majestic course to perfect in its own good time, what she cannot extort from it; for the gradual drifting of precious things upon her shore, now one and now another, out of which she may complete her rosary and enrich her beads,—beads and rosary more pure and true than those which at the command of duty she flung away.

As far as we know, the public Hymns of the early Church were not much more than the following. First, starting from Scripture, she adopted the repetition of the Hallelujah, which is described by St. John, in the Revelations, to be the chant of the blessed inhabitants of heaven. Next may be mentioned the Gloria Patri, pretty much as we now use it. Thirdly, the Trisagion, or “Holy, Holy, Holy,” from Isaiah vi.; or, as it was also used, and now is, in the Roman Church, “Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis.” Besides these, there was the Morning or Angelic Hymn, beginning with the words used by the Angels at the nativity; and for the evening the Hymn beginning “Hail gladdening Light,” preserved by St. Basil. These are not metrical, as they were afterwards; nor are two others of a later date, which we still retain, the Te Deum and the Athanasian Creed. They are both of Gallican origin, though the former has been ascribed to St. Ambrose. Others, however, now extant, are certainly his; others are the compositions of St. Hilary, Prudentius, St. Gregory, and later saints. It is not too much to say then that, judging by what we know of the Hymns of the primitive Church, we should not be dissatisfied with the paucity of those which custom has, with a sort of tacit authority, introduced among us in the course of several centuries.

More, doubtless, might be selected from the writings of our sacred Poets; but since, from unhappy circumstances, such a work does not seem likely at the present day, thoughtful minds naturally revert to the discarded collections of the ante-reform era, discarded because of associations with which they were then viewed, and of the interpolations by which they were disfigured; but which, when purified from these, are far more profitable to the Christian than the light and wanton effusions which are their present substitute among us. Nay, even such as the Parisian, which are here first presented to the reader, which have no equal claims to antiquity, breathe an ancient spirit; and even where they are the work of one pen, are the joint and invisible contribution of many ancient minds. Moreover, the ancient language used has a tendency to throw the reader out of every-day thoughts and familiar associations, and to make him fervent without ceasing to be mortified. Many a man could bear to read the Canticles in a foreign language who is unequal to it in his own.

It only remains to say, that the following selection of Hymns, from the Paris Breviary, has been confined to such holy days and seasons as are recognized by our Church, or to special events or things recorded in Scripture; those Hymns, however, being omitted which contained invocations to the Saints of such a nature as to be, even in the largest judgment of charity, not mere apostrophes, but supplications.

J. H. N.

February 21, 1838.

Hymni Ordinarii 1

Hymni de Tempore 26

Commune et Proprium de Festis 105

Commune Sanctorum 167

Doxologiae 211

HYMNI.

DOMINICA.

Per Hebdomadam.