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We have said that a hymn should not be altered when its idea is lost by the process. Another negative rule is, that it should not be altered when its form is essentially changed, so as seriously to affect its musical expression, or vitiate its rhyme. In the instance just noticed, of the "tale that is told" being changed to "the race that is run," the rhyme is lost. "Old" rhymes with "told," but "young" does not rhyme with “run." A hymn is often so inseparably joined to a peculiar tune, as " Old Hundred," or " Jordan," or "Brattle Street," or "Amsterdam," or "America," that a change, very slight and unimportant to the meaning, may derange the musical emphasis, and render the whole composition trivial. The omission of an epithet in the alternate lines will change a hymn in long metre to a hymn in common metre; and the insertion of an epithet will reverse the process. But if the hymn be a familiar one, in either case the process is sure to be injurious. The balance and proportion of the hymn are lost. Still more injurious is the process of changing a hymn in common metre to a hymn in short metre, though it is but the omission of two syllables from the first line of each stanza. Some of the words omitted will be words which could not be spared. Sometimes, too, the omission of a single letter weakens the verse, as in the case of the line,

"Love divine, all love excelling,"

where "loves" is usually changed to "love." Many of the changes which have been made in hymns have been made, doubtless, in deference to the wishes and complaints of choirs; the chorister has dictated to the compiler, and the author has been abused because his couplets were not measured according to the tune-books. Yet we hazard nothing in saying that the "improvements" in hymns have not generally improved them for musical purposes. The verbal alterations of Merrick's hymn," Author of good, we rest on thee," (numbered 450 in the Cheshire collection,) have not made it any better for the use of song. It is as easy to sing the words "fond desires" as "vain desires"; and the line, "From the dross of guilt refined," is more adapted to music than the incorrect comparison, "From the stains of guilt refined," which has

been substituted for it. The line in Cowper's hymn, "She communes with her God," has been criticised, as requiring for musical expression a change of the natural accent; but we have seen no change which has not added new difficulties to its musical rendering. It is the fact, that hymns which are smooth as you read them are not always the easiest to sing; nor does the removal of their apparent ruggedness give them a more pleasant flow in the succession of notes. That alliteration which makes a charm in the sound of the hymn when read, is a serious annoyance when music must pronounce it. Indeed, rhetorical expedients usually deface the verses on which they are tried. No improved edition of Watts will compare with the original for the purpose of song, whatever it may add of dignity, neatness, vigor, or enlightened faith.

These observations might be largely extended, and other negative rules suggested. We should be glad, too, to cull, from the long catalogue of altered hymns which Professor Park exhibits, some amusing and curious specimens. There is one hint which he gives, which has often occurred to us, of the unfitness of quotation in hymns from the words of the Deity or of the Saviour. Indeed, a hymn ought never to have in it, as we think, a passage marked as quotation. If it use Scripture language, this ought to be assimilated to the text, and incorporated with it. A hymn is the song of men to God, and it ought not to be a transfer of human ideas to the Divine mind and lips. To choirs, quotations in a hymn are always embarrassing. A change in the expression seems necessary, yet the tunes make no provision for any such change. However beautiful such sacred poems may be, they should be rigidly excluded from the hymn-books, certainly when the quotation covers whole stanzas. It would require not much alteration to remove the appearance of quotation from that sweet hymn of Hawes, "From the cross uplifted high." Yet as it stands now in the books, it is an annoyance rather than a treasure.

We shall not discuss the question of greater or less number, which seems to be connected with the alteration of hymns. Some believe that a small collection, 200 or 300 at most, will contain all the hymns which are fit for practical

use. Others affirm that the number ought to be large, and that 1,000 is not too many. We believe that one of the Orthodox collections has upwards of 1,500. Now, it is said that a large number of hymns cannot be adapted to worship in our churches without many changes. The false doctrine must be pressed out from them. There must not be idolatry in any form, must not be worship of Jesus more than of Mary, or of saints and martyrs. Our Unitarian brethren in England are vigorously disputing this point, and Dr. Beard sees superstition in the forms of apostrophe which Mr. Martineau allows. How can we get 500 or 1,000 hymns on the various themes of Christian experience and instruction, which shall not contradict our cherished opinions, unless we largely modify their phrase? Shall we refute, in the praises of the sanctuary, the creed of the altar or the arguments of the pulpit? Those who think a few hymns enough, find this an evidence in their behalf, that many hymns involve many changes. Yet we believe that, in the scanty collections, the proportion of altered hymns will be found to be larger than in the redundant collections. It is in the indispensable hymns that doctrinal errors seem most to be taught or implied. We believe that a large collection, which gives ample room for choice, is better. than the choicest small collection. Though there are only a few hymns, perhaps not more than a hundred, which ministers use very often, yet the largest collection does not supply all that are wished for occasional use. There are some subjects for which, even in the largest collection, no appropriate hymn has been provided. With the best hymn-book, that Saturday evening duty to which ministers are inevitably summoned, at home and abroad, is perplexing, vexatious, and often desperate. The subjects which rarely come up in the sanctuary are superfluously cared for in the book of songs, while the standard topics are often most sparingly provided. The same book which gives us four hymns for the "death of a pastor (an event, in these days of ministerial change, of comparatively rare occurrence) sets only one hymn to the theme of Patience," a very frequent topic of pulpit discourse, in times like these. There will be a dozen hymns for Sunday schools in the Church collection, where none are needed, and

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only one hymn for "Conscience," where many are needed. No collection was ever large enough for the wants of a ten years' ministry. In the fourteen years that we have used the Cheshire collection, we find that we have given out in public worship more than 800 of the 908 hymns. Too many are always better than too few. The best hymn-book would perhaps be one constructed in two parts (something on the plan of the Boston Public Library); one part containing only the standard hymns, to the number of one or two hundred, which everybody likes, which everybody seeks, and the genuine text of which is fully settled; the other part containing hymns for occasional use of every variety of theme, concerning which there may be difference of taste and opinion. This arrangement would save to ministers infinite trouble, and in no way hinder the symmetry of the volume. All our industry in hymn-book making has not yet produced any model collection, or any which has been accepted and retained even by a majority of our churches. Criticisim has always failed, as our fault-finding in this paper will probably fail, to reduce or lighten this toil of Sisyphus.

ART. IV. AFTER ICEBERGS WITH A PAINTER.

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After Icebergs with a Painter: a Summer Voyage to Labrador and around Newfoundland. By REV. LOUIS L. NOBLE, Author of the "Life of Cole," "Poems," etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1861.

MR. CHURCH is fortunate in his friends. A few years ago we had in Boston "The Heart of the Andes," with a descriptive pamphlet by Theodore Winthrop, a companion of those South American travels which had resulted in the picture; now comes "The North" in its chill splendor, accompanied by a book from the artist's friend and fellow-voyager, the Rev. Louis L. Noble, another Ruskin in enthusiasm and feeling for beauty.

"After Icebergs" is less a description of Church's work

than complementary to it; and as necessary to its full enjoyment, as sunlight to an iceberg. It gives that human element the lack of which is felt by many who most cordially admire "The North." The sunshine which streamed over "The Heart of the Andes" fell on a wayside cross where human figures were resting; there were paths worn by human feet, vines clambered and clung, the river dashed almost audibly over the rocks, and the trill of bird-songs almost reached us from amid high boughs. In the "Niagara," Nature herself is impersonated as a great, wild, passionate, yearning soul, that plunges on headlong to escape constraint; and the conquest is achieved, and the rainbow-hued aureole descends in recognition of her valor. But "The North" is an utter, chill solitude; no forces are here save gravitation, cold, color, light. Uncaring, the ice-mountain wheels down to its doom; unresisting, it dissolves and disintegrates, resigning its beauty with an indifference as chill and stolid as its substance. The very ocean is passive, the waves goad themselves into no rage of resistance as among rocks, but eddy and slip along the icy shallows as if all feeling were chilled out of them.

Imagine an artist straying alone to this frigid solitude; with a crew of fishermen embarking in an oily craft, and, seasick and forlorn, chasing the soul of cold in its caves! Minds like flints must be struck together to kindle the fine flame of enthusiasm which culminates in works of genius; and when one, with rapture akin to his own, is eager to lead the artist on, to help measure the depth of emerald arch and height of glittering pinnacle, to find a synonyme for the sheen of icy surface and lustre of rounding wave, to cast out nets for beauty and. hold its rainbow-rings in both upraised, delighted hands, while the limner paints, -il changé tout cela.

To the fact of such companionship the book of Mr. Noble amply testifies. He relates that during the summer of 1859 he accompanied Church on an expedition to make studies for a picture of icebergs. They coasted along the shores of Newfoundland, and eventually, chartering a schooner, penetrated as far north as Labrador. Of this little voyage the world has record in two works which it will not soon let die, "The

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