How has the fire and strength gone out of the original—just the lines which Cosin ignored are those which speak of added mental powers, of burning love, of strength and courage! Perhaps even Dr. Bridges has not recovered quite all the force of the original 'living fount, fire, love', for, example, fons vivus, ignis, charitas (we have long damped the fire out of charity); nor can virtute firmans perpeti be quite translated—it might have been written by an old general of Imperial Rome—and Cosin turns it into 'anoint and cheer our soiled face'. Again, hostem repellas longius … ductore sic te praevio, vitemus omne noxium, just suggests the pioneers of a legion pressing their way through some hostile forest. One might pursue the subject with profit, noting how Dryden[1] still further converted the sturdy old hymn into religious platitudes, set in excellent verse:
'From sin and sorrow set us free,
And make thy temples worthy thee.'
or
'Make us eternal truths receive,
And practise all that we believe.
Or one might descend to the maudlin atmosphere, 'soft as the breath of even,' of mid-Victorianism. But my object is achieved, if I have illustrated the progressive deterioration in men's conception of the work of the Holy Spirit during a thousand years.
- ↑ In his paraphrase, 'Creator Spirit, by whose aid.'
