HYMNS ANCIENT AND EARLY VICTORIAN [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Can you find space for a few reflections that came to me at church on the first Sunday of the New Year—a day from which surely our hymn writers might draw some in- spiration ? Have they, in fact, done so ? If they have, the Editors of successive issues of what is still, I believe, the most widely-used hymnbook in the Church of England have been singularly unfortunate in their selection. FOr this stirring anniversary they provide three hymns—we had all three. We led oft with the one which has achieved, if it has not earned, a considerable popularity, " Father, let me dedi- cate "—one of those somewhat irritating hymns based on a last line refrain, to which each verse laboriously and artificially leads up. The dominant note is a tepid submission to a hypothetical will of the Supreme Being, the sort of watery resignation which finds its apotheosis in the once popular " Thy Will be done." " In -whatever worldly state Thou wilt have me be," naively echoes the much discussed (and usually misquoted) phrase of the Catechism, " that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me."
The second verse is typical : " Can a child presume to choose where or how to live ? " The twentieth-century child, however, has very definite views on these subjects, and the twentieth-century young man and woman still more so— and why not ? The climax is reached in the last verse with the cheerful aspiration that we may go on praying the refrain (" Glorify Thy Name ") even " in deepest woe." What a senti- ment with which to start a new lap in the race that is set before us !
But worse was to follow. Hymn 72 begins with the daring truism, " The year is gone beyond recall," and, lest any should be inclined to dispute this, adds a confirmatory list of the things it has taken with it. These are enumerated as " hopes, fears, bright and gladdening smiles," and (the rhyme for which " fears " has prepared us) " mourner's tears." And indeed except for the one thyme per stanza punctually observed in the second and fourth lines, it is difficult to see how this hymn differs from the rather sentimental prose prayer which used, a generation ago, to be offered in circles faVouring " extempore " praying. I honestly believe that if this hymn were written out continuously, not in lines, and the last word in each stanza replaced by a synonym, not one reader in a hundred would " spot " that it was—I do not say poetry— but verse. Those who are interested in hymns will, I am sure, have noticed that a good many hymns in Ancient and Modern are written by " The Compilers." When I find myself singing a hymn that is more than ordinarily fatuous, the thought always comes to my mind, " The Compilers " ! So in this case I looked up the Index—yes, there it was, " F. Pott and Compilers " I love to picture to myself the Early Victorian editors of Hymns. Ancient and Modern gathered round their Early Victorian round table, vying with each
other in apt suggestion of thoughts and rhymes, rather in the manner of the " Dumberambo " of our youthful games.
The third hymn " For Thy meroy and Thy grace," improves
on No. 72, in regard to form by attempting two sets of rhymes to each verse7-nothoitevIr, very successfully, " thankfulness " rhyming with " grace," "'God " with " road," and crown " with " own " ; while in its matter it seeks to add to our cheerfulness by the lines " Who- of us death's awful road in the coming year shall tread " ; the phrase " fit us for Thy promised crown " is surely a little unfortunate in the sugges- tion of a visit to the hatter's, and the word chosen in the last verse to bring Out God'S majesty, " Potentate," is so little used in these days, that one youthful and not unintelligent singer had to ask her father as we came out, " What is a
pottentate " ? •• . .
Do not let me be misunderstood. I love the old Ancient and Modern, and gladly, and very gratefully, acknowledge the magnificent service which it did in the early days of the Anglican ReyiVal. But its work, I venture to suggest, is done. Other and better' hymnbooks are now ready to our hand-7- The English Hymlal, and, perhaps more notably still, Songs of Praise, which meet far better the needs and aspirationi of today. Unless. Ancient and Modern .e.an give us something more inspiring to start us On our Pilgriinage in a new year then the sorry collection of doggerel and watery sentiment, set to melancholy tunes, it should throw in its hand. It can well afford to do so, having proved, I understand, almost a gold-mine to its publishers. If it can be brought into line, well and good. My own belief is that it-is too heavily weighted with hymns of a type that is, or should be, obsolete ever to get free. The last version brought in a few of the new and better hyrax:is, but left far too many of the old. I say it reluctantly, for I owe much in my early days to what was then beyond question the best collection of hymns in existence ; but the plain truth is that Ancient and Modern is hopelessly out of touch With the spirit and ideals of the young people of today, and one of the chief obstacles to a virile and progressive Christianity.—Yours faithfully, LIONEL JAMES. Moyses, Five Ashes, Sussex.
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