Introduction.
better known as the author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. This work ſweeps over the whole wide horizon of Greek, Latin and German hymns, and is, in my opinion, the moſt intereſting and truſtworthy work of combined hiſtory and tranſlation that has ever been publiſhed in Engliſh. Indeed, I know of no book which ſo combines the fervor of a religious and poetic temperament with the calm diſcrimination and good ſenſe of a judicial mind.
During theſe intervening years, I have not, in the proper ſenſe of the term, purſued the ſtudy of mediæval hymns, but there are ſome concluſions of my maturer judgment which I wiſh to note; and there are ſome changes in this final edition which ſhould be explained:
I.
The De Contemptu Mundi is not properly a hymn. It has come to be claſſed as ſuch in conſequence of the admiration of Archbiſhop Trench and the beautiful paraphraſe of Dr. Neale. It cannot, therefore, be compared with the other hymns in this volume, but ſtands
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