CURRENT LITERATURE.
Sacred Song : a Volume of Religious Verse. Selected and Arranged, with Notes, by Samuel Waddington. (Walter Scott.)— A selection of sacred verse satisfactory to a student well read in English poetry is a want in our literature, and one which Mr. Waddington's pleasant volume wholly fails to supply. It is not easy to understand the compiler's method, or upon what principle he has excluded some pieces of the highest merit, and inserted others that are of no special significance. Allowance must, of course, be made for variety of taste, and the critic is bound to keep this in mind. At the same time, it seems difficult to believe that in this selection it has been the editor's aim to represent a sacred poet by his most charac- teristic work. Many poems, too, are omitted on the plea that they are too familiar ; but Lyte's famous hymn, "Abide with me," and Dr. Newman's "Lead, kindly light," are scarcely better known than the version of Psalm xc. by Dr. Watts, or Montgomery's hymn, "For ever with the Lord," or Mihnan's When our heads are bowed with woe," or Cowper's "Hark, my soul, it is the Lord." It is almost needless to say that the volume contains many poems of great beauty; but the reader who expects to find in the book the best work of our most prominent sacred poets will in several instances be disappointed. We observe, too, that many poets who deserve a place in a selection of this kind are altogether excluded. There are poems of the late Sir Aubrey de Vere, and of the son who bears his name and has a still higher reputation as a poet, marked by the deepest spiritual insight and poetical charm ; there are poems, too, by Mr. Coventry Patmore--" Remembered Grace," and "Victory in Defeat," for example—which have a far better title to the term " sacred" than some of the pieces chosen by Mr. Waddington. And for this reason, that the poetry in these poems is an element as distinct as the devoutness. We suppose that Lord Tennyson and Mr. Browning do not appear "for the reason that they are so well known ;" but it cannot be on this ground that the late Mr. H. S. Sutton and Charles Tennyson Turner and Professor Shairp are not included in Mr. Waddington's selection of sacred singers. We may add that the editor's notes are brief and pertinent, and that the contents as well as the attractive appearance of the volume make it suitable for a present.
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