...which the selection following was arranged by the Rev. JM Neale, DD It is one of the seven great hymns. Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Ecce...donet, Auferat aspera duraque pondera mentis onustae, 5 Sobria muniat, improba puniat, utraque iuste. H,e BREVE vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur...

...retribuetur. () retributio ! slat brevis actio vita pcrennis ; 0 retributio ! coelica mansio stat lue plenis. Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus ! Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus." Here is one way in which this last couplet has been done into English by some aspirant for fame: "...

...the long reverberation of " Locksley Hall," and perhaps of those billowy lines of Bernard's : — " Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus! Ecce, minaciter imminet arbiter, ille supremus." But how memorably are the messages of the old singer and of the new turned against the very present...

..." Contemptu Mundi " begins with these two lines, in a hexameter impossible to copy in translation: Hora novissima; tempora pessima sunt; Vigilemus! Ecce minaciter imminet Arbiter, Ille Supremus! Tis the last hour; the times are at their worst; Watch; lo the Judge Supreme stands threat'ning nigh!...

...and yet had every alternate line also end in a rhyme. To appreciate the difficulty this must be read. Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus, Ecce...coronet, Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet, • 206 GREATEST OF CENTURIES. Auferat aspera duraque pondera mentis onustae, Sobria muniat, improba...

...each pair of lines rimes and the first third of each line rimes with the second, thus (lines 1-2): " Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus." As to contents the poem is a satirical arraignment of the twelfth century for its vices in Church and...

...hexameters, so prodigal in assonances and rhymes of every kind. Certainly the world had a new music in "Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus. Prominet, imminet ut mala terminet, de qua coronet, Recta remuneret, anxia libere, aethera donet, Auferet...

...Novissimis," each divided into three lines; and opposite he puts his translation into German meter, thus: Hora novissima Tempora pessima Sunt vigilemus! Ecce...minaciter Imminet arbiter Ille supremus; Imminet, imminet Recta remuneret, Anxia liberet, Aethera donet. Auferat aspera, Duraque pondera Mentis onustae; Sobria...

...twelfth-century poem of Bernard MorUnensis, a monk of Cluny, beginning with the famous lines : ' ' Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus." Bernarcli Morlanensis, !)* contemptu mundi, ed. by Thus. Wright, Master of the Rolls Series, vol. 59...

...and furnishes the most remarkable examples of both internal- and end-rhyme extant. DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus Ecce...minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus. Imminet, imminet et mala terminet, aequa coronet, Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet, Auferat aspera duraque...