Hymnology, much certainly still remains to be understood on the subject. Few compilers of Hymn-Books seem to be possessed with a very distinct conception of what a Hymn either is, or should be. They forget that many pieces of true poetry, however devotional, are really no Hymns at all: while many more of their Hymns, though otherwise admissible, are mere common-place versified prose. The best of Collections disregard the golden rule for all poetry, that mere mediocrity is insufferable; while not a few claim exemption even from strict grammar. One of our most gifted Hymnologists too frequently defaces his admirable versions of ancient Hymns by coining new words, or using old ones in unwonted senses. In proportion as Hymns are to become popular, they should be marked by the purity and simplicity of their English.

Another point to be attended to in compiling a really good Hymnal is to discriminate between Hymns for public and private use. The object is not to make a selection of sacred verse for private reading, but for singing in Church. We are of opinion that no Hymn which is merely adapted for private or domestic use should under any pretext find a place in a Church Hymnal. It is difficult, certainly, but very desirable, that Editors should be able to discriminate it is a distinction which best becomes the masculine and Catholic tone of devotion put into our mouth in the Prayer-Book. Dissenting Collections comprise Hymns of a more individual and personal tone: it is one unsuited to the public Offices of the Church. To bear in mind the public and congregational uses of a Hymnal, should also exclude from it all far-fetched allusions, poetical conceits, or whatever is merely sentimental prettiness.

On the whole, the number of first-rate Hymns, really deserving the name, as yet found in any approved Collection is surprisingly small; while the passion in collectors for accumulating them to the amount of several hundreds in a volume, appears to be insatiable. Bulk and number are considered to compensate for indifferent quality. This is the rock on which the Editors of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" have made shipwreck of a most excellent design. They oppress us with a confusing number of Hymns far exceeding the requirements of any Church. Among these it is quite disappointing to find so many prosaic indifferent Hymns-neither good nor bad, and to detect the number of false or objectionable rhymes. That Collection, however admirable in some respects, leaves much work for a retrenching and correcting hand.

Next, as regards the bulk of our Hymnals, as to which we consider there has been in many quarters a mistake. From the very nature of the materials as yet at our disposal, a good Hymn-Book should necessarily be small. Unless we lay violent hands on every scrap of religious verse that takes our fancy, we cannot multiply indefinitely Hymns deserving the name. That very variety of selection which some Hymnals afford becomes necessary only because many Hymns at present in use are so indifferent, and change is therefore required. If we regard the analogy of the Prayer-Book, the Church for the

most part provides only one Collect for each Sunday and Holy-Day throughout the year; why then should Hymns-which are essentially subordinate to the Prayer-Book -be provided in such excessive disproportion to the Collects? A few really good Hymns, rendered familiar by frequent use, are infinitely preferable to several hundreds that are bad. We deprecate bulky Collections. The Hymnals of Churchmen are, we fear, still formed unconsciously on the Dissenting model. Hymns are multiplied to excess on every possible subject, as with those to whom a Hymn-Book is their all-their Book of Offices and their Liturgy.

Strictly speaking, there is allowed a very limited scope for the use of Hymns in our Services, though in practice custom exceeds the Rubrical limits; for the only parts of our ritual where Hymns should legitimately be used are after the third Collect and before the Communion Service, when a Hymn becomes the "Introit." We must admit that Hymns before Sermon are of Puritan parentage, and especially before the Morning Sermon they occasion an objectionable break in what is still the Communion Office. They tend, also, when sung in this place, somewhat unduly to exalt the Sermon. In Churches where the Service is choral, and where the Hymns of the Church, i. e. the Canticles, and the Psalms, have been already sung, there is the less occasion for singing metrical Hymns. Indeed, metrical Psalmody in the Reformed Church has been but a substitute and apology for the proper ecclesiastical singing of a Choir.

We by no means wish, however, to restrain the present licence of singing Hymns on many occasions not strictly Rubrical, since by this practice much variety and elasticity is infused into our Services: we have simply desired to go back for a moment to first principles on the subject, as illustrating the limited and subordinate position which a Hymn-Book should hold in relation to the Church's Public Offices: and we believe that in proportion as Churchmen are enabled to select good Hymns, and to discard those that are worthless, the most approved Collections will comprise fewer Hymns in number, and not more, than at present.

The latest contribution to our stock of Hymnals is Mr. Trend's admirably printed little book, containing 151 Hymns, chiefly from ancient sources. We notice it with pleasure as possessing certain features of merit peculiar to itself, and as being an advance in some respects upon its predecessors. In the first place, Mr. Trend's Hymnal is much less bulky and multifarious than such Collections as " Hymns Ancient and Modern ;" and his Hymns are both selected and arranged with special regard to their ritual position in the Services of the Church. It is considerably more systematic in its Table of Proper Hymns than ordinary Collections. Especial pains are, in fact, bestowed upon the arrangement of the Hymns to be sung at different Seasons of the Church's Year, the Editor having followed for his guide, as far as possible, the ritual directions of the ancient Service Books.

"Natural piety," observed Mr. Isaac Williams, in 1839, "would turn our attention to the ancient Latin Hymns, as the source from which our acknowledged deficiency in metrical Psalmody is to be supplied," seeing that "in the same books of devotion we find most parts of our own Prayer-Book." But if we are to employ versions of these ancient Hymns, it follows naturally that we ought to use them conformably to their original purpose, and not-as too frequently-promiscuously and without method. To provide for this is one of Mr. Trend's aims; and we think his careful and suggestive Table of Proper Hymns would prove serviceable in many quarters. The Clergy must frequently find themselves at a loss when called upon to appoint the Hymns for a Choir, the ordinary Hymnals not really supplying any reliable and intelligent guidance. Mr. Trend's arrangement is at least based upon definite principles, and follows, as strictly as admissible, the analogy of the ancient Services.

As peculiar to his system, we observe that no Hymns are provided to be sung before Sermon; while at those Seasons which are dignified in our Church by Proper Eucharistic Prefaces, Mr. Trend assigns Hymns to be sung " before Service." This direction would probably be intended for those Churches where a hymn is sung by the Choir in procession.

As regards the materials employed, Mr. Trend has drawn largely from the recently translated Hymns of the Greek Church. Delightful as we have found Dr. Neale's interesting little volume of these translations, we are not very sanguine as to this source contributing very largely to the eventual Hymnal of the English Church. The very form in which the Greek Hymns are originally composed-that of rhythmical prose-must disqualify them in great measure for metrical adaptation among ourselves. The genius, moreover, of the Eastern Church is essentially different from that of the Western. We detect even in the specimens given by Dr. Neale, a somewhat Oriental fixedness, and a half Judaic resemblance to the elder covenant which distinguishes the Greek Church from the Latin. Dr. Neale, however, by his spirited metrical translations has infused something of the freshness and vitality belonging to the Hymns of the Western Church. Of these Greek Hymns, Mr. Trend has reprinted no fewer than 14, quite as many, we think, as are suitable for importation into our Services. We are not aware that any of them have yet appeared in any published Hymnal, excepting that fine Hymn for Easter-

"The Day of Resurrection!
Earth tell it out abroad."

which has long been printed in the Hymnal of St. Paul's, Brighton. Of these Eastern Hymns we anticipate that the greatest favourites will be the 23rd in Mr. Trend's collection

"O happy band of pilgrims."

and the 129th; this last Hymn, admirably rendered to music by

Mr. Reinagle, we subjoin at page 24. Besides these, a few fine Hymns are given from the "Lyra Germanica," and, with a sparing hand, a few original Hymns, and some additional translations from the Latin. One of these last, the 133rd, is a version of a very beautiful Hymn from Dr. Neale's " Hymni Ecclesiæ.' The double rhymes of the Latin are preserved, an effect which we are persuaded it is not only difficult, but impossible to reproduce to a translator's entire satisfaction. The Hymn is so beautiful in the original, that we are tempted to give two of the stanzas; the difficulties of a translator may be appreciated on comparing it with the version, No. 133. Ecquis binas columbinas

Alas dabit animæ,

Ut in almam Crucis palmam
Evolet citissime ?

In qua Jesus totus læsus,
Orbis desiderium,

Et immensus est suspensus,
Factus improperium.

Non sum tanti, Jesu, quanti
Amor Tuus æstimat :
Heu cur ego vitam dego

Cor si Te non redamat ?
Benedictus sit invictus
Amor vincens omnia :
Amor fortis, tela mortis
Reputans ut somnia.

The chief staple, however, of the Collection are versions of the best known Latin Hymns; and here we think Mr. Trend has done well in preferring some of the earlier and more vigorous translations to the prosaic and tasteless improvements of later compilers. He has also been for the most part on his guard against the Hymnal Noted" versions, that pedantic and most mistaken production, from the incubus of which the English Church is not yet entirely recovered. It will be not the least of Mr. Trend's services to Hymnology if his present little work suggests a return to the versions of our earlier and more poetical translators.

Upon this subject of the version of Latin Hymns, we would say a few concluding words. It is well known that in the author of the "Cathedral," to say nothing of other divines, the ancient Hymns had the good fortune many years ago to find a poet as their translator. How those Hymns have fared since is best learnt by comparing the versions found in the countless Hymnals of recent years with the earlier translations. The amount of tasteless adaptation, of watering down,' and unscrupulous 'free-handling' which the original versions have gone through is astonishing. The obscurity of these blundering 'Editors' of Hymns, and the pettiness of their thefts, have alone screened them from the ordinary penalties of exposure and literary castigation. By such wilful alterations, or corruptions of the earlier versions, both the grace, the force, and occasionally the true meaning of the original have been sacrificed.

are afraid we cannot acquit "Hymns Ancient and Modern" of this gratuitous deviation from earlier and better versions. Upon this subject the protest entered by John Wesley against a similar appropriation of his own and his brother's Hymns, is not inapplicable in the present day. "Many gentlemen," wrote Wesley, in 1779, "have done my brother and me (without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our Hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome so to do, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore I must beg of them one of these two favours; either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.'

THE PEW SYSTEM IN CHURCHES.

"The Pew System, the Chief Hindrance to the Church's Work in Towns. A Sermon, with an Appendix." By the REV. EDWARD STUART, M.A., Perpetual Curate of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Munster Square, Regent's Park. London: G. J. PALMER. Price 3d., or 2s. 6d. per dozen for distribution.

The "Pew System" is perhaps not the most felicitous subject for a Sermon, viewed according to our ordinary conceptions of such an address. A subject of this kind is more satisfactorily treated when worked up as a popular Lecture, where such Lectures can be made to reach those most needing them. Mr. Stuart has, however, done full justice to his subject; and his Sermon, and still more, the accompanying Appendix, well deserve being read and extensively circulated.

The Sermon itself is by no means confined to the evils of the Pew System, which, in fact, is only treated of in the latter portion. It commences with an eloquent description of the Parochial System spread like a net-work throughout England; and is directed to a general restoration of the Church's efficiency and strength by means of strictly parochial agencies. To reinstate the poor in their indefeasible rights within the consecrated fabrics is only a part, though an essential one, of such wide-spread revival. The general scope of the Sermon is conveyed in the text chosen, "The poor have the Gospel preached to them."

The Appendix forms by far the larger and more valuable portion of