certain words and expressions, needed for their purposes; and he instances Prudentius, and even an earlier, though less distinguished, Christian poet, Commodianus, as examples of men who were impatient of the restraint which rigid adherence to classical authority would have imposed. (3.) Still further, the liberties used with classical Latin verse implied not merely the disuse of certain prosodial structures of the Greek type, but involved a new adaptation, to new thought, of classical quantity, by making the accent of a word dominate, when unavoidable, over its quantity. The Archbishop boldly asserts a fact, which many admirers of the purely classical standard are very apt, from their too exclusive knowledge of their only models, to forget: he takes this position, from which he cannot be displaced, that the system of classical quantity, as superseding accent, is not indigenous to the Latin tongue; that so far is quantity from being an ineradicable growth, the language might have set itself, as almost all other languages have done, free from this borrowed constraint, and might have put itself under the rule of accent, had it not been brought under the dominion of the earlier and finer literature of Greece, in which quantity was a native element.

3. It is not needful to quote authorities in defence of rhyme, of which Christian Latin poetry gradually availed itself, as a compensation for those wonderful musical cadences which it surrendered, in exchanging the system of long and short syllables for accent. Rhyme, of which many examples can be gathered from the classics, as ornaments accepted sometimes, though not sought by the ancient poets, might be quoted,* to prove that this ornament was (unlike quantity) native to Latin, though of later and tardy growth, inasmuch as it was introduced as the compensating alternative of quantity. All we insist upon is this,-that rhyme is indigenous to the Latin soil, is no exotic transplanted from Arabic or Celtic ground; and that few languages, if any, are more rich in rhyming resources, than that in which Cicero spoke, and Virgil and Horace sang. While we honour these poets

* Schuch and Archbishop Trench both cite many examples of classical rhymes. They occur in Ennius, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Martial, Lucian, Claudian. The examples given by Schuch, are especially copious; and he draws not a few Greek instances from Homer, and from the Greek Tragic and Comic writers.

for their incomparable grace, we yet find that a master of their tongue, like George Buchanan-second to none in classical accomplishments-fails to embody the Christian spirit, even when he succeeds best in reproducing the classical form. We feel bound, therefore, by no law of veneration or of common sense, to forego an ornament, for which the classics left no room, in seeking to enrich the creations of their genius : nor do we feel called on, in deference to their success, without rhyme, to defend it as a legitimate adjunct of emphasis, of beauty, or of melody. It has possessed all these attributes, not only in English, but in most other languages, whether polished or unrefined; and has been cultivated as an art, for centuries, by men of the highest name in European literature. We cannot enlarge upon this interesting subject; yet we take occasion to affirm, that nothing has done so much for the introduction of rhyme into the modern languages, as the diffusion of rhyming sacred poetry in the Latin tongue.

II. SERVICE OF SONG IN THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES.

Formal metrical hymns, so far as can now be ascertained, did not exist in the primitive Church. The earliest sacred song extant in Latin, in which measured verse is used, is one of Saint Hilary (No. 93 in our collection), which, having been sent by him, in a letter to his daughter Abra, has come to us, while a whole book of similar hymns, composed by that father, has perished amid the wreck of time. This very fact seems to prove that regularly versified hymns were not in use before his time (A.D. 354), except to a limited degree. The oldest metrical hymn in the Greek language, appears to be that of Clement of Alexandria (No. 90), appended to his treatise, called the Pedagogue. It is not to be supposed, however, that song was shut out from private Christian life,* or was not observed in the public assemblies of the early Church. Not only were psalms regularly read or chanted (and not a few details can be given in regard to their selection), but rhythmical and carefully worded sentences, more or less

* See Tatian Contra Græcos. Opera Patrum Græcorum. Vol. iii. p. 90. Wirceburgi 1777.

directly borrowed in sentiment and language from the word of God, were sung, or were solemnly enunciated in a manner, as Augustine* at a later time expressed it, more akin to pronunciation than to singing. Among the scanty allusions of any kind, by Pagan writers to Christianity, or its usages, during the first two centuries, there are two which bear directly on Christian song. Pliny, in his well known letter to the Emperor Trajan, written less than half a century after the death of Paul, describes the Christians of Bithynia, as singing responsively a morning song to Christ, as if he were a God: and the atheist Lucian, who was born about the year 124, and who lampooned all religions, refers to a Christian ode 'having many names,'† alluding possibly to the prose hymn, ‘Glory be to the Father,' but more probably to the morning hymn, 'Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace' (No. 1).

The most ancient hymns of the primitive Church, were unquestionably the following:

(1) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' to which was added, at a little later time, these words, 'As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.'

(2) The hymn of the Cherubim, borrowed from Isaiah's vision, and which, with minor modifications in earlier times, consisted in substance of the thrice repeated ascription of holiness to Jehovah, occurring in Isaiah's prophecies (chapter 6th), was regarded in primitive Christian times as a recognition of the Trinity. It was a morning hymn; and here we find the true explanation of various allusions, both ancient and modern, to fellowship with angels in our morning praise. This thought has been exquisitely expressed in Bishop Ken's morning hymn :—

'Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,

And with the angels bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing,

High praise to the eternal King.'

* Vicinior pronuncianti quam canenti, Conf. x. 33.

+ Пovávvμov wonv. See Bingham B. 14, 2. 2., who refers to Smith (on the Greek Church) as holding Lucian's reference to be to the morning hymn.

Basil, Vol. iii. p. 72, B. (Parisiis 1730). Chrysostom, Homily 69 on Matth. Gregory Naz. (No. 13 infra, lines 40-44).

D

(3) The Hallelujah. This Hebrew word, which means simply, 'Praise ye the Lord,' being probably the most liquid and musical word in any language, became an invitation to responsive singing. The devout pronunciation of the word became an act of worship. It sounded through a building like a sweet bell summoning men to praise. This melodious word has wedded itself for ages to music of the highest order. Thirteen centuries before Handel was born, Jerome tells us that in their psalmsinging, the gilded ceilings of their temples were shaken with the reverberating Halleluia.

We do not number among hymns used by the early Church, the song of Mary, which seems to have been introduced into the morning service in the beginning of the sixth century. Nor can we assign a very high antiquity to that grand hymn, the 'Te Deum,' which never has been, and never can be fitly versified. It was given to the church neither by Ambrose, nor Augustine, nor Hilary, but probably (about the year 535) by Nicetius of Treves. There are two much earlier songs, one for the morning and the other for the evening (Nos. 1 and 2 in our selection), on each of which we shall offer a few remarks.

(4) The morning hymn (No. 1), 'Glory be to God on high,' is very ancient. It is given in the Apostolic Constitutions. It is referred to by Athanasius A.D. 326, and it has been generally accepted throughout Christendom as very ancient. It is used in the daily morning service of the Greek Church, in the weekly Lord's day service of the Gallican Church, and in the communion service of the Anglican Church.

The two most conclusive evidences of its great antiquity are the following: (1) that the Liber Pontificalis, ascribes it to Telesphorus, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 150, § and (2) that probably this is the hymn to which

* Sonabant psalmi ; aurata tecta templorum reborans in sublime quatiebat Alleluia. + Luke i. 46.

VII. 47. Palmer, in his Origines Sacrae, Vol. i. 35, refers to the prevalent opinion among the learned, that the Constitutions existed in A.D. 325. Of this particular hymn he says, that it is more than fifteen hundred years old in the Eastern Church, and that the Church of England has used it for above twelve hundred years, Vol. ii. 159.

§ Palmer ii. 158.

Lucian jeeringly refers, as the 'ode with many names.'* On the whole, we have little hesitation in referring this hymn to the second century.

(5) Once more the evening song (No. 2) is unquestionably very ancient. It received at a very early time, a name implying that it was sung at the kindling of the evening church lights.† What fixes its high antiquity is a passage of Basil, where he is handling the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as long ago settled and accepted by the Church, and he quotes, as an ancient authority, the words which constitute the kernel of this hymn. In a sentence in which he specifies an old hymn of Athenogenes (A.D. 196), and refers also to the author of this evening hymn, he adds, though he cannot give that author's name: 'At all events the people gave forth this ancient voice or formula of praise.' 'We sing praise to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit of God.' Our conclusion is, that this hymn, which was viewed as ancient, and whose author's name was untraceable in Basil's days, must have belonged to the third century at the very latest, but more probably to the second, and possibly even to the first.

III. NOTES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.

Adam of St Victor flourished in the twelfth century. He was a monk of the order of St Victor, a religious house successively in the suburbs and in the city of Paris. His known sacred pieces, including some compositions of a high order, now number, after some recent discoveries, about an hundred. Archbishop Trench regards Adam as the 'most fertile' and 'the greatest of the Latin hymnologists of the Middle Ages.' In one hymn

*See Bingham, ut supra, xiv. 2. 2. The many names are not pointed out by Bingham nor by Smith, whom he quotes. We submit whether the atheistic writer may not very probably have had his eye upon the following, as the 'many names,' Kúpios, Βασιλεύς, Επουράνιος, Πατήρ, Παντοκράτωρ, Μονογενής, Ιησούς, Χριστός, Πνεῦμα, ὁ ̓Αμνὸς.

† ὕμνος τοῦ λυχνικοῦ.

It is remarkable that the editors of that portion of Bingham (xiii. 11.5) do not quote the portion of the passage which relates to Athenogenes, though it specially proves Basil to be speaking of very old authorities, and this in the year 354.