tent simply to express, in sacred verse, the | bolism, partly because they were more palfeelings which they shared in common with pable to a superficial investigation, and partall true Christians, under the influence of ly because they have been retained by the ordinary circumstances. They went further Romish Church, have been regarded as than this: they frequently so stamped their stamping medieval symbolism universally own peculiar emotions on their compo- with an indelible brand of superstition, and sitions, that, as in the Psalms of David, in- even idolatry. There is gloom in mediæval ternal evidence furnishes a clue to their his- symbolism, but there is also light. The tory. It is delightful to be able here and hymns on which this feature of the age is there, among the shades of that gathering stamped are of different shades-they vary gloom, to recognize a Christian brother, from the intense brightness of pure Christwhose soul has been impressed upon some ianity to the intense darkness of unmingled words which can make music in our hearts Popery. We must not, however, judge the even now-which gleam forth with the fullest one class by the other-we must not supglory of true Christianity, and yet have their pose that all are equally infected-for we own individual tale of conflict, or of comfort. shall find that the true symbolism of some There is an exquisite hymn, for example, of these hymns has a great effect upon the which was written by King Robert of heart; that, like the symbolism of the Bible, France-a man who seems to have found it strikes the feelings at once, and therefore his crown a burden, who had been tossed does its work completely. To take the case about from year to year in a restless tem- of the Cross, which will probably serve as an pest of persecution and calamity, and who example of one of the points of medieval cries to the Comforter to give him strength symbolism which are most generally misto stand, in a hymn which we should have understood. In the early days of Christquoted, if it could have been at all adequate- ianity, it was adopted almost universally ly rendered in English. Our learned read- among Christians as a symbol of the Reers will find it given in Mr. Trench's vo- demption-not because there was any ne lume: we can only say of it, that it shows very beautifully how the writer had been made patient through suffering, how his gentle spirit had been rendered more gentle still by its conquest of the selfish unlovingness around it. We must now speak of the symbolism which forms the second great characteristic of Latin hymns; and in approaching the subject, we feel that it requires much caution. We do not think that symbolism is dangerous in itself, for it is the gratification of that mysterious craving of our souls which prompts us to look for the infinite in the finite,-for some sign of the finger of the Eternal on the corruptible things around us. Hence arises the love of symbols, and so far as they merely serve thus to remind the soul of something higher, so far, in other words, as the connection between the symbol and the thing symbolized is regarded as conceptual and not real, they may perhaps be useful. But the transition is not difficult, and to unthinking minds would be almost imperceptible. The attributes of the thing symbolized seem to attach themselves, in process of time, to its earthly representative, and soon become inseparable from it. This is what we have to notice in medieval symbolismthere is the gradual substitution of the type for the antitype-the gradual forgetting of cessary connection between the two-any other conventional symbol would have served the purpose equally well. We meet with it a little beyond this use, when, as the oriflamme in the Vanguard of the Church's Host, it was celebrated thus: "The Royal Banners forward go, The cross shines forth in mystic glow; But this was the Rubicon. Beyond this, where the dark wilds of superstition, but no fears, on that account, deterred the later hymnographers from rushing forward. They boldly apostrophised the Cross in words which Mr. Neale has rendered thus:— "Faithful Cross! above all other, one and only noble Tree! None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be! Sweetest wood, and sweetest iron,* sweetest weight is hung on thee! Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory! Thy relaxing sinews bend! And awhile the ancient rigour that Thy birth bestowed suspend ; *Mr. Neale is, in this instance, "Romanis ipsis the nature of the symbol, until at last the paulò Romanior," for Father Caswall is content lesser and the greater are fused together, and with- "Sweet the nails, and sweet the wood, Laden with so sweet a load." And the King of heavenly beauty on Thy ho- | We feel compelled to pause a moment, and marvel at the unblushing audacity which has led an English clergyman to intrude nonsense like this into a hymnal, which, but for this and similar blots (such as the 66 roseate" blood of Christ, p. 65) would be unequalled for beauty. We pause, for it is a sad and pitiable case,-the case of one who can so completely enslave his great abilities as a translator to the production of versions such as these. Sweet wood and sweet iron: does Mr. Neale mean literal "sweet" wood and iron, or metaphorical "sweet" wood and iron, for really we scarcely know which is least absurd? And who ever heard of a tree's sinews, and still less of the Cross's sinews? and why should our Lord's body be called a "sweet" body? We beg to assure Mr. Neale that if he has any desire to revive Latin hymns in this country, he will not do so by dragging forth from the sepulchre of Popish darkness words which are utterly revolting, not merely to our feelings as Protestants, but to our common sense as Britons. Flows the must of ancient story In the church's wine-vat stored : ecclesiastical poetry, is the power with which We have before alluded to the symbolism We must notice, though our space compels St. Victor, we must now quote him as the which characterizes the hymns of Adam of us to be brief, a very important branch of hymnographer in whom this expressiveness the symbolism of Latin hymns. We refer of which we are speaking found probably its to their interpretation of the Old Testament. fullest development. What Bengel is in Of symbolistic interpreters, Adam of St. Victor is undoubtedly the prince. He seems exegesis, Adam of St. Victor is in hymnoto consider each minutest incident in the logy. We are sure of finding a terseness Old Testament history as a mirror in which in almost every phrase veiling an exceeding Take, for instance, was reflected some Christian truth; but his beauty of sentiment. analogies, although often beautiful and al- this stanza on John the Baptist :ways ingenious, are, for the most part, very much overstrained. The following specimen will show his average style better than any lengthened remarks: "Christ the prey hath here unbound From the foe that girt us round-[1 Sam. xxiii. 24-26.] Which in Samson's deed is found "Ardens fide, verbo lucens, It can hardly be denied, however, that this love of concentrating force into single When the lion he had slain-[JUDGES xiv. expressions, is sometimes carried too far; 5, 6.] David, in his Father's cause, From the lion's hungry jaws He that thousands slew by dying-[JUDGES XVI. Samson, Christ is typifying, Who by death overcame his foes. Samson, by interpretation, Is" their SUNLIGHT :" our salvation Thus hath brought illumination To the elect on whom He rose. NUMB. Xiii. 23.] we mean when phrases of this kind are piled Even From the Cross's pole of glory-[The Spies, tellect as to exclude the heart from exercis ing its rightful function. For heart-worship "Winter braming-summer flaming, is ever the truest. Abelard's aphorism, authorities to Augustine, and in every re"Fides præcedit intellectum," cannot be spect worthy of the prince of Latin theodisputed by any one who has known the logians. Our readers shall judge of it, at ceaselessness of conflict which commences least a portion of it, for themselves: its when once the intellect usurps the suprema- subject, as they will perceive, is the joys of cy. We have advocated the subjectivity of Paradise :Latin hymns; we have defended, to some extent, their symbolism; we have commended their expressiveness, simply because of the power which each of these characteristics, especially in combination, wields over the heart; and, therefore, when we find that some of these Victorine hymns fail in producing this effect, because of their overwrought elaborateness, we must hesitate before we include them in our eulogy as hymns, whatever may be the admiration which is due from us on account of their exquisite beauty as poems. The simple "O, equal to the Father, Thou! Or, similarly, in another hymn "Be Thou our joy, and Thou our guard, These three characteristics are the only ones which seem prominently to attach themselves to the great body of Latin hymns, and we must contend that the presence even of these three-their subjectivity, their symbolism, and their expressiveness-→ furnishes one of the strongest arguments in their favour, for these are the great essentials to real heart-stirring hymns, whether they be doxological or didactic. There are, however, a few Latin hymns which stand eminently above the rest, and therefore claim special attention: on some of these we shall now briefly touch. In chronological order, the first which strikes us is a hymn attributed by a preponderance of And sweet roses ever blooming "There nor waxing moon, nor waning "To thee, O dear, dear country! Thy happy name, they weep; Is unction to the breast, All plants are great and small, And the corner stone is Christ. Thou hast no time, bright day! Upon the Rock of Ages They raise thy holy power; And thine the golden dower. They stand those halls of Syon The light is aye serene; And there from toil released, Are clad in robes of white." : We have reserved until now, as the copestone of our quotations, a sequence which stands unequalled among sacred metrical compositions, we refer to the "Dies Ira" of Thomas de Celano. Unearthly in its pathos-magnificent in its diction-thrilling in its versification-it comes upon our souls with the sweep of a rushing wind, lifting them up on its breast of swelling might un-. til they seem to be already hearing the first note of the archangel's trump as it echoes up from the realms of infinity, and momently expecting it to ring fully through the abodes of quick and dead. If we seek for an instance of the force of subjectivity, we find it in its fulness here; if we seek to know the power of words, we have here the very limit of expressiveness, and these two are welded together firmly and indissolubly by a metre which will serve at once as the best apology for the renunciation of classicA considerable number of Latin hymns alism, and the best example of the heartfelt is classed under the general title of "Se- significance of Christian Latinity. Until quences," a term primarily applied, as Mr. Dr. Irons' version appeared in the Hymnal Neale informs us, to words composed to fit Noted, English readers had been entirely in with the Gregorian prolongation of the without a translation which gave even a "Alleluia." They were first written in the tenth rate lithograph (if we may use the extenth century. We are anxious rather to in- pression) of this gorgeous picture, and we troduce Latin hymns to our readers than to regret that it is only popularly known theorize about them, and therefore we shall through such corrupted media. The vermake no apology for quoting rather than sion of which we speak has, however, left describing them. The first example which little to be desired, since it faithfully reprewe shall give of a sequence, exhibits their sents not merely the language, but also the more primitive form. It is full of an ad- metre, and what is more, the rhyming trimirable simplicity, which has ten times the plet of the original. We feel compelled to power of an elaborate complexity, doing ef- quote its more striking verses, referring our fectually the work which we maintain that readers to Daniel's " Thesaurus, Latin hymns are especially calculated to do Trench's "Sacred Latin Poetry." -the work of stirring up the soul, and preaching to the heart. We may notice, in this instance too, how great a remove there is from the Mariolatry of later times, and even of later hymns, the "Stabat Mater," for example. The ruggedness of the English metre is a close imitation of the original: "Death and life, In wondrous strife, Life's Monarch, He that died, now dies no more. 'I saw the slain One's earthly prison; We know that Christ is risen from death VOL. XXVII. (Hymnal Noted, p. 63.) "Day of wrath! O day of mourning! or Mr. "O what fear man's bosom rendeth! When from heav'n the Judge descendeth, On whose sentence all dependeth! "Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth, "Death is struck and nature quaking, To its Judge an answer making! "What shall I, frail man be pleading? *We think that Daniel's will continue to be the best work of reference for ordinary purposes, emEastern hymnology, although, in some respects, the bracing, as it does, not merely Western, but also new German "Hymni Latini Medii Ævi, Edid. F. J. Mone" will be more complete. "King of Majesty tremendous, Who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity! then befriend us! "Think! kind Jesu, my salvation, Caused Thy wondrous incarnation ; Leave the not to reprobation! "Faint and weary Thou hast sought me, "Guilty now I pour my moaning, All my shame with anguish owning; "Low I kneel with heart-submission "Ah! that day of tears and mourning! But now we must close our brief sketch of Latin hymnology. We had intended to have pursued the subject further, by tracing the coincidences between the voices of the Christian life in those ages, and the voices of the Christian life in later times, but our limits compel us to forbear. |5. The Infallibility of Holy Scripture. A Lecture in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on Tuesday, April 7, 1857. By ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D.D. Manchester: Wm. Bremner. "HAVE you seen," says the late Dr. Arnold, in one of his letters to Mr. Justice Coleridge, "your uncle's Letters on Inspiration, which, I believe, are to be published? They are well fitted to break ground in the approaches to that momentous question which involves in it so great a shock to existing notions, the greatest, perhaps, that has ever been given since the discovery of the falsehood of the doctrine of the Pope's infallibility." We believe that Dr. Arnold's estimate of the importance of the question of the nature and measure of that authority that is to be ascribed to inspired scripture is not an over-estimated one. From the very nature of the case, indeed, the inquiry as to whether or not we have an infallible interpreter of the record which claims to rule our belief and our conduct, is a secondary and inferior one to the inquiry whether we have a record at all entitled to make such a claim. There is a previous and a higher question to be settled before we need trouble ourselves about the infallibility to be conceded to the word of Pope or council. We must see whether there is any infallibility at all to be ascribed to the Word of God; and, without being guilty of forming any under-estimate of the results of the discovery which the world made when Luther challenged and overthrew the authority of the Pope, we may rest assured that history will have to write upon its page results stranger and more momentous still, when ART. IX.-1. The Inspiration of Holy the discovery shall come to be made and Scripture, its Nature and Proof. Eight acknowledged, that the Church has been Discourses preached before the Univer- wrong from the beginning, and that men sity of Dublin. By WILLIAM LEE, M.A. have really no standard of truth apart from London: Rivington. 1854. their own nature, and distinguished by the two marks of infallible certainty and Divine authority. 2. The Inspiration of Holy Scripture. Five Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge. By the Rev. LORD ARTHUR HERVEY, M.A. Cambridge: Macmillan. 1856. 3. The Doctrine of Inspiration. Being an Inquiry concerning the Infallibility, Inspiration, and Authority of Holy Writ. By the Rev. JOHN MACNAUGHT, M.A. London: Longman. 1856. 4. Inspiration a Reality: or a Vindication of the Plenary Inspiration and Infallible Authority of Holy Scripture, in reply to a Book lately published by the Rev. J. Macnaught. By the Rev. JOSIAH B. LowE, A.B. London: Longman. 1856. The posthumous work of Coleridge, to which Dr. Arnold alludes, has given currency in this country to principles and views on the subject of the Inspiration of Scripture unfamiliar to British theology before, and which Coleridge only borrowed and translated from Germany. The influence of his name and school has, to no inconsiderable extent, gained for them popularity and acceptance both within and without the Church, and they have been zealously advocated and disseminated by the band of remarkable men, consisting of Arnold, Hare, Maurice, Morell, and others, who sat |