may thereby be warned to recommend the dying person to the grace and favour of GOD? (Art. Vis. Dio. S. David, 1662.) The following curious entry in the diary of Robert Birrel, preserved in Fragments of Scottish History (4to ed. 1798), is also referred to by the same author :-" 1566. The 25th of Oct. Vord came to the toune of Edinburgh from the Queine, yat her Majestie was deadly sicke, and desyrit the bells to be runge, and all the peopill to resort to ye kirk to pray for her, for she was so sicke, that none ligned her life." Another extract, from a controversial work of the same period:-"If they should tolle their belles (as they did in good Kynge Edward's dayes) when any bodye is drawing to his ende and departing out of this worlde for to cause all menne to praye unto God for him, that of His accustomed goodness and mercy, He should vouchsafe too receave him unto His Mercye, foregivinge him all his sinnes; their ringing should have better appearance, and should be more conformable to the anciente Catholic Church." (Hunting of Purgatory to Death. Lond. 1561, fol. 60.)* The following extract from the account of the death of Lady Catharine Gray, Countess of Hertford, will be read with interest:-" Whereby Sir Owen perceiving her to draw towards her end said to Mr. Bockeham, Were it not best to send to the church that the bell may be rung?' and she herself hearing him, said, 'Good, Sir Owen, let it be so!' Then immediately perceiving her end to be near, she entered into prayer, and said, O LORD, into Thy hands I commend my soul; LORD JESUS, receive my spirit:' and so putting down her eyes with her own hands, she yielded unto God her meek spirit at nine of the clock in the morning, the 27th of January, 1567."+ Robert Nelson's observation on the death of a pious Christian (instanced by Mr. Gatty) that "if his senses hold out so long, he can hear even his passing bell without disturbance," is a proof that the custom of tolling the bell before death had not, even in his time, become obsolete.

It were, perhaps, vain to wish that this custom could be revived; practical difficulties would intervene, almost insurmountable in their nature-not to mention religious prejudice, and the prevalent want of faith in the power of united intercessory prayer. But we may be permitted to express our sincere regret that the practice was ever allowed to fall so entirely into disuse. It should never have been merged in the bell which is tolled after death. Both were originally distinct had distinct appellations - and were designed to notify distinct stages in the soul's existence. The one was the Passing, the other the Soul bell. The one tolled as death was making its sure and inevitable approach calling upon all who heard the mournful sound to pray for the soul then taking its flight, that a merciful Saviour would not suffer it in its last hour * Brand's Pop. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 136 et seq. Ellis, Orig. Letters. 2nd Ser. vol. ii. 290.

VOL. VII.

C

but we regret still more, the rationalistic and irreverent spirit which would shrink from invoking the Divine blessing upon any material substance that is deemed worthy of being employed in His service.

Much more might be said concerning the history and uses of this remarkable work of human ingenuity; but we must draw these observations to a close. It were greatly to be desired, that in our large and populous cities, the ringing of bells could be made subservient to private, as well as to public, religious ends; and be employed for example, as calls to private devotion at the different hours of prayer. Some check ought also to be applied to the indiscriminate ringing of bells upon trivial or unfitting occasions; and a remedy devised for the abuses which, we fear, sadly desecrate many of the church belfry towers. But upon this subject we must be content with directing attention to some valuable observations to be met with in Mr. Markland's "Remarks on the Reverence due to Holy Places," a work which we most heartily wish was both studied and appreciated by every member of the English Church.

Since the above was written, we have received a tract on The Use and Abuse of the Church Bells, by Walter Blunt, A.M." (London: Masters,) which was noticed in an early volume of this magazine. It does not enter into the history of church bells, but gives some practical suggestions respecting the restraints which ought to be put upon their use. This little tract differs very widely from Mr. Gatty's flippant volume. It breathes throughout a most earnest and religious spirit, and we should wish to see it placed in the hands of all incumbents, churchwardens, and others, who may be able to exercise authority over the ringing of the bells. We are convinced that among the many reforms now needed, is one which may extend to the bells and belfries of our parish churches, and we should be glad to see Mr. Blunt's suggestions carried out and adopted, wherever they are practicable. Judging from the tone of his tract, we infer that Mr. Blunt has, in his own parish, acted upon the rules he here lays down; and although we are well aware, that what may be done with ease in one place will often meet with hindrances in another, still we would fain hope that where there is so much room for reform, prudence and perseverance may in time be able to effect some permanent improvement.

HOARE ON THE HARMONY OF THE APOCALYPSE. The Harmony of the Apocalypse, with other Prophecies of Holy Scripture. With Notes and an Outline of the various Interpretations. By the Rev. WILLIAM HENRY HOARE, M.A., Late Fellow of S. John's College, Cambridge. London: Parker. 1818.

THE author tells us in his Preface, that he intended this work as "an attempt to reduce the admitted diversity of opinions to something like a general order and harmony:" and that in the execution of this task, he has endeavoured "to correct the too forward conclusions of individual judgment by a proper deference to the teaching and authority of the Church."

With respect to the former of these objects, when we consider that the opinions of commentators on the meaning and fulfilment of the Apocalypse are generally inconsistent with, and often contradictory to each other, it is difficult to imagine what the author means by reducing such diversity to "something like a general order and harmony." But a perusal of his book shows us that his method was a very simple one. It consists merely in omitting, without notice, all such expositions as did not coincide with his own views and this he tells us very plainly :-" My choice (he says) in selecting among" [he means, we may presume, selecting from] "the opinions of different authors, has been guided chiefly by considering which seemed most in accordance with the dignity of the subject, and with the analogy of other prophecies;" in other words he omitted all such interpretations as did not come up to his own views of the "dignity" of the subject, and of "the analogy" of other prophecies: and this he calls "reducing the admitted diversity of opinions to something like a general order and har

mony."

A peculiar theory, moreover, enables him to include in this harmony many interpretations, which to ordinary readers seem widely different and even inconsistent. This is effected by the aid of a general principle," which he thus describes :

and so a

"The principle to which I allude is this: that it seems to be with many of the prophecies, as it is with the laws of perspective: the trees which form an avenue, or the long line of arches which compose some rich and venerable aisle, to a spectator at a distance all appear one: prophecy, which at first sight might appear wrapt up in one single accomplishment, as time advances may prove to expand itself into many nay, we can imagine that to the eye of the prophet himself the whole group of such accomplishments, divers and successive though they be, may at the distance of time at which he lived, have been purposely represented, rather in their collective unity, than in their several component parts."

to fall away from Him; that relations, and friends, and neighbours, and strangers united in the mystical Body of CHRIST, and the poor, on whom, perhaps, the dying man had often bestowed righteous alms-in a word, that all Christian people might offer up supplication to GOD, for the deliverance of a brother out of the agonies of death, and for his safe passage into a better and happier world. So awful, in the eyes of the Church, is "the hour of death." So necessary has she ever considered it to be, that each Christian soul should be sustained in this momentous crisis, by all the aid of the most earnest intercession. The bell which tolls after the final separation of soul and body was likewise designed as an invitation to pray for the departed, that he being now delivered out of the miseries of this sinful world, and escaping the gates of hell, may be admitted to share the rest and peace of the heavenly Paradise.

But we turn to a less solemn subject.

Most of our readers are familiar with that nightly bell which "tolls the knell of parting day." The continuance of the Curfew through so many centuries and revolutions of times and manners is a most remarkable fact in the history of the English people. It is characteristic of the national stability and attachment to ancient custom. It bespeaks the antiquity of the English nation, and is an evidence, that changed as they are in many respects, in some for the worse, in some for the better, yet still, upon the whole, they are the same people; the succession has been kept up unbroken and the English of the nineteenth century, however altered in religion or in habits, are still one with the lighterhearted inhabitants of "Merrie England in the olden time." The Curfew never was a religious bell, nor designed to subserve any strictly religious purpose. There seem to be two opinions as to its origin. Some say that it was derived from the Normans; and that William I. made a law that all the people should put out their fires at eight o'clock, and go to bed, a law which (it is added) was only observed during his own reign and that of his immediate successor. Others, however, date the Curfew from an earlier period. In Peshall's History of Oxford, quoted by Brand, it is referred to the time of Alfred. Speaking of the Curfew at Carfax, this writer remarks:-"The custom of ringing the bell at Carfax every night at eight o'clock (called Curfew bell, or cover-fire bell) was by order of King Alfred, the restorer of our University, who ordered that all the inhabitants of Oxford should, at the ringing of that bell, cover up their fires and go to bed, which custom is observed to this day, and the bell as constantly rings at eight, as Great Tom tolls at nine. It is also a custom, added to the former, after the ringing and tolling of this bell, to let the inhabitants know the day of the month by so many tolls." The proper time for tolling the Curfew is at eight o'clock in the evening, but in many

places the hour seems to have been changed to nine o'clock, and in some it is customary for the Curfew to toll, not throughout the whole year, but only from Michaelmas to Lady Day.

We should be sorry to see this ancient custom laid aside. Although it is, in a sense, a meaningless custom, yet we doubt not, that indirectly it may serve some moral ends. It connects the present with the past. It calls up to the mind the historic recollections of a great and prosperous people. And although no way associated with religious services, there is nothing to prevent private persons from making it contribute to some sacred purpose, by allowing its solemn nocturnal tolling to remind them of, and so to prepare them for, the fast approaching evening, and night, of their own short and fretful lives.

Few more extraordinary customs ever grew up in the Christian Church than that of baptizing bells. We have searched in vain for any true account of the origin of this practice. Charlemagne in the year 789 enjoined "ut clocca non baptizentur ;"* but notwithstanding, the custom obtained, that in the consecration of bells, all the ceremonies of baptism were gone through, water being poured upon them, a name imposed, and sureties standing by. The imposition of the name is of later date than the time of Charlemagne, it being generally supposed that Pope John XIII. (A.D. 968) was the first who gave a name to a consecrated bell. Although Baronius states the contrary, yet Marténe, (a higher authority in such matters) asserts, that with one or two exceptions, the old Ritual MSS. omit the rite of imposing a name. He subjoins a rubric from an order for blessing bells in the Rheims Pontifical, which by its cautious wording, would seem to show that there were some doubts as to the lawfulness of the ceremony-Tunc sub trinâ infusione aquæ sanctæ impone ei nomen si velis. The same writer adds two forms for the benediction of bells, in the latter of which there are no objectionable ceremonies. We would be understood, distinctly to approve the solemn benediction and consecration of bells, as well as of all other vessels or utensils to be used in the service of GOD. We hold that they all ought to be set apart by special consignation and prayer to the honour and glory of GoD. This is not superstition, as some would contend, but the reverence due to the Divine Majesty, and it has always been practised by the Catholic Church. For this reason, we cannot admire the modern custom (so highly approved of by Mr. Gatty) of inaugurating the new bells of a church with beer and rum from a village ale-house, amid the revels of the people. We confess to have a desire to see them consecrated to their various holy purposes by prayer and benediction, but without any profane parodying of solemn sacramental rites. We regret that this latter custom should have been ever tolerated;