has been a bow of Ulysses to translators. The translation above given claims no other merit than an attempt to unite the best portions of the four best translations with which I am acquainted—Mr. Wackerbarth's, Dr. Pusey's, that of the Leeds book, and Mr. Caswall's, (which last, however, omits the double rhymes.) Chiefly where, as in the first line, and the fourth and fifth verses, all seemed to me to fail, I have ventured another attempt,—possibly to display another failure. In the latter, the two concluding lines, Præstet fides supplementum Sensuum defectui, are avoided by all. The versions are: "Faith the senses dark refining Mysteries to comprehend:" "Faith, thine earnest adoration, Passing eye and touch, present." Mr. Caswall's translation, unshackled by rhyme, is nearest; "Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail."
The great crux of the translator is the fourth verse. I give all the translations. 1. "God the Word by one word maketh Very Bread His Flesh to be: And whoso that Cup partaketh, Tastes the Fount of Calvary: While the carnal mind forsaketh, Faith receives the Mystery." Here the incarnation of the Word, so necessary to the antithesis, is omitted; and so exact a writer as S. Thomas would never have used the expression by one word. 2. "At the Incarnate Word's high bidding, Very Bread to Flesh doth turn: Wine becometh Christ's Blood-shedding: And, if sense cannot discern, Guileless spirits, never dreading, May from Faith sufficient learn." Here, the antithesis is utterly lost, by the substitution of Incarnate for made flesh, and bidding for word, to say nothing of Blood-shedding for Blood. 3. "Word
