Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/48

published in 1836, contained translations of fourteen Latin hymns. He carried on this work when he sought a new home. Dr. Julian holds that his influence on hymnody has not been of a marked character. He says, 'two brilliant original pieces, and a little more than half a dozen translations from the Latin, are all that can claim to rank with his inimitable prose.' We are inclined to consider this a just verdict, yet much may be said for Mr. Earle s view in the article on Roman Catholic Hymnody. He thinks Newman's influence, as 'in himself a type of rhythmical utterance, and the author of several hymns and translations of supreme [excellence', has been deep and widespread. His 'Praise to the Holiest in the height', from the 'Dream of Gerontius', is also a noble hymn, though it has not attained the popularity of the earlier piece. Edward Caswall’s version of St. Bernard’s 'Joyful Rhythm' on the Name of Jesus 'has become a national treasure'. It was published in his Lyra Catholica two years after he resigned his living and in the year before he was received into the Roman Catholic communion. Caswall’s translations of the Latin hymns are only surpassed in popularity by those of Dr. Neale. His faithfulness to the original and his purity of rhythm go far to explain the charm of his renderings. Frederick Faber, the most fruitful of modern Romanist hymnists, did more than any other man to promote congregational singing in his adopted communion. 'He certainly perceived and appreciated, as a scholar, and from his standpoint as a Roman Catholic, the double advantage possessed by a church which sings both in an ancient and modern tongue, making twofold melody continually unto God. He did not prize the less the magnificent hymns of Christian antiquity in Latin, because he taught congregations to sing in the English of to-day'. In the preface to his Jesus and Mary, he says it was natural 'that an English son of St. Philip (Neri) should feel the want of a collection of English Catholic hymns fitted for singing. The few in the Garden of the Soul were all that were at hand, and of course they were not numerous enough to furnish the requisite variety. As to translations, they do not express Saxon thoughts and feelings, and consequently the poor do not take to them. The domestic wants of the Oratory, too, keep alive the feeling that something of the sort was needed'. Hence Faber became a hymnist. He had already written hymns which 'became very popular with a country congregation'. We gather that he refers to Elton in