be thus transferred. A German theologian (Liſco, Berlin, 1843) has collected and publiſhed eighty-ſeven verſions, nearly all of which are in the German. In our Engliſh tongue the taſk of rendering the Latin into verſe of the ſame meaſure is more difficult, and ſome of our tranſlators have ſought to reproduce the form, and others to preſerve the power of the original. The reader of Scott will remember with what ſtrength a few ſtanzas burſt on us in the firſt reading of "The Lay." In form and meaning they hardly claim the name of a tranſlation, yet they have caught the ſpirit of the hymn with a vividneſs that nothing in our language equals.
The maſs was ſung, and prayers were ſaid,
And ſolemn requiem for the dead;
And bells toll'd out their mighty peal,
For the departed ſpirit's weal;
And ever in the office cloſe
The hymn of interceſſion roſe;
And far the echoing aiſles prolong
The awful burden of the ſong—
Dies Iræ, Dies Illa!
