rity in this case (whatever be its value) is but permissive. In the rubric there is of course no countenance for the practice. A clergyman may therefore exercise his own judgment in the matter, whether, or to what extent, he will use these versions of Psalms; but if metrical versions are used at all, (though, we confess, we are not among those who desire their continuance in our churches,) the Old and New Versions seem to possess claims upon churchmen which no other compositions in present use have; and we know not how it may be with other persons, but, for ourselves, we still prefer portions of them to any similar compositions we have ever met with. The last, and perhaps the best of them, Mr. Keble's, appears to us to labour under insuperable objections. To say nothing of the frequent divisions of the sense in the middle of a line, and (what appears to plain people) affected poetical language, he has made arbitrary divisions of the Psalms, and precluded those who may use his version from making any other division, or from making their own selection of verses, by translating different portions of the same Psalm in different metres; and that alone is a complete bar to its general adoption. Still it must be confessed that individual psalms, and portions of psalms, have been translated, both by him and by other persons, with a flow of poetical feeling, a force of expression, and smoothness of rhythm, which leaves nothing to desire in such compositions.

The metrical Psalms are now made to occupy a place in our service which was never contemplated in the ancient ritual. They come "before and after morning and evening prayer, and before and after sermons;" i. e. they form (properly speaking) no part of the public devotion, but either introduce it and prepare for it,

tised. In cathedrals it has been made an exhibition by a few practised singers; in parochial churches it has been almost wholly unknown, owing to the substitution of metrical versions, and a kind of feeling, at the same time, that the chanting of the prose Psalter is attended with much greater difficulty. The notion that chanting is difficuit, has no foundation, however, in fact. Of course, time is required to accustom our people to what has been so long in abeyance; still they may be taught; and as contrasted with metrical psalmody, let a whole congregation but join with heart and voice, and it will be found that chanting is infinitely the more devotional and impressive of the two kinds of worship, while, again, the spirit of the Psalms, as we must never forget, is much more effectually preserved. On this head, it is hardly possible to add anything to the force of Hooker's glowing language in that never-to-be-forgotten passage of his 5th Book, ch. xxxviii.-ix.

Mr. Keble has an unfortunate passage in the preface to his Metrical Psalter, which we hope in a future edition to see expunged. "The custom," he says, "of singing the psalms rather than chanting them, has prevailed among us so long, and so universally, that there is small hope at present of changing it; and, as long as it lasts, and is sanctioned by authority, such efforts as the present are admissible." But if the chanting of the Psalter be the true, ancient, and really authorized congregational psalmody, which Mr. Keble surely would admit, then let us neither discourage nor look doubtfully upon its revival; and let us beware lest, by multiplying metrical versions, and metrical tunes, we only hold out temptations to the prolongation of an uncatholic custom. We do not so act in our attempts to revive other ancient practices of the Church.

or fill up the interval between one service and another-for instance, between morning prayer and the communion service. After sermons they are not commonly used; and before morning and evening prayer their use is less frequent than it was. There is another portion of the service in which custom has introduced the Psalms in some college chapels, cathedrals, and parish churches, i. e. after the third collect of morning and evening prayer. Here, of course, they come in place of the anthem; and, as it is intended by the Church that there should be singing at this part of the service, it seems proper enough that metrical portions of the Psalms should be used in cases where the anthem, in its usual form, cannot, for want of a competent choir, be performed.*

We now come to hymns. We have said, that the ancient Latin hymns were thrown away (not perhaps intentionally) at the Reformation. As the mass of the people did not understand them, and as the most popular were superstitious, it might at first be imagined that the Church sustained no great loss; but this requires reconsideration. Let it be remembered, that the greater portion of these hymns were not only free from all taint of superstition, but thoroughly sound and scriptural in tone and matter; that there was a warm vein of devotion running through most of them; that they were arranged upon a system, three for each day in the week, two or three each for all the great days or seasons of the Church, and others again suited for various specified occasions; that in this system there was a strict application of the thoughts to the time for which the hymn was appointed; that they were throughout christian and evangelical, embodying all the great doctrines and practical principles of the Gospel; and so in this respect distinguished from the Psalms,† that all who understood Latin, i. e. a con

The only restriction placed upon anthems by authority is," that they be taken out of the word of God." And as being translations of parts of Holy Scripture, (though not in the authorized prose versions,) the metrical Psalms, especially the Old Version, from its acknowledged faithfulness, may be allowable. It is well known that metrical anthems were in use before as well as at the Reformation; and several ancient compositions of this kind are still extant in our cathedral books; and, of course, the occasional use of detached passages in this way has not the objectionable effect of superseding the ordinary chanting.

+ We are desirous of strengthening our own views in some respects, and of supplying some remarks on the distinct uses and characteristics of Psalms and Hymns by the following just and thoughtful extract from the British Critic for July last:"We would by no means be understood to uphold them [metrical Psalms] as substi tutes for Christian Hymns. Psalms, after all, are one thing, Hymns another; as the words of the Apostle may teach us. Metrical Psalms, however, even the most successful, partake of the character of both at once; and, like other attempts at a compromise, miss, rather than combine, the distinctive excellences of the things united. Instead of being Hymns, they are rather spoiled Psalms; for who will say, even of the best imaginable version, in metre and rhyme, of the Psalms of David, that it is not a very insufficient representation of its original? Metre and rhyme must be some drawback upon literal accuracy in the hands even of the most skilful; and if any composition must suffer more or less in the transfer from one language, or from one form, into another, this is à fortiori true of a portion of the inspired Scriptures. Now the metrical Psalms are not merely a translation, but a paraphrase besides. We

siderable body of both clergy and laity, had the benefit of them in their public devotions previous to the Reformation, and

are, therefore, for leaving the divine work of the Psalmist, as nearly as possible, in the form in which it was originally cast.

"But there are other than these merely mechanical differences between the Psalms and the Ecclesiastical Hymns, which make it important that they should be kept apart. Each kind of sacred song has its own purpose; and each should accordingly be confined to its own department. The Psalms of David were never, that we can make out, designed by the Church for what may be called an outlet of enthusiasm,1 which is, nevertheless, an object quite within the scope of her provisions. What we mean is this: the special subjects of the Evangelical, as distinguished from the Legal dispensation; the mystery of Divine love in all its manifold and engaging features; the solemn circumstances of the Gospel History; the graces and achievements of the Saints; or, again, the wonders of creation and the order of the natural world, as viewed by a Christian eye; all these are topics calculated to awaken feelings of a very impatient force in every religious mind; feelings which, under the almost overwhelming pressure of the reserve imposed by a want of sympathy in the world around, are apt to grow even clamorous for their appointed satisfaction; and so, where the Church does not take them under her guidance, to vent themselves in irregular and irreverent ways. This, and nothing worse than this, we take to be the account of a great deal of that ardent, but unchastised religious writing, speaking, and preaching, which are found on every side. All this is the enthusiastic element of man's religious nature, struggling for freedom under a system, not of equitable government, but of inconsiderate despotism; struggling for freedom, and issuing in lawlessness. Now this is a result which the Church, if she had her way, would never allow. She would penetrate to the souls of men, as one may say, through every pore; there would be no amiable or holy feeling (such as those to which we are quite willing to attribute the irregularities or extravagances just hinted at) which she would not arrest, absorb, and regulate; no principle of action in our regenerated nature which she would not consult; no hue of its versatile forms, of which she would not present to the eye the Divine type and matchless counterpart in her own celestial pattern.

"In a small way, the removal of the Catholic (metrical) Hymns from our Church Service has operated to our disadvantage in this respect. The Hymns of the Church are intended to furnish one, among many other legitimate outlets, of that spirit of ardent and affectionate devotion, which it is so grievous to see wasting itself, under actual circumstances, in irregular and erroneous courses. The Psalms alone, as we shall attempt to show, do not seem adequate to the special object which we are here supposing the Church to have at heart; the direct satisfaction, namely, of the feelings of

1 "This appears partly from the custom, which came into the Church at a very early period, of applying to the Psalms a much less jubilant kind of chant than to the Ecclesiastical Hymns. The Donatists (as observed by Bingham, Ant. L. 14) reproached the Catholics with even "shouting out their Hymns of human composition like persons trying to excite the feelings of an audience by exhortations of their own,' whereas the divine canticles they sang to "a subdued measure." The account of the Donatists was probably an exaggeration; but the contrast which they observed, and which was no doubt in the main true, would seem to point at some such difference of principle as has been now observed. Sir John Hawkins says, 'Almost from the first time when music was introduced into the Service of the Church, it was of two kinds, consisting in a gentle inflection of the voice, which they termed plain song, and a more artificial and elaborate kind of music adapted to the Hymns and solemn Offices contained in the ritual; and this distinction has been maintained through all succeeding ages.' The figured chants which have come into use in this country since the Reformation, [Revolution?] are an exception to this remark; but it is getting to be more and more felt, that the nearer the chanting of the Psalms approaches to plain song, the greater is the security for reverence. The simpler the strain, the more entirely we seem to abandon the thought of giving effect to the Divine words, which should be left to speak for themselves. But the Church appears to have looked on the Hymns in a somewhat different light, Hymns are for singing, Psalms rather for recitation."

lost that benefit then: let all this be considered, and we think it will be felt that the removal of them from the service altogether was a serious loss; and it would have been a much more serious loss, if in the Church before the Reformation a devotional spirit had been at all prevalent. Unhappily it was otherwise; and as the revival of religion took an intellectual turn rather than one that reached the affections, or kindled the imagination, it was long before the loss was felt as it otherwise would have been.

But it is impossible to destroy the tendencies of human nature; whatever man is in earnest about, to that he will devote those powers with which his Maker has gifted him. So persons of earnest piety, and at the same time gifted with the power of versification, or the spirit of poetry, will express their thoughts and feelings on religion in rhythmical or poetical language. Accordingly we have remaining many efforts more or less successful, some of which are appended to each of the versions, Old and New, which have been received in the Church. They appear to be at least of equal merit with the versions themselves. The "Humble Lamentation of a Sinner," for instance, appended to the Old Version, contains verses very good in expression, and very touching in feeling; and Bishop Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns, which have become attached to the New Version, are at least equal to any thing of the kind in the language which had then appeared. It is remarkable that both versions contain translations in two metres of the ancient" Veni Creator Spiritus."-One wonders that acquaintance with that gem of antiquity did not lead the translators to search further into the same mine; but, in all probability, they did not translate from the Latin, but merely paraphrased the English version already existing in the Ordination service. Bishop Ken's hymns came out in the interval between the two versions; and we believe that it was late in the last century when they were first appended to the New Version. Even those hymns, when so appended, do not appear to have made their way into parish churches, and there seems, therefore, to have been no temptation to search for more. In addition to this we may remark, that they seem better adapted for private use, and to have been printed for such use among the boys of

Christian love and thankfulness, as called forth by the exhibition of specially Christian subjects. Which is saying no more than that the Psalms do not answer a purpose beyond (so to speak) their scope; a sentiment no more inconsistent with the profoundest veneration for the Psalms themselves, than it would be a disparagement of the Decalogue to say, that it does not supersede the Ecclesiastical precepts. Of course, the Psalms involve all Christian truth; the question is, whether, in the present case, an implied recognition be enough.

"The Psalms, then, have their use in Divine Service, as the Hymns have theirs ; and the Hymns are as little fitted to take the place of the Psalms, as the Psalms that the Hymns."-Pp. 5-7.

Winchester School. They probably were suggested by the Latin hymns, which remained in use at that school from its very foundation; but they are not translations of them. Indeed Ken seems to have practised translation very sparingly, at least if we may judge by the collection of his poems published by Mr. Combe, of Leicester. One Psalm is to be found there; and the sonnet "on Judgment" may remind one of Dies ira, but nothing more; it is not even a paraphrase of it. So again, the sonnet" on Redemption" may remind one of the hymns for Corpus Christi day, or for Good Friday, in the Parisian Breviary; but it is more by its general style than by any connected train of thought.

Contemporary with Ken was Dr. George Hickes. Many of his hymns have as much beauty and good taste as simplicity and piety; but his being connected with the nonjuring schism no doubt prevented them from being generally received amongst churchmen, although some of them have been adopted in publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

We are not intending to give at large the history of hymns in the Church; but it is remarkable that successive collections of hymns should have been published by persons who were either actually dissenters, or, at least, more or less irregular,— Watts, Doddridge, John and Charles Wesley, Madan, Romaine, Haweis. During a long period, religion in the Church generally appears to have taken a cold, rational, common sense, argumentative, or moral turn-or even much worse than that; and most of the zeal and earnestness, or, at least, that which was most apparent, was to be found in irregular channels; and we know that there can be little expectation of devotional poetry, except where there is a considerable portion of fervour. From the circumstance, then, that hymns were most published and used in this country by the irregular or fanatical, there arose a prejudice against them altogether; nor was this prejudice removed by the fact that those clergymen, in various parts of the country, who introduced them into their churches, and for that purpose made selections of them, were themselves somewhat irregular, and, in some cases, acted, in so doing, in direct defiance of the authority of their own bishops.

Things, however, took a turn when some prelates, as the present Archbishop of York and the late Bishop of Lincoln, sanctioned collections of Psalms and hymns in their respective dioceses; and still more when a collection came out which had been actually made and arranged by a deceased prelate, (Bishop

In fact it required great firmness of principle, in those days, for a person, clergyman or layman, to be earnest and fervent, and yet not find himself driven into irregularity by the suspicion and discountenance with which zeal was ordinarily treated.