will at once paralyse the devotional power of a hymn. Want of earnestness is also a fatal defect, resulting in most instances from the attempt of the writer to describe what he has only imagined, not felt, in the way of spiritual experience. "I will thank Thee with an unfeigned heart, when I shall have learned the Judgements of Thy Righteousness."* An assumed character is never more out of place than in writing a hymn. "Affecta

tion or visible artifice is worse than excess of homeliness: a hymn is easily spoiled by a single falsetto note." +

Beyond such general truths as these, it is impossible to lay down any absolute laws, or to adopt any exact definition, as a test to which all hymns must needs conform. It may be granted (1) that the majority of good hymns are "Songs of praise to GOD." There is no doubt (2) that the alteration of hymns, and especially of those originally written in English, is, in itself, an evil. Perhaps also (3) the voice of united praise speaks more naturally in the plural number than in the singular. But such canons are wrongly applied if they are permitted to dictate the exclusion of any one really good hymn. Take for instance the definition of a hymn as a song of praise. This will exclude more than half the hymns here appointed for Lent, and at least one third of the General Hymns. Nor are all the best hymns directly addressed to GOD. Many are narrative,§ others set forth the joys of heaven in descriptive terms, || or, like the Benedicite among the Canticles, consist of invitations to praise. T

I do not like to attempt to give instances of hymns improved by alteration. In most of the cases in which I have inserted the original of English

* Psalm cxix. 7.

§ e. g. 44, 61, 62.

Sir R. Palmer. e. g. 142, 180.

+ S. Augustine.

Te. g. 145, 198, 224.

hymns, it has been because, either to myself or to some one whose opinion might possess more weight, there have seemed to be beauties in that original, not fully reproduced in the altered version. Hymns so entirely recast as 61 or 155 would scarcely be fair examples of improved originals. But Hymns 164 and 166 may be referred to, and the following may be compared with Hymn 105:

I do not seek to justify all the alterations of originals which may be found in this book. I admit that the responsibility of altering the work of another is one of the heaviest that the compilers of a hymnal have to bear. But I do earnestly contend that the privilege of making alterations in accordance with their judgment ought in fairness to be conceded to them. That it is a most dangerous privilege no one will deny, who has studied the alterations (made in many instances by the revered author of the "Christian Year") of the hymns in the "Salisbury Hymn-book."*

:

There can be no absolute rules to include every instance in which alteration is justifiable, but it may fairly be applied to remedy faults of expression or of rhyme it is necessary where doctrine is erroneous, ambiguous, or too dogmatically asserted. To take an instance from a well-known hymn, who is there among the believers in a literal Millennium, that would desire to restore in the first verset of Hymn 39 the positive statement of so controverted a doctrine? To the other rules which have been quoted, it may be a sufficient objection that they are violated by three of the most popular hymns in this book, ‡ hymns which are neither plural in their language, nor addressed as praise to GOD.

The general outline and plan of a good hymn-book remain to be considered. It can scarcely be the compilation, it can never be the composition of an individual. It must follow, in its arrangement, the fasts and festivals of our Church. It must be truly Catholic in spirit, embracing impartially things new and old, translations of the hymns of all Churches, Eastern, Western, and German, together with at least as large a number of

'Many of these hymns will be found with the original text restored in the enlarged and revised edition."-Lord Nelson.

+ Compare the last line of the original (given in the margin) with the altered version. Hymns 1, 101, 142 (Parts II. & III).

P. 16, line 15, for "At," read "Ast.”

P. 16, at end of lines 19 and 25 in Latin, insert a comma.

P. 22, after lines 4 and 8 of the Latin, insert a colon instead of a full stop.

P. 22, in line 21 of Latin, for "sanctorum," read "sacrorum."

P. 35, end of Hymn 31, insert (Saturdays in Advent, at Vespers.)

P. 45. For author's name at end of Hymn 39, read

"CHARLES WESLEY, 1758, in Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind.' "(Martin Madan [1760] composed a cento from the above and another Fudgment Hymn by John Cennick, 1752.)"

Hymn 66. The alterations in the last lines of verses 2 and 4 were suggested by Rev. F. Keble.

Hymn 84, insert at the end of line 1 of Latin.

Hymn 93, end of verse 5, insert a note of "One verse omitted."

P. 125, insert a comma at the end of line 7 of the Latin.

Hymn 105. The alterations are from the "Hymnal for the use of the English Church," pub. by Mozley.

P. 130. The translation of Hymn 106 is from the authorized Scotch Hymnal.

P. 138, at end of Hymn 111, for "Hymn of 7th Century," read "S. AMBROSE."

P. 178. The last verse of the original of Hymn 143 is taken from Mone, vol. i., p. 67, and should run thus:

DEO PATRI sit gloria

Per infinita saecula,

Cujus Amore nimio

Salvi sumus in FILIO.

P. 194. The recast version given in Hymn 155 of John Mason's hymn is taken from the "Salisbury Hymn-book."

P. 196, note t, add at the end, "but is taken from the Breviaries."

Hymn 196, ver. 3, for "lose" read "loose." (The former is Dr. Watts's original, and given in most of the earlier editions of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," but has been intentionally altered in later copies.)