30 APRIL 1937, Page 26

THE " VILE" CINGALESE

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]

Sut,—When Bishop Heber wrote the hymn he was, surely, not thinking of the Cinghalese in particular but of the human race as a whole, of man fallen, and of original sin " whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil." He would, I am sure, have included his own fellow Englishmen for whom, almost certainly, he had prayed on Ash Wednesday : Spare us . . . thy servants who are vile earth and miserable sinners, . . . who meekly acknowledge our vileness."

That this is so is, I suggest, borne out by the fact that originally he wrote " o'er Java's isle."—Youis, &c.,

CLEMENT F. ROGERS.

2 Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn,W.C. 1.