on this same point by an author, whose works have only occasionally reached the English eye:

THE OLD WASHERWOMAN.

Translated from Chamisso.

Among yon lines her hands have laden,
A laundress with white hair appears,
Alert as many a youthful maiden,

Spite of her five and seventy years;
Bravely she won those white hairs, still
Eating the bread hard toil obtained her,
And laboring truly to fulfill

The duties to which God ordained her.

Once she was young and full of gladness,
She loved and hoped, was wooed and won;
Then came the matron's cares-the sadness
No loving heart on earth may shun.
Three babes she bore her mate; she prayed
Beside his sick-bed-he was taken-

She saw him in the church-yard laid,
Yet kept her faith and hope unshaken.

The task her little ones of feeding

She met unfaltering from that hour;
She taught them thrift and honest breeding,
Her virtues were their worldly dower.
To seek employment, one by one,

Forth with her blessing they departed,

But she was in the world alone

Alone and old, but still high-hearted.

With frugal forethought, self-denying,
She gathered coin, and flax she bought,
And many a night her spindle flying

Good store of fine-spun thread she wrought.
The thread was fashioned in the loom;
She brought it home, and calmly seated
To work with not a thought of gloom,
Her decent grave-clothes she completed.

She looks on them with fond elation;
They are her wealth, her treasure rare,
Her age's pride and consolation,
Hoarded with all a miser's care.
She dons the sark each Sabbath day
To hear the Word that faileth never;
Well pleased she lays it then away
Till she shall sleep in it forever!

Would that my spirit witness bore me

That, like this woman, I had done
The work my Master put before me
Duly from morn till set of sun!
Would that life's cup had been by me

Quaffed in such wise and happy measure,

And that I too, might finally

Look on my shroud with such meek pleasure!

We pass from the German school to that of the English. The collections we have placed at the head of this article, fall, it will be noticed, under three heads, which may be designated as the ecclesiastical, the devotional, and the æsthetic.

Of the first of this those designed for public or social worship-that lately presented by the Evangelical Knowledge Society has peculiar merits. It is framed on a Catholic basis, and includes not merely those hymns which have been peculiarly connected with the evangelical revival of England and America-for example, those of Newton, of Cowper, and of Toplady-but those which have roused the Christian heart of ages, such as the hymns:

all

by St. Bernard;

"Jesus, the very thought of Thee,"

"Thou, O my Saviour, Thou didst me,"

by Francis Xavier; and that already noticed,

by Paul Gerhardt.

"O sacred head, now wounded,"

One suggestion we may be permitted to make in reference to a future edition, and that is, that the translation of the Dies Ira in the text, which strikes us as heavy and unrhythmical, give way to that beginning:

"Day of wrath, O day of mourning!

See once more the cross returning
Heaven and earth to ashes burning!

Under the head of devotional hymns, we may enumerate Mr. Pratt's Hymns for the Closet, Mr. Ryle's collection, Mr. Bonar's Hymns of Faith and Hope, and Miss Warner's Hymns

of the Church Militant. Each of the first three has its merits, which adapts it to peculiar phases of Christian feeling. That of Mr. Pratt is more objectively and variedly experimental; that of Mr. Ryle more adapted to the specific purpose of instruction and comfort to those inquiring the way of truth; that of Mr. Bonar to a fuller and more mature Christian experience. Mr. Ryle takes the inquirer to the cross; Mr. Pratt instructs him there; Mr. Bonar shows him the peace and comfort which fall on the path from the cross, upwards to glory. We think these excellencies are united in the more copious but at the same time exquisitely selected collection lately given to us by our countrywoman, Miss Warner. If we were inclined to make one unfavorable criticism on the latter, it would be, that with Miss Warner the pietist element is more than fully represented. This, however, may be attributed in part to the design of her work, in part the necessarily more subjective view of religion taken from the feminine stand-point. But this we can pass over when it produces such touchingly beautiful hymns as the following. First:

One sweetly solemn thought

Comes to me o'er and o'er

I'm nearer home to-day

Than I ever have been before.

Nearer my Father's house,

Where the many mansions be;

Nearer the great white throne,
Nearer the jasper sea.

Nearer the bound of life,

Where we lay our burdens down;

Nearer leaving the cross,

Nearer wearing the crown.

But lying darkly between,

Winding down through the night,
Is the dim and unknown stream
That leads me at last to the light.

Saviour, perfect my trust,

Strengthen the might of my faith;
Let me feel as I would when I stand

On the rock of the shore of death;

Feel as I would when my feet

Are slipping over the brink:
For it may be I'm nearer home-
Nearer now, than I think!

and this by Mrs. Waring:

Father, I know that all my life

Is portioned out for me,

And the changes that are sure to come

I do not fear to see;

But I ask thee for a present mind,
Intent on pleasing thee.

I ask thee for a thoughtful love,
Through constant watching, wise,
To meet the glad with joyful smiles,
And to wipe the weeping eyes;
And a heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize.

I would not have the restless will,
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do,

Or secret thing to know;

I would be treated as a child,
And guided where I go.

We must now close with a brief notice of contributions to Esthetic Hymnology, of which the last few months have given us at least an average share. The first of these, "The Voice of Christian Life in Song, or Hymns and Hymn-writers of many Lands and Ages," is a really valuable work. Taking the Biblical, the patristic, the medieval, the reformation, the pie

tist and the missionary periods-if we can follow a classification of our own-the editor gives a series of specimen-hymns, preceded by brief historical and critical prefaces. The work is well done, and is imbued throughout with a healthy spirit, both literary and religious. The want, if there be one, is in the lack of delicacy and elegance in some of the renderings.

Very different from this collection is the last that has been published, falling under this particular head. "Hymns for the Ages" is the title of a very extraordinary compilation. It comes forth, like the ancient mysteries, under a double guardianship; the first, the exoteric and avowed, that of the Rev. F. D. Huntingdon, of Harvard College; the second-the esoteric and anonymous, that of "K. C." and " A. E. G." From each of these quarters we have an introduction. Mr. Huntingdon, whose recent sermons had led us to hope something more positive than the very remarkable compound of religionisms which are here represented-speaks with much reserve, as the outer, and to some extent uninitiated representative of and sponsor for those who are the actual authors of the editorial work." Most of the pieces," he tells us, " are culled from the rich and hallowed minstrelsy of the Catholic communion. To many Protestants these pieces will be new." "The volume is offered to the thoughtful portion of our community, with a cheerful confidence that it will fulfill an elevating, purifying, comforting ministry, in many hearts, closets, and homes." With this comes a preface by "K. C." and "A. E. G.,” which is a strange compound of sacramentarianism and pantheism, and which ends by declaring that "the heart of humanity in its highest, deepest words, has spoken here, (in these hymns) still speaks; and the divine heart has listened, listens as we still believe, to these tender and glorious songs.'

Now, these "songs" may be divided into the following

heads:

1. Lyra Catholica, containing a large selection from the Breviary, among which we find odes to the Virgin, to St. John the Baptist, to St. Francis Xavier, to St. Lucy, to St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal. Deeply spiritual hymns by Faber, by Brydges, by St. Bernard, are interpersed with addresses to