In ara crucis torridum,
Cruore ejus roseo

Gustando vivimus Deo.

The revision excludes rhyme, and alters at times both the thought and the figurative allusiveness of the older hymn with what success is still a moot-point with hymnologists. The Rev. Dr. Thompson (a Presbyterian), the editor of Duffield's Latin Hymn-Writers and Their Hymns, has this to say: "Now it is impossible to deny to the revised version merits of its own. Not only does it use the Latin words which classic usage requires-as dapes in poetry for coena, recepta for reddita, inferis for baratro-but it brings into clearer view the facts of the Old Testament story which the hymn treats as typical of the Christian passover. The (imperfect) rhyme of the original is everywhere sacrificed to the demands of metre, which probably is no loss. But the gain is not in simplicity, vigor and freshness. In these the old hymn is much superior. The last verse but one, for instance,

(Cum surgit Christus tumulo,

Victor redit de baratro,

Tyranno trudens vinculo

Et reserans Paradisum.)

presents in the old hymn a distinct and living picture— the picture which Luther tells us he delighted in when a boy chorister singing the Easter songs of the Church. But in the recast the vividness is blurred, and classic reminiscence takes the place of the simple and direct speech the early Church made for itself out of the Latin tongue".

While dapes may be more poetical than coena, it is less Scriptural; and coena is forever consecrated to the Supper of the Lord: "Homo quidem fecit coenam magnam (Luc. xiv. 16); "Convenientibus vobis in unum, jam non est dominicam coenam manducare " (I Cor. xi. 20); "Beati qui ad coenam nuptiarum Agni vocati sunt" (Apoc. xix. 9). Obviously, the fine flavor of the allusion is dissipated in the frigid classicism of dapes. Abbé Pimont's surprise and chagrin might well be echoed by all lovers of the old hymns: "Comment a-t-on pu se resigner à éliminer ce mot?" Again, the word providi is not found, nor is any equivalent expression given, in the revision; and the warning of St. Paul has ceased to ring in the verse of the hymn: But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice" (I Cor. xi. 28). Apropos, Dr. Neale had rendered the first line of the old hymn: "The Lamb's high banquet we await ", but in most reproductions of his version the line is altered “I suppose", comments Neale, "from the editors either not seeing or not believing that the adjective (providi) applies to ourselves, not to the Lamb".

A glance at the second line of the older hymn will show how the allusiveness of albis has also been lost:

Ad coenam Agni providi

Et stolis albis candidi.

The neophytes of the early Church were baptized on Holy Saturday, and wore their robes of white for one week, until Dominica in albis depositis or, as it is now shortly called, Dominica in albis (Low Sunday). The "Stolis amicti candidis" of the revision is not quite so suggestive of the ancient custom of the chrisom-robe, and might be taken metaphorically to represent merely the purity with which we should approach the Holy Table.

The sentiment of the antiquarian lover of the medieval hymns should not prevent him from recognizing the fact that a good change was wrought by the revisers in the figure of the second stanza:

Cujus corpus sanctissimum

In ara crucis torridum

for although, according to tradition, the Israelites celebrated their Pasch by eating the roasted flesh of a lamb, the figure presented to our contemplation by the " corpus torridum" of Christ is an unpleasant one. And so Daniel, not friendly to the efforts of the revisers of Urban VIII, still agrees thoroughly with them in the change into

Almique membra corporis

Amor sacerdos immolat.

"Everybody will admit", he says, "how inept and provocative rather of disgust than of devotion", is the

figure of the "roasted body" of our Lord; and he thinks it wonderful that the Lutheran poets, and even Luther himself, should have perpetuated a figure that should only excite loathing. In the Catholic Primer of 1604, the translator avoids the figure contained in torridum, and renders the word by "in torture":

Whose corpse most holy did remain

In torture on the cross distrest.

This old English version is on the whole faithful, but not very careful to avoid crudenesses in metre and phrase. It contains an over-abundance of such metrical shifts as the auxiliary verbs did, doth, hath, which are too evidently introduced to eke out the metre or to provide a rhyme.

Ave Vivens Hostia.

The original Latin (found in the Echo Hymnodie of 1657) was sent to the translator by the Very Rev. E. Poirier, S.S.S., with a request that it be translated into English verse of equal rhythms, in order that it might be sung by choirboys and men. The English version, with musical setting for Soprano, I and II Tenor and Bass, appeared in Emmanuel for May, 1911, and also in separate form (with the Latin text furnished in column form).

Praise the Blessed Sacrament.

The French hymn was composed for the celebration. of the twenty-fifth anniversary (1882) of the foundation of the Institute of Perpetual Adoration. The