THE DIES IRÆ.
A FRANCISCAN monk named Thomas, born near the beginning of the thirteenth century, at Celano, a Neapolitan village, achieved ſome reputation in his time as the friend and biographer of St. Francis de Aſſiſi, founder of the Order of Minorites. About the year 1250, as is ſuppoſed, he wrote a brief lyric, which, reaching above and beyond his creed and time, has entered in ſome form into the worſhip of every Chriſtian people. In the Romiſh Burial Service it forms the Sequence for the Dead, and is ſung with ſolemn majeſty at the great Sixtine Chapel, while portions of it enter into the praiſe or meditations of nearly "all who profeſs and call themſelves Chriſtians." So that, becoming more highly eſteemed, and more generally known with each century of its long hiſtory, it is at the preſent time both ſung at Rome and approved by all Proteſtant Chriſtendom.
