HYMNS [BRITISH. the church seasons and festivals, including saints days ; hymns for various public occasions ; and hymns of prayer, meditation, and instruction, for a great number of different sorts and conditions of men and women, in a variety of the circumstances incident to human life, being at once a " Christian Year " and a manual of practical piety. Many of them rise to a very high point of excellence, particularly the "general invitation to praise God" ("Come, O come, in pious lays "), with which Hallelujah opens ; the Thanks givings for Peace and for Victory, the Coronation Hymn, a Christmas, an Epiphany, and an Easter Hymn, and one for St Bartholomew s day (Hymns 1, 74, 75, and 84 in part i., and 26, 29, 36, and 54 in part ii., of Hallelujah). All these are properly entitled to the designation of hymns, which can hardly be conceded to some others, of singular beauty, viz., the Cradle-song ("Sleep, baby, sleep, what ails my dear"), the Anniversary Marriage Song ("Lord, living here are we "), the Perambulation Song (" Lord, it hath pleased Thee to say"), the Song for Lovers ("Come, sweet heart, come, let us prove "), the Song for the Happily Married (" Since they in singing take delight "), and that for a Shepherd ("Renowned men their herds to keep") (Nos. 50 in the first part, 17 arid 24 in the second, and 20, 21, and 41 in the third). There is also in the second part a fine song (ISTo 59), full of historical as well as poetical interest, upon the evil times in which the poet lived, beginning Now are the times, these are the days, Which will those men approve Who take delight in honest ways And pious courses love ; Now to the world it will appear That innocence of heart Will keep us far more free from fear Than helmet, shield, or dart. " Wither wrote, generally, in a pure nervous English idiom, and preferred the reputation of "rusticity" (an epithet applied to him even by Baxter) to the tricks and artifices of poetical style which were then in favour. It may be partly on that account that he has been better appreciated by posterity than by his contemporaries. Co.jin. Cosin, afterwards bishop of Durham, published in 1627 a volume of " Private Devotions," for the canonical hours and other occasions. In this there are seven or eight hymns of considerable merit, among them a very good version of the Ambrosian " Jam lucis orto sidere," and the shorter version of the " Veni Creator," which was introduced after the Restoration into the consecration and ordination services of the Church of England. Milton. The hymns of Milton (on the Nativity, Passion, Circum cision, and " at a Solemn Music"), written about 1629, in his early manhood, were probably not intended for singing; but they are odes full of characteristic beauty and power. Jeremy During the Commonwealth, in 1654, Jeremy Taylor pub- Taylor, lighed^ a t the end of his Golden Grove, twenty-one hymns, described by himself as " celebrating the mysteries and chief festivals of the year, according to the manner of the ancient church, fitted to the fancy and devotion of the younger and pious persons, apt for memory, and to be joined to their other prayers." Of these, his accomplished editor, Bishop Hcber, justly says : " They are in themselves, and on their own account, very inter esting compositions. Their metre, indeed, which is that species of spurious Pindaric which was fashionable with his contemporaries, is an obstacle, and must always have. been one, to their introduction into public or private psalmody ; and the mixture of that alloy of conceits and quibbles which was an equally frequent and still greater defilement of some of the finest poetry of the 17th century will materially diminish their effect as devotional or descriptive odes. Yet, with all these faults, they are powerful, affecting, and often harmonious ; there are many passages of which Cowley need not have been ashamed, and some which remind us, not disadvantage- ously, of the corresponding productions of Milton." He mentions particularly the Advent hymn (" Lord, come away "), part of the hymn " On Heaven," and (as " more regular in metre, and in words more applicable to public devotion ") the " Prayer for Charity " (" Full of mercy, full of love "). The epoch of the Restoration produced in 1664 Samuel Rest Grossman s Young Han s Catting, with a few " Divine tion Meditations" in verse attached to it; in 1668 John peri Austin s Devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices, with psalms, hymns, and prayers for every day in the week and every holyday in the year; and in 1681 Richard Baxter s Poetical Fragments, In these books there are altogether seven or eight hymns, the whole or parts of which are extremely good: Grossman s " New Jerusalem " ("Sweet place, sweet place alone "), one of the best of that class, and "My life s a shade, my days;" Austin s "Hark, my soul, how everything," " Fain would my thoughts fly up to Thee," "Lord, now the time returns," "Wake all my hopes, lift up your eyes ;" and Baxter s My whole, though broken heart, O Lord," and " Ye holy angels bright." Austin s Offices (he was a Roman Catholic) seem to have attracted much attention. Theophilus Dorrington, in 1686, and afterwards Hickes, the non-juror, published variations of them under the title of Reformed Devotions; and the Wesleys, in their earliest hymn-book, adopted hymns from them, with little alteration. These writers were followed by John Mason in 1683, and Thomas Shepherd in 1692, the former, a country clergyman, much esteemed by Baxter and other Nonconformists ; the latter himself a Nonconfor mist, who finally emigrated to America. Between these two men there was a close alliance, Shepherd s Penitential Cries being published as an addition to the Spiritual Songs of Mason. Their hymns came into early use in several Nonconformist congregations ; but, with the exception of one by Mason ("There is a stream which issues forth"), they are not suitable for public singing. In those of Mason there is often a very fine vein of poetry ; and later authors have, by extracts or centoes from different parts of his works (where they were not disfigured by his general quaintness), constructed several hymns of more than average excellence. Three other eminent names of the 17th century remain to be mentioned, John Dryden, Bishop Ken, and Bishop Simon Patrick ; with which may be associated that of . Addison, though he wrote in the 18th century. Dryden s translation of " A r eni Creator " (a cold and Dry laboured performance) is to be met with in many hymn- books. Abridgments of Ken s Morning and Evening Ken Hymns are in all. These, with the Midnight Hymn (not inferior to them), first appeared in 1697, appended to the third edition of the author s Manual of Prayers for Winchester Scholars. Between these and a large number of other hymns (on the Attributes of God, and for the Festivals of the Church) published by Bishop Ken after 1703 the contrast is remarkable. The universal acceptance of the Morning and Evening Hymns is due to their transparent simplicity, warm but not overstrained devotion, and extremely popular style. Those afterwards published have no such qualities. They are mystical, florid, stiff, didactic, and seldom poetical, and deserve the neglect into which they have fallen. Bishop Patrick s Pati hymns were chiefly translations from the Latin, most of them from Prudentius. The best is a version of "Alleluia dulce carmen." Of the five attributed to Addison, not Add more than three are adapted to public singing ; one (" The spacious firmament on high ") is a very perfect and finished composition, taking rank among the best hymns in the English language. 1 1 The authorship of this and of one other, " When all Thy mercies,
my God," has been made a subject of controversy, being claimed
