I To THE EDITOR OF THE " EIPECTATOS."1
read the article on " Hymnology " in the Spectator -of January 9th, and had hoped that some abler pen than mine would have called attention to a point raised by the writer of that article which, it seems to me, should not pass without protest.
The passage to which I especially refer is this : " The truth
is, that English hymns have suffered much from opposite causes, from the effort to stand on tiptoe in the hope of reaching the height proper to an exalted frame of mind," &c. As to "this fault, the straining after an exaltation of feeling which is not attained, it is worth while to notice that more than -twenty pages of a closely printed double-columned index [in Mr. Julian's new " Dictionary of Hymnology "] are taken up with the first lines of hymns beginning with 0 ' or Oh."
Surely in making this criticism your reviewer is for the moment forgetting that he is dealing with hymns, and not with poems or lyrics. For what is a hymn? In Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (Latham's edition), the word is defined as "an -encomiastic song, or song of adoration to some superior being," and if this be so, what can be more natural than that the 'vocative case should be very frequently employed? I do not know what the writer's opinion of the Book of Common Prayer may be doctrinally, but I may at least assume that he will not deny to it the merit of literary dignity, and that he will not accuse it of a " straining after an exaltation of feeling which is not attained." And yet I find in it some indication of that " fault" which he criticises so severely in the " Dic- tionary of Hymnology."
In thi order for morning and evening prayer, the Litany, and the prayers and thanksgivings, there are twenty-one prayers commencing with "0;" out of the eighty-eight collects for Sundays and holy days, some thirty-eight have the same peculiarity, which is shared by upwards of thirty of the Psalms. No doubt several poems and lyrics have found their way into our popular collections of hymns; but the distinctive character of the hymn is not thereby lost, and it is by its own standard alone that it ought to be judged. It may be frankly admitted that emotion, more than literary ability, has bees. the motive-power among many hymn-writers in the past ; but I cannot believe that any one who has taken the pains to realise what a mighty force hymnody has exercised in the world's history in rousing, in encouraging, in strengthening, in comforting the hearts of mankind, will for one moment admit "a somewhat melancholy feeling that" an exhaustive treatise on the subject of hymns and hymn-writers is "a labour more or less disproportioned to its fruits."—I am, Sir, [We do not admit that Dr. Johnson's definition is correct. A hymn is not always an invocation.—En. Spectator.]
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