THE LITERARY ASPECTS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK. [To THE EDITOR OF
TUB "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The article on the above subject (Spectator, May 16th) rightly suggests that if the Prayer-book is regarded as a whole, its indebtedness on literary grounds to Puritan influence can- not well be over-estimated. The passages of singular beauty quoted by the writer are almost without exception due to the revisions or additions made in 1549 or 1662, and we owe them to such masters of the English tongue as Cranmer, Cosin, and Sanderson. Almost all the hortatory portion of the Prayer-book is their work ; and the post-Reformation collects, of which the writer quotes a magnificent specimen in
that for the First Sunday in Advent, uniformly exhibit a tendency to blend exhortation with prayer. May I add that the " vituperative" phrase in the exhortation before the Holy Communion is, after all, only an echo of Apostolic teaching on the point,—cf. 1 Con xi. 30 ?--I am, Sir, &c., [We can print no more letters on this subject.— ED. Spectator.]
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