book I happened to read_." In another letter he admits: "My chief

object is to adorn as far as I am capable of adorning the history of a period which deserves· to be better known." Hume was no better than Robertson, for it appears that the latter had consulted the great English historian about Mary, who sent him a version which Robertson at once used. But shortly after Hume received some MSS. from Dr. Birch, who went more deeply into these things, and in consequence he wrote to his friend Robertson to the following effect: "What I wrote to you with regard to Mary, etc., was from the printed histories and papers, but I am now sorry to tell you that by Murdin's State Papers the matter is put beyond all question. I got these papers during the holidays by Dr. Birch's means, and as soon as I read them _I ran to Millar_ and desired him very earnestly to stop the publication of your history till I should write to you and give you an opportunity of correcting a mistake so important, but he _absolutely refused compliance_. He said that your book was finished; that the whole narrative of Mary's trial must be wrote over again; that it was uncertain whether the new narrative could be brought within the same compass with the old; that this change would require the cancelling a great many sheets; and that there were scattered passages through the volumes _founded on your own theory_." [Footnote 225]

[Footnote 225: Disraeli's Literary Miscellanies.]

We quote these letters to show how history was written in bygone times by men who until the days of Maitland and Froude have been regarded as authorities. The blind led the blind, and the History of Scotland-- whole sheets of which ought to have been rewritten, and scattered passages founded upon theory erased--was given to the world, because the printer refused to disturb the press, and the author was disinclined to demolish such a fair creation. But the day for imaginative history is past, and a new light is dawning upon the world, the necessity of which is apparent from these revelations. For the future the historian must write from manuscripts or printed copies of manuscripts, or his theories and his fancies will be soon dissipated under a criticism which is becoming daily more powerful, and acquiring new compass as fast as the labors of the Record Office are being brought to light. The narrative of the most vital periods of our country's history will have to be rewritten. We are being gradually taught that the dark ages were not so dark as our conceptions of them; that some of our favorite historical villains may yet be saved; and that many of the gods we have worshipped had very few claims to divinity. The very fact of there being such a repertoire of historical materials created by the labors of those forty monks of different monasteries; the existence of a voluminous and important controversy involving the vital questions of religion, and argued with scholarship, logical acuteness, wit, and vigor; the works of piety, art, and architecture which have come down to us from that age--must convince us that, however rude the physical mode {816} of life may have been, the intellectual activity and mental calibre of the men of those days, when we remember their immense disadvantages, were little inferior to those of our day. We produce many things, but not many great things; but the labors of mediaeval monasticism were not _multa sed multum_, and they live now, and probably will live when much of this multiform literature of our times will be obliterated by the impartial, discriminating hand of time.

We cannot pass over this period of what we may call national Latin literature--that is, when the literatures of all nations were written in Latin--without noticing the history of one book which has ever stood out prominently from the mass of mediaeval productions, not only from its intrinsic excellence, but from the unfathomable mystery connected with its authorship. We allude to the treatise De lmitatione Christi, popularly attributed to Thomas à Kempis. His claim rests chiefly upon the fact that the first printed copy was made from a manuscript written by him and signed "Finitus et completus Anno Domino, 1441, per manus patris Thomae Kempis in monte S. Agnetis prope Swoll." But there is in this subscription no evidence of authorship; it was the usual formula appended to copies. Kempis was an inveterate copyist, and it will be a sufficient proof of the untenable nature of this argument if we mention that a copy of the Bible made by him is subscribed in a similar manner--"Finitus et completus Anno Domini, 1439, in Vigilia S. Jacobi Apostoli per manus Fratris Thomae à Kempis ad laudem Dei in Monasterio S. Agnetis." There is no evidence, therefore, of authorship in the subscription of the MS.

But doubts existed soon after the publication of the work about its authorship, and another MS. was discovered at Arône bearing the inscription, "Incipiunt capitula primi libri Abbatis Johannis _Gesen_ De Imitatione Christi et contemptu omnium vauitatum mundi," and at the end was written "explicit liber quartus et ultimus Abbatis Johannis _Gersen_ de Sacramento Altaris." The house in which this document was found belonged to the company of Jesus, but as it had formerly been held by Benedictines, some vigilant members of that active body at once declared it must have been written by one of their order. They managed to get possession of it, and immediately brought it out with the addition in the title after the name of Gersen of "Abbatis Ordinis Sti. Benedicti." Then commenced that celebrated controversy between the two monastic orders, the Augustines, who advocated the claims of Thomas à Kempis, and the Benedictines, who fought for Gersen. A volume might be written easily upon the bare history of that controversy, as some hundreds of volumes were during its progress. It began immediately after the publication of this Benedictine claim in the year 1616, and it raged in different countries in Europe for more than two centuries, the last controversy coming to a conclusion in 1832, which arose from the discovery of a MS. at Paris, copied in 1550, and a document purporting that it was bequeathed to one of the De' Avogadri family in the year 1347. This further confirmation of the antiquity of the work gave rise to the last controversy which ended like all the others in increasing the doubt as to Thomas à Kempis's authorship and the uncertainty of the whole question.

We think it can be shown that the De lmitatione was known before the birth of Thomas à Kempis, and about the time of the existence of Gersen; but the evidence of the claim of the Gersenites is so slender that the mere chronological coincidence is not sufficient to maintain it. Passages have been collected from works written long before the time of à Kempis word for word the same as in the De Imitatione. In the conferences of Bonaventura to the people of Toulouse, written about 1260, there are many such passages; {817} and in an office written by Thomas Aquinas for the Pope Urban IV., about the same time, there are many other passages. [Footnote 226] In fact, in the Conferences a whole paragraph is quoted verbatim, concluding with the phrase, "as may be seen in the pious book on the 'Imitation of Christ.'" Criticism has labored diligently to discover in its text evidences indicative of the nationality of the author, but they have ended in contradictions which seem to insinuate that it might be the joint production of pious minds in different countries, which would leave to Thomas à Kempis the honor of having collected and arranged them into one form. However, instead of wasting time over a fruitless investigation, we prefer taking the book as it is with its wealth of spirituality, with its calm beauty, its power of soothing the perturbed spirit, its subtle analyses of the human heart [Footnote 227] and the springs of human action, its encouragement to a godly life, its fervor, its eloquence, and its strange power; and we are driven to the conclusion that it is the most marvellous book ever produced--most marvellous from the universal influence it has exerted over the minds of men of all creeds, ages, and countries, and from its adaptability to the common yearnings of all humanity. Like the gospel, of which it is the exponent, and therefore from which it derives the quality, it stands out in its marked individuality, in the midst of every phase of life through which it has passed, a distinct thing, having nothing in common with the world or worldly pursuits, but trying to wean men from them, or at least from allowing them to gain an ascendency over their affections. In the present age this isolation is more striking. We are far too philosophical, too scientific, too logical, to attend to the ascetic ravings of this "monkish" book. The business of life runs high with us, runs too noisily, to allow us to listen to its small voice. We are so deeply engaged in the pursuits of pleasure and the acquisition of wealth, that we have no time for the "Imitation of Christ." We are involved in great undertakings--Atlantic telegraphs, principles of physical science, railway committees, parliamentary reforms, and drainage questions, absorb all our attention. But philosophy, science, and logic fail to exempt humanity from its ills. The hour comes when man falls sick, sick unto death; then in that moment when philosophy deserts pain, and science affords no consolation; when logic is dumb, and the soul with instinctive apprehension is clamoring for help, then is the moment for such a book as this. And it was in such a moment that La Harpe, cast into a dungeon of the Luxembourg, with nothing but death before him, accidentally meeting with this book, and opening its pages at the words "Ecce adsum! Ecce ad te venio quia vocasti me. Lacrymae tuae et desiderium animae tuae, humiliatio tua et contritio cordis inclinaverunt me et adduxerunt ad te," [Footnote 228] he fell upon his face heartbroken and in tears. We must conclude this portion of the subject by repeating that the Latin language retained its position as the language of literature until the time of the Reformation. But during the fourteenth century there was a tendency to blend the two vernacular tongues spoken in England--the French and the Saxon. In the struggle for precedence the Saxon conquered, and out of it came the present vigorous idiom spoken by the English; but nothing of any consequence was written in this tongue until it became settled and confirmed.

[Footnote 226: These passages may be seen collected in parallel columns in a work by M. De Gregory on L'Histoire du Livre de l'Imitation. Paris,1843.]

[Footnote 227: Vide the analysis of Temptation, lib. I., c. xiii., and the well-known chapter on the Royal Road of the cross, lib. II., c xii.]

[Footnote 228: "De Imi., lib. III., c. xxi., sec. 6. Behold me! behold I come to thee because thou hast called me. Thy tears and the desire of thy soul, thy humiliation and contrition of heart have inclined and led me unto thee."]

We now advance to the consideration of one of the most beautiful emanations of Christianity in the world---her hymns. We take up these {818} hymns of the church, and we find that they bear testimony, not only literary but historical, as to the state of the church at any given time, and certainly one of the best and purest testimonies that can be found. Few, if any, writers have sufficiently investigated this branch of ecclesiastical history, the evidence of the hymnology of the church. If we appeal to her controversial theology we shall find invariably a mass of one-sided representation, mutual vituperation, and invective; if we go to ecclesiastical history we shall find that those histories are written by minds working under the bias of some inclination toward sect or theory; but if we take up the hymns of the church we shall have the pure, free, outspoken voice of the church--we shall see, as it were, its internal organization, its emotions, its aspirations, its thoughts, living, throbbing, palpitating--the very heart of the church itself.

The song of Christianity has never ceased in the world; it has continued in an unbroken strain. It began at its very outset in the song of the mother of its founder, and it has been going on ever since. As the voice of one age dies away, the strain is taken up by the next. It has sunk at times into a low plaintive melody, and at others mounted into a grand swelling psalm, heard above the noise of the world, which ceases its strife to listen· to its music. Of this melody we shall now endeavor to give a brief history. We begin at the coming of our Lord; but the whole worship of the true God is marked by the psalmody of rejoicing hearts. The children of Israel by the Red Sea broke out into the first recorded song; a considerable portion of the Scripture is in that form; Jesus with his disciples sung a hymn at the Last Supper; the apostles continued the practice, and from post-apostolic times there have come down to us three great hymns, whose origin is lost in their remote antiquity--the Ter Sanctus, the Gloria in Excelsis, and the Te Deum. These hymns were used in the very earliest ages of the church. Of the latter there is a legend that it was sung by Ambrose spontaneously at the baptism of Augustine.

The periods of hymnology may be divided into two great sections--the earliest or Greek period, extending to the dawn of the fourth century, when the second or Latin division commences; and this latter may be subdivided into three parts--the Ambrosian, the Barbarian, and the Mediaeval. The earliest Greek hymns are anonymous; there is one to Christ on the Cross:--

"Thou who on the sixth day and hour Didst nail to the cross the sin Which Adam dared in Paradise, Read also the handwriting at our transgressions, O Christ our Lord! and save us."

There is one on repentance, commencing:--

"Receive thy servant, my Saviour, Falling before thee with tears, my Saviour, And save, Jesus, me repenting."

And a simple doxology:--

"God is my hope, Christ is my refuge, The Holy Spirit is my vesture. Holy Trinity, glory to thee!"

The first name of a hymn-writer which has reached us is that of Clement of Alexandria, who lived toward. the close of the second century. One of his hymns is called, Hymn of the Saviour. But it is recorded by St. Basil that a hymn was well known in the first and second centuries, called, Hail, Gladdening Light! which was sung in the churches at the lighting of the lamps:--

"Hail, Jesus Christ! hail, gladdening light Of the immortal father's glory bright! Blessed of all saints beneath the sky, And of the heavenly company!

"Now, while the sun is setting, Now, while the light grows dim, To Father, Son, and Spirit, We raise our evening hymn.

"Worthy thou, while time shall dure, To be hymned by voices pure. Son of God, of life the giver, Thee the world shall praise forever!"

There were several Syriac hymns at this period. Ephraim Syrus, a {819} monk, and deacon of Mesopotamia. wrote, The Children in Paradise, On Palm Sunday, The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and another, called, The Lament of a Father on the death of his Son, which used to be sung at the funerals of children. Gregory of Nazianzen is the best known of the Greek hymn-writers. There are two hymns to Christ extant by him, and an evening hymn. In one of the hymns to Christ the following passage occurs:--

"Unfruitful, sinful, bearing weeds and thorns, Fruits of the curse--ah! whither shall I flee? O Christ, most blessed! bid my fleeting days Flow heavenward, Christ, sole fount of hope to me!

"The enemy is near--to thee I cling! Strengthen, oh! strengthen me by might divine; Let not the trembling bird be from thine altar driven-- Save me--it is thy will, O Christ!--save me, for I am thine."

Gregory's life was spent in a continual conflict with Arianism. At the age of fifty he went to Constantinople, and as all the churches were in the hands of the Arians, he preached in the house of a relative. He was soon subject to persecution, was pelted in the streets, arrested, tried, and with much difficulty acquitted. Ultimately he succeeded; the Arian heresy passed away; the house where he had so faithfully preached became the Church of "Anastasia;" the truth had risen there. But time, though it brought success, had left him a sad, lonely old man. He was made Patriarch of Constantinople by the Emperor Theodosius; but he had lost all his dearest relatives, and he threw up his dignity and retired from the world. In that retirement he wrote a beautiful hymn, which sums up his life. We quote the first and last verses:--

"Where are the winged words? Lost in the air. Where the fresh flower of youth and glory? Gone! The strength of well-knit limbs? Brought low by care. Wealth? Plundered. None possess but God alone. Where those dear parents who my life first gave, And where that holy twain, brother and sister? In the grave.

"This as thou wilt, the Day will all unite, Wherever scattered, when thy word is said; Rivers of fire; abysses without light, Thy great tribunal, these alone are dread. And thou, O Christ my King, art fatherland to me-- Strength, wealth, eternal rest, yea all, I find in thee." [Footnote 229]

[Footnote 229: These extracts from translations of Greek hymns are quoted from The Christian Life in Song, where the full versions may be seen.]

St. Andrew of Crete, St. John of Damascus, St. Cosmas, Bishop of Maiuma, and Chrysostom, were amongst the Greek hymn-writers. Their productions are characterized by the greatest simplicity and fervor, reliance upon Christ and love to God being the most prominent topics. We now come to the period of Latin hymns, and we begin with the first or Ambrosian division. The principal writers are Ambrose, Hilary, and St. Prudentius. Augustine, in his Confessions, quotes one of Ambrose's hymns, as having repeated it when lying awake in bed, "Atque ut eram in lecto meo solus, recordatus sum veridicos versus Ambrosii tui: Tu es enim. [Footnote 230 ]

[Footnote 230: August. Confess., lib. ix., c. 12.]

"Deus creator omnium Polique rector, vestiens Diem decoro lumine Noctem sopora gratia.

"Artus solutos ut quies Reddat laboris usul, Mentesque fessas adievet Lactusque solvat anxios."

Ambrose was born about the year 340; his father was a prefect of Gaul, and belonged to a noble family. Before the age of thirty he himself was consul of Liguria, and dwelt in Milan. Up to this time he had no notion of becoming an ecclesiastic. But Anxentius, the Arian bishop, having died, a dispute arose between the citizens of Milan and the emperor, as to who should appoint the successor, each trying to evade the responsibility. It was left to the people; the city was in a state of great excitement, and a tumultuous assemblage filled the cathedral, in the midst of whom appeared Ambrose in his civil capacity, to command peace, and it is said that in the lull which ensued, a voice was heard crying, "Ambrose is bishop," which the whole mass of people, seized by a sudden impulse, repeated. {820} Soon afterward he was ordained and consecrated. The majority of the people were opposed to Arianism, and he was soon involved in a dispute with the Empress Justina, who required him to give up the Portian Basilica to the Arians. He refused, and accompanied by a multitude of people, took possession of the church, and fastened the doors. The imperial troops besieged them for several days, during which time the people kept singing the hymns of Ambrose. Monica, the mother of Augustine, is said to have been amongst the crowd in the church. One of Ambrose's hymns was used for centuries as a morning hymn, called Hymn at the Cock-crowing; another Advent hymn, Veni Creator gentium; one for Easter, Hic est dies verus Dei. St. Hilary, Bishop of Arles in the sixth century, is the next of the Ambrosian period; the best known of his hymns is that to the morning, Lucis largitor splendide. But the most prominent name of the period after Ambrose is Prudentius, who was born about 348, practised in the courts as a pleader, and in his fifty-seventh year forsook the world, and spent the rest of his days in religious exercises. One of his great hymns is for Epiphany, O sola magnarum urbium, another on the Innocents, Salvete flores martyrum; but the hymn most known is a very beautiful, perhaps his most beautiful composition, a funeral hymn, beginning Jam maesta quiesce querela. After the reformation, this hymn was adopted by the German Protestants as their favorite funeral hymn, their version beginning "Hört auf mil Trauern und Klagen."

The resurrection of the body is thus expressed--

"Non si cariosa vetustas Dissolverit ossa favillis Fueritque cinisculus arens Minimi mensura pugilli:

"Nec si vaga flamina et aurae Vacuum per inane volantes Tulerint cum pulvere nervos Hominem periisse licebit"

"For though, through the slow lapse of ages, These mouldering bones should grow old, Reduced to a handful of ashes. A child in its hands may enfold.

"Though flames should consume it and breezes Invisibly float it away, Yet the body of man cannot perish, Indestructible through its decay."

The next period of hymnology is what we have termed the barbarian, because it began at the time when the northern invaders were settling down in the various parts of Europe, which had fallen to their arms. Though not so fertile in hymns, yet some beautiful things were produced in this period. We shall only mention three hymn-writers--Gregory the Great, Venantius Fortunatus, and Bede. The principal hymn of Gregory's is the Veni Creator Spiritus; but the most distinguished hymn-writer of this era is Fortunatus; he was an Italian, born about 530; a gay poet, the delight of society, until Queen Radegunda persuaded him to be ordained, and to settle at Poictiers, where she, having left her husband, was presiding over a monastic establishment. There is a beautiful hymn of his, which commences--

"Pange lingua gloriosi Praelium certaminis."

We quote two verses (v. i. and viii.) of the late Dr. Neale's translation:

I.

"Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle, With completed victory rife. And above the cross's trophy, Tell the triumph of the strife; How the world's Redeemer conquered, By surrendering of his life.

VIII.

"Faithful cross, above all other, One and only noble tree, None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit, compares with thee; Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, Sweetest weight sustaining free."

A portion of one of his poems, on the resurrection of our Lord, was sung in the Church for ten centuries as an Easter hymn. It commences, Salve festa dies toto venerabilis aevo. [Footnote 231] In another of his poems, De Cruce Christi, there occurs a beautiful image of the Cross as the tree around which the True Vine is clinging:

"Appensa est vitis inter tua brachia, de qua Dulcia sanguineo vina rubore fluunt." [Footnote 232]

[Footnote 231: Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 152.]

[Footnote 232: For the whole see Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, p.130.]

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But his most celebrated hymn is the one written on the occasion of the sending the true cross by the emperor to Radegunda, at the consecration of a church at Poictiers. It is called Vexilla Regis prodeunt:

I.

"The royal banners forward go, The cross shines forth with mystic glow, Where he in flesh, our flesh who made, Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.

VI.

"With fragrance dropping from each bough, Sweeter than sweetest nectar thou: Decked with the fruit of peace and praise, And glorious with triumphant lays.

VIl.

"Hall, altar! hail, O Victim! Thee Decks now thy passion's victory, Where life for sinners death endured, And life by death for man procured." [Footnote 233]

[Footnote 233: Dr. Neale's Mediaeval Hymns.]

Bede the Venerable wrote hymns also; the two best known are the Hymnum canamus gloriae, and Hymnum canentes martyrum.

We now advance to the last and richest of all the periods of hymnology, the mediaeval. The list is headed with the royal name of Robert II. of France, who wrote, hymns, one of which is a Veni Sancte Spiritus. Peter Damian, the cardinal bishop of Ostia, who died in 1072, wrote many hymns, but the two greatest are De Die Mortis and Ad perennis vitae fontem. [Footnote 234] Adam of St. Victor was another prolific hymn-writer; thirty-six of his productions are extant, and well known. [Footnote 235]

[Footnote 234: Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, pp. 278, 315. ]

[Footnote 235: Ibid., pp. 53. 111, 160, 202, 212, 227.]

Peter the Venerable and Thomas à Kempis have also left hymns behind them. But it was reserved for Archbishop Trench to dig out of the mouldering relics of the past a hymn written by a monk of Clugny, one Bernard de Morlaix, the translation of which, by Dr. Neale, has supplied the church of every denomination with favorite hymns; The most general name by which it is known is Jerusalem the Golden. The original is a poem of about three thousand lines, called De Contemptu Mundi, a melancholy satire upon the corruptions of the times. The first appearance of it in print, is in a collection of poems, De Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu, by Flacius Illyricus. We cannot speak too highly of this poem of Bernard, nor of the merits of Dr. Neale's translation. The original is written in one of the most difficult of all metres, technically called "leonini cristati trilices daetylici," a dactylic hexameter, divided into three parts, with a tailed rhyme and rhymes between the two first clauses. Dr. Neale gives a specimen of this verse in English:

"Time will be _ending soon_, heaven will be _rending soon_, fast we and pray we; Come the most merciful; comes the most terrible, watch we while may we."

The imagery in the original poem is gorgeous; but Dr. Neale has exceeded the original [Footnote 236] in many parts of his translation'. We add a few gems. The opening lines are--

"Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt vigilemus! Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus. Imminet, imminet, ut mala terminet, aequa coronet Recta remuneret, anxia liberet aethera donet."

"The world is very evil, The times are waxing late, Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate; The Judge that comes in mercy, The Judge that comes with might, To terminate the evil, To diadem the right."

[Footnote 236: The best edition of this poem is the little shilling volume by Dr. Neale, called the Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, published by Hayes, Lyall-place, Eaton-square. It contains between two and three hundred of the original lines, with Dr. Neale's complete translation.]

Dr. Neale has proved himself a true poet in this translation; the rendering is most happy, and the whole version forms one of the finest sacred poems in the language. The lines--

"Patria luminis, inscia turbinis, inscia litis. Cive replebitur amplificabitur lsraelitis Patria splendida, terraque florida, libera spinis Danda fidelibus est ibi civibus, hic peregrinis,"

are thus happily rendered--

"And the sunlit land that reeks not Of tempest nor of fight Shall fold within its bosom Each happy Israelite; The home of fadeless splendor, Of flowers that fear no thorn, Where they shall dwell as children, Who here as exiles mourn."

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Then the episode--

"Sunt radiantia jaspide moenia clara pyropo."

"With jaspers glow thy bulwarks, Thy streets with emeralds blaze, The sardius and the topaz Unite in thee their rays; Thine ageless walls are bonded With amethyst unpriced; The saints build up its fabric, And the corner·stone is Christ. * * * * * Thou hast no shore, fair ocean! Thou hast no time, bright day! Dear fountain of refreshment. To pilgrims far away. * * * * * They stand, those halls of Sion, Conjubilant with song, And bright with many an angel And all the martyr throng; The Prince is ever in them, Their daylight is serene; The pastures of the blessed Are decked in glorious sheen. There is the throne of David, And there, from care released, The song of them that triumph, The shout of them that feast; And they who, with their leader, Have conquered in the fight, For ever and for ever Are clad in robes of white."

But we must pause, for to give all the beauties of this poem would be to transcribe the whole. Another St. Bernard, the well-known abbot of Clairvaux, was a contemporary with him of Clugny. He was one of the most influential men of his age, a man far in advance of it; the adviser of popes and the confidant of kings. Many hymns are attributed to him, one of the most beautiful being that known as Jesu Dulcis Memoria. In Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry there is a selection of fifteen verses, but the original consists of forty-eight verses. [Footnote 237] It is a fine specimen of the ardent loving poetry so characteristic of the period. A very beautiful version, or rather imitation of this poem, is extant in the Harleian MSS., written in the reign of Edward I., and as it is a very good specimen of the English of the period, and represents the spirit of the original, we venture to quote a verse or two. [Footnote 238]

[Footnote 237: Sti. Bernardi Clarae Vallensis Opp: Benedictine edition, vol. ii., p. 895.]

[Footnote 238: Printed also in the Percy Society's Publications, vol. iv., p. 68.]

I.

"Jesu, suete is the love of thee, Nothing so suete may be; Al that may with eyen se Haveth no suetnesse ageynes the.

XIV.

"Jhesu, when ich thenke on the, And loke upon the rode tre; Thi suete body to-toren se, Hit maketh heorte to smerte me.

XVIII.

"Jhesu, my saule drah the to, Min heorte opene ant wyde undo; This hure of love to drynke so, That fleysshliche lust be al for-do.

XLV.

"Jesut thin help at myn endyng, Ant ine that dredful out-wendyng Send mi soule god weryying, That y ne drede non eovel thing."

We can only notice one other grand hymn, selected also from a long poem of Bernard, addressed to the different portions of the body of Christ on the cross. This is from the Ad Faciem, and commences-- [Footnote 239]

[Footnote 239: For the Latin, see Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 139.]

"Salve caput cruentatum Totum spinis coronatum."

As it is one of the finest mediaeval hymns, and has been translated into nearly all European languages, we give the translation:--

"Hail! thou head so bruised and wounded, With the crown of thorns surrounded; Smitten with the mocking reed, Wounds which may not cease to bleed, Trickling faint and slow. Hail! from whose most blessed brow None can wipe the blood drops now. All the flower of life has fled; Mortal paleness there instead. Thou, before whose presence dread, Angels trembling bow.

"All thy vigor and thy life Fading in this bitter strife; Death his stamp on thee has set, Hollow and emaciate, Faint and drooping there. Thou, this agony and scorn, Hast for me a sinner borne; Me, unworthy--all for me, With those signs of love on thee. Glorious face appear!

"Yet in this thine agony, Faithful shepherd, think of me; From whose lips of love divine Sweetest draughts of life are mine, Purest honey flows, All unworthy of thy thought, Guilty, yet reject me not; Unto me thy head incline. Let that dying head of thine In mine arms repose.

"Let me true communion know With thee in thy sacred woe, Counting all beside but dross, Dying with thee on the cross; 'Neath it will I die. Thanks to thee with every breath. Jesus, for thy bitter death; Grant thy guilty one this prayer-- When my dying hour is near, t Gracious God, be nigh.

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"When my dying hour must be, Be not absent then from me; In that dreadful hour I pray Jesus come without delay, See and set me free. When thou biddest me depart, Whom I cleave to with my heart, Lover of my soul be near, With thy saving cross appear; Show thyself to me," [Footnote 240]

[Footnote 240: Quoted in Christian Life in Song.]

There is an excellent version of this in German in the Passion Hymn of Paul Gerhard, beginning--

"O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, Voll Schmerz und voller Hohn!"

But the grandest of all the mediaeval hymns is that attributed to Thomas of Celano, known as the Dies Irae. Its authorship is uncertain; it burst upon the world after a long silence in the church, like some strain wafted over the earth on the winds of heaven. It has always been the favorite hymn for solemnities in every country. In Germany upward of sixty translations have been made of it. Goethe has effectively introduced it into the "Faust" in the cathedral scene, where Marguerite is tempted by the evil spirit, who, when the choir chanted the words--

"Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla,"

whispers sardonically into her ear--

"Grimm fasst dich! Die Posaune tönt! Die Gräber beben! Und dein Herz, Aus Aschenruh Zu Flammenquallen Wieder aufgeschaffen Bebt auf;"

and so on through the whole scene, corrupting the meaning of the hymn in the mind of the broken-hearted girl. It was muttered by the dying lips of Walter Scott, and has employed the genius of such men as Schlegel, Fichte, and Herder. We give one passage--

"Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae, Ne me perdas illa die.

"Querens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus, Tantus labor non sit cassus."

"Think of me, good Lord, I pray, Who troddest for me the bitter way, Nor forsake me in that day.

"Weary sat'st thou seeking me, Diedst redeeming in the tree, Not in vain such toil can be."

The mediaeval period was one rich in art and active in intellectual work. The great difference between that age and this is, that in mediaeval times intellectual life was concentrated, and now it is spread abroad; we get more books and readers, but less great books and thinkers. Perhaps there has never been a time of such vigorous intellectual effort in England, unless we except the Elizabethan age, than that of the scholastic controversies of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. It was in this age, too, that the essentially mediaeval art of illumination flourished in all the lettered monasteries of Europe, the age when all the great cathedrals were built; and when that enchanting song whose notes we have just been listening to was improvised and sung. The God who presides over the economy of nature presides also over that of life. His hand is in both, upholding, protecting, guiding. We take up a phase of human history like this mediaeval phase, and to us it appears contradictory, objectless, useless; but we must remember that it is but one part of the great economy, that as every phase of nature has its separate use, so every period in the history of humanity contributes its share to the general result. There are no arid dark wastes in history any more than in nature. Progressing geographical science is gradually revealing to our minds the fact that Central Africa is not the deadly useless desert of our imagination, but is probably belted and intersected with rivers, whose fertilizing power has only to be applied. So a progressive historical science is rapidly clearing away the darkness of these dark ages, revealing to us treasures which have long lain hidden. We speak of the past as antiquity, and we are apt to associate the idea of age with it, just as we look {824} toward the present as youthful and new. But we must remember that antiquity really belongs to the present as the result of time, and that the past was the youth. So when we go back into these past ages of the church we must regard them as her youth, and instead of quarrelling with the follies and wantonness inseparable from immaturity, endeavour to do our best to help on the great consummation of her mission in the world, knowing well that although the hey-day of her youth is past, she has not yet attained her full maturity; and in times of despair, when schism is rife, when the sons of her bosom desert her, when men harden themselves against her love and forsake her, ever bear in mind the promise of her great head and founder, "Upon this rock I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Translated from the French.

ROBERT; OR, THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD MOTHER.