evidence of his peculiar adaptation for the task which he undertook, that in the most plain and unpoetical of them all, he has, generally speaking, succeeded in preserving all the plainness and simplicity of the original. without permitting it to degenerate into commonplace, or, at least, into inelegance."
A very great merit of Mr. Caswall's collection is its completeness. Catholics need not be told that any mere arbitrary selection of a portion of the hymns of the Breviary,—of the Missal,—a portion of the Sequences,—involves in itself a contradiction and an injury. Not that many of these compositions are wanting in poetical and devotional beauties of a very high order. But the hymns of the Breviary office of the Church, for instance, though the work of many hands, the production of different times, and the offspring of various circumstances and occasions, form now, as presented to us by the Church, a harmonious and connected whole; of which, no part, even the smallest, is without its settled purpose and significance,—hidden and mystical it may be, but all contributing to the general fitness and beauty,—none which can be separated without damage to itself and the unity of the design.
Thus, to quote again the journal already alluded