Introduction.
lines of ordinary human emotions. It follows the meaſure and catches the melody and adopts the ſentiment of its original; but it is of inferior texture, and in places its pathos verges on the extravagant. 4. One or the other of theſe two poems has the fundamental element of imitation; it is neceſſarily a clever piece of literary workmanſhip, following the other in stanza, in meaſure, in words, and often in the repetition of lines; it may be melodious, poetical, beautiful, but confeſſedly it cannot be in the true ſenſe of the term original. If I muſt chooſe between the two, I do not heſitate to ſay that the ſecondary poem is the Specioſa. The Stabat Mater ſeems to me one of thoſe marvelous outburſts which ſeize the hearts and imaginations of men and come down the centuries with unabated power.
IV.
The Veni Sancte Spiritus is ſtill repreſented by a ſingle tranſlation, that of Catherine Winkworth, which is indeed but a tranſlation of a tranſlation, the German. The reader will find a much more actual rendering in Mrs. Charles'
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