despotic forcing of great changes in the usual mode of conducting Divine Service, or in the conservative customs of the people but simply with a view to speak reasonably and truly (and frankly, moreover) what we think many Clergymen, of all sorts, and many intelligent Laymen of "moderate views" in Liturgies and ceremonials, feel, as strongly as we write it.

We cannot but think that the insisting upon the Metrical Selections of Psalms, beside the Psalter, and as an offset to the Hymns, is much like a superstition, and a rather stupid superstition.

We come to the new book: the Committee have given to their book the title, "Hymns for Church and Home," and have set in its front a very well written Prefacé, which gives a hasty, yet happily-condensed history of Psalm and Hymn singing in the Church, of our American Hymn Book, and of their own labors. Their book is a small and neat one, of a moderate price.

We have sedulously disclaimed knowing anything about the men of olden time, to whom we are indebted for the discovery of some of the disfiguring of many Hymns of our existing Collection whether Clergymen or Laymen, inside or outside of the Church, we have suffered ourselves to remain profoundly ignorant, who, what, when and where they were. Having under our eyes the names of the Committee to whom we owe this last work, we cannot affect a like ignorance here. At the same time, our opinion of what they have done, is so good, that we have no fear of meeting any occasion where we shall wish for the critic's blissful ignorance, or feel that it was a folly in this point to be wise.

Their title would have been simpler and more dignified, (better in short,) as it seems to us, if it had been "Hymns compiled," &c., but the title is of small account.

The Index refers, not to the page, as is the clumsy fashion still followed by printers of the Prayer Book, but to the Hymn, by its number; a fashion observed in (perhaps) every Hymn Book except our own.

A mere glance at their Index shows, to any intelligent eye, that they have gone to good sources, (for they have printed

authors' names against most of the pieces,) and shows a promise, from the first lines, of a great many spirited and interesting Hymns; we are thankful for their printing of authors' names, which, (however it might be out of place in the Book of Common Prayer,) is eminently in place in a book of this sort. One thing we do not quite understand, in this index: that is, why Hymns from the Roman Breviary are credited to "Ancient." "Latin" would have been a more definite word, for such as came from that source. One reference (we believe only one piece is attributed to that origin) is to "Old Hymn." The precise distinction between these two authorities, we have no means of settling. Whether the last is apocryphal, as Scott's reference," Old Play,"-we are not at liberty to conjecture, because of the grave and religious character of the Committee: but we venture to suppose, that it may be a synonym for "" Greek," as the other for the later classic tongue.

We were not aware that that grand thing, "Lo he comes with clouds descending," was by Charles Wesley; and should be glad to know whether the reference to him is rightly made. When we observe the extraordinary number of variations and likenesses between two Hymns starting from the same first line, or perhaps from a common first verse, we cannot, of course, wonder at the different versions being ascribed to different persons. Compare, for example, "Angels! roll the rock away," (Gibbons,) and "Angel! roll the stone away," (J. Scott.) There are other cases in which, through four stanzas, each, two Hymns will run along, side by side, and will, verse for verse, bear the same thoughts, to different rhymes, and for the most part, in words different throughout. Sometimes two are singularly alike at the beginning, in some respects, and yet, in other respects, and elsewhere, throughout, are entirely unlike; as,

"See the leaves around us falling,

Dry and withered, to the ground," (Horne,) and,

"The leaves around me falling Are preaching of decay; (Lyte.)

Committee have permit

In the reference of Hymn 112, the ted an obvious error to pass the proof-reader; the reference ought to read "Breviary, translated by Bishop Williams," or something to that effect. The Hymn is the latter half of "Ad

regias Agni dapes," of which the first part, also, is in Hymn 124, here; "Now at the Lamb's high royal feast." In one case,the only one that we have noticed,—the first line of the Hymn, as given in the Index, does not match that given in the body of the book. (Compare Hymn 340 and the Index.)

The alphabetical order is not always exactly observed among the first lines, which is probably owing to the writing-in of some of them upon the Index, after it had been carefully arranged; and a little confusion is made, under the letter O, by the printing of the exclamation, "Oh !" and the sign of the vocative, "O," indiscriminately.

Having thus noticed all the faults, (not very considerable ones,) that we can conveniently find, on the surface, let us go deeper. The Committee give us to understand that they have gone all over the fields of Sacred Song, and that there is scarcely a possibility of there being any fruit in them worth the plucking, beside what they have tossed to us, over the fence. This confidence of theirs shows that the Committee have worked fairly and well, and is not more thorough and straightforward than we should expect in them; for whoever will read their book through, intelligently, will be convinced, that, at least, wisdom and devotion and love have been used in the making of it. In some cases, to be sure, the first line is the best part of the Hymn; in some, the only good thing in it: but the book seems to us, after going more than once over it, an unusually good one.-Mrs. Barbauld, who has made several of our finest Hymns; Watts, who is, by a good deal, the foremost of modern English Hymn writers; Doddridge, Montgomery, Charles Wesley, Heber, Milman, Keble, have all been searched, and, from each, excellent things have been taken; some of the pieces are very fine. "All hail the power of Jesus' name !" is here; "Again the Lord of life and light, Awakes the kindling ray," &c., in which is the verse,

"Oh, what a night was that which wrapt

The heathen world in gloom!

Oh, what a sun, which broke, this day,
Triumphant from the tomb !"

Lo! He comes, with clouds descending,'-one of the grandest

Hymns ever thought and written by man; Wesley's noble "Wrestling' with the Angel; that very fine poem of Montgomery's, 'The Soldier's Call at Midnight;' Charlotte Elliott's excellent 'Just as I am,-without one plea;' Heber's 'The Son of God goes forth to war ;' 'Jerusalem, my happy home!' and many most comforting and inspiring Hymns are here.

It may be questioned, after glancing at the long array of names of authors, not of our own Communion, whether it is not putting the Church in a very unfair attitude, to fill her Hymn Books full of the work of foreigners: but it may be answered, after reading all the Hymns in our language, that, if we were to cut out and throw down, at our side, all those not written by Churchmen, the pile of off-casts would not only be far larger, but fairer and worthier and better than what we kept. The simple truth is, that we have some excellent Hymns written by Churchmen, and some admirable ones: but the number is very small. In the book before us, some have been brought in, from several of "our own," which, while they are not positively objectionable, in any way, add, very little, to the value of the Collection. There must be some rule about this thing; and it seems pretty generally accepted, now, that the best Hymns are the best things to be sung. There have been sturdy Churchmen who were willing to affirm, that "all that Watts and Doddridge, and those other men, ever wrote, is nothing but dissenting trash ;" and it is only comparatively lately, that the orthodox Society for promoting Christian Knowledge printed Watts' "Divine and Moral Songs," with the author's name. What can excuse the sneaking, snivelling way in which the excellent works of Dissenters have been appropriated and their authorship disguised or suppressed or falsified? Yet this has been done, with high sanction.* In short, we must either shut ourselves resolutely up to a small Collection from our own authors, alone, or else honestly and openly and manfully give credit wherever credit is due.

* In a little book (for example) which has gone through many editions, containing Heber's Hymns, and Milman's, filled out with other pieces, Doddridge's 'Hark! the herald angels sing,' is put in without the author's name, and 'Watts' 'Before Jehovah's awful throne,' marked 'Anon!'

Some admirable Hymns are taken from the German, in which are the richest outside Collections that we know of. When done into English, these, of course, often miss the strong and massy expression which they wore in their native country, and yet we should be sorry not to have such instances as Luther's ever-memorable 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott' in Bishop Whittingham's very good rendering, in which the substitution of 'mountain-fastness' for 'fast tower,' though not a literal translation, strikes us as an effective expression of the Great Reformer's thought, and sorry, also, to want such others as, "Bless God, that towards eternity Another step is won,"

from Francke; and

"Eternity! Eternity!

How long art thou, Eternity?"

Why the Committee have not given names of the translators in the case of this Hymn and others, (that fine one of Luther, for instance, (308,) 'Almighty God, I call to Thee,') we cannot think.

The Latin (or Ancient,' as the Committee call it) contributes a considerable number, among which is the 'Vexilla regis prodeunt,' well put into English by Bishop Williams, of Connecticut, whom we have already mentioned as author of another translation, (Hymn 112.) St. Ambrose and other holy men appear in the list; there are some Hymns, well-known and well-loved, in the original, here given us, in English, and some that in the original are unknown; and yet, on the whole, Latin is not kindred enough to kindle the sympathetic fire in Saxon bosoms, and the Latin Quarter in this exhibition is one of the least attractive.

Not all the translations from the Latin are the best, (so it strikes us,) of the particular pieces chosen: we have seen better renderings of the Adeste Fideles' than the 67th of these Hymns, and that of the Dies Irae, (Hymn 408,) though very good, is not so good as the 3d, or some other of XIII Versions, by our American Dr. Coles :