64 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Holy Eastern Church was written. He published Hymns for Children in 1842, and other hymns and poems. His chief claim to remembrance is his work as a translator. He was steeped in mediaeval Latin. He once went to Hursley Vicarage to assist the Bishop of Salisbury and Keble in preparing a Hymnal. Keble was called out of the room and detained for a little time. On his return Neale said, Why, Keble, I thought you told me that The Christian Year was entirely original ? Yes, he answered, it certainly is. Neale put before him the Latin of one of the hymns, Then how comes this ? Keble pro tested he had never seen the piece in all his life. After a few minutes Neale relieved him by owning that he had turned the hymn into Latin in his absence.
Neale s Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences appeared in 1851. He was the first to introduce the Sequences^ sung between the Epistle and the Gospel, to English readers. He delighted in his task, and lavished his skill on preserving the exact measure and rhyme of the original, at whatever inconvenience and cramping. His translations from Bernard of Cluny Jerusalem the Golden, Brief life is here our portion, For thee, O dear, dear country won enormous popularity.
His Hymnal Noted appeared in 1852, and a second part in 1854. Dr. Neale says some of the happiest hours of his life were spent in preparing the second part of this work. The Roman Catholics denounced him for softening down or ignoring the Roman doctrine of these hymns, but that only showed his good sense and knowledge of the constituency which he had in view.
In 1862, his Hymns of the Eastern Church rendered still greater service. These were the first English versions of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology. He speaks of the difficulties of his task. Though the superior brevity and terseness of the Latin hymns renders a translation which shall represent those qualities a work of great labour, yet still the versifier has the help of the same metre ; his version may be line for line ; and there is a great analogy between the collects and the hymns, most helpful to the translator. Above all, we have examples enough of former translations by which we may take pattern. But in attempting a Greek canon, from the fact of its being in prose (metrical hymns are unknown), one is all at sea. What measure shall we employ ? Why this more than that ? Might we attempt the rhythmical prose of the original,
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