best copy the original? Why do we require rhymes? It is because the Ode,—and a Psalm or Hymn is designed to be an Ode,-is a composition, having other characters, besides metre, or its relation to music. The laws of English poetical composition require rhyme; and, when these laws are regarded, the pleasure of the musician is not impaired, and a new pleasure is created for the reader, who may be destitute of skill in music or of a relish for song. Mr. MONTGOMERY says," By universal usage rhyme seems to be almost indispensable in lesser metres to distinguish the lines in recitation, and give a certain finish to the cadence of each; as though the strain were set to some kind of music, which played during the delivery, but called not off the attention from the subject, the thoughts, nor the language."-An older authority is Sir Philip Sidney, who, in his Defence of Poesy, says of modern versifying, "the chief life of it standeth in that like sounding of the words, which we call rhyme.”

The absence of rhyme is then inexcusable in the regular English Ode; and a barbarous rhyme, to an ear attuned to poetry, is as intolerable, as a discord in the ear of a musician. They, who insist upon a perfect uniformity of long and short syllables in the different stanzas of an ode, for the sake of the tune, but who are contented with bad rhymes or the absence of rhyme, betray a want of a correct taste and of a poetical ear.

Sacred poetry must necessarily,—if it would retain a place as poetry, be accommodated to the prevailing taste of the age. At one period images and allusions may be acceptable, which at another would not be tolerated. Mr. Milner, in his Life of Watts, has thus alluded to one fault of his poetry,-"It would be an unprofitable task to particularise his luscious phrases; phrases, which might easily be altered to advantage, and which assuredly ought to have been long ago; which to

a mind like Watts', will bespeak only the triumph of holy love, but which are apt to convey to unhallowed imaginations a licentious image, and thus degrade the christian's fellowship with his Redeemer, by an association with terms, indicative of human fondness and familiarity.'

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These remarks may be applied as well to the Psalms as the Hymns. "Another defect," as expressed by Mr. M., "is the occurrence of harsh expressions,-phraseology, which seems to appeal to angry and vindictive passions,-and to give utterance to feelings, incongruous with the pure and heavenly emotions, which influence the spiritual worshipper."

In consequence of a defect in his plan many of Watts' Psalms are of such an excessive length, extending to 10 or 14 stanzas, as to be impossible to be sung. The expedient of

selecting a few of the stanzas for the singers often leads to confusion, besides making sometimes strange combinations of the sentiment.

From these considerations the reader may acquiesce in the remark of Mr. Milner,-" The productions of C. Wesley have been revised, and expurgated, and re-revised; and the memory and claims of WATTS imperatively demand a similar service."

For these reasons the author has prepared this revision of Watts' Psalms; and, after the necessary abridgements and omissions, it seemed to him, that there were so many chasms left in the parts of the Psalms of David, which might be adapted to Christian worship, as to furnish an opportunity for a new version of all the Psalms, made by one hand, and of a uniform character. It will be found, however, that, retaining 114 of the Psalms of Watts, he has often versified a portion of the Psalm, which was omitted by Watts, so that the two or more versions are but different parts of the same Psalm of David.

Perhaps, it may be asked, whether this labor has not been rendered unnecessary by editions of Watts, revised and abridged, which have been already published in this country? In answering this question it may be necessary to take a survey of what has been done in this respect.

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In 1785, at the request of the General Association of Cornecticut, Mr. JOEL BARLOW, who was afterwards known as ambassador to France, published an edition of Watts, containing versions of the 12 Psalms, omitted by Watts, with considerable alterations in 6 other Psalms, and various verbal. changes. Some of these are imperfectly rhymed; and none of them have any peculiar excellence. The two best of them, the 88th and the 137th, are said to have been written by Dr. Hopkins. This work had 70 Hymns annexed to it. There are omitted about thirty entire pieces of Watts, besides many stanzas. few stanzas are interpolated, which WATTS never wrote, and changes are made much to the injury of the poetry. For instance the phrase, in 46th Psalm, in reference to a stream, "Our grief allays," is changed to supports our faith;”. "Through all her palaces,' in Ps. 48th, is changed to "How fair his heavenly grace;"-in Ps. 72, "barbarous nations" is changed to "western empires, ," and "leaps to loose his chains" to "bursts his chains;" in Ps. 94, "when will the fools to be wise," the word "fools" to "vain ;" in Ps. 145, tottering days," descriptive of infancy, to "sinking days ;" in Ps. 31,"how wondrous is thy grace" to the strange line, "how sweet thy smiling face!" But few changes are made

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for the sake of the rhyme; and the worst rhymes of WATTS are retained.

Yet this is the edition of Watts, which in 1830 was adopted,-with eight or ten Psalms from Dwight and others,-by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian churches in this country. Were Barlow's new Psalms extremely beautiful and his alterations of Watts real improvements, there would still remain the unpleasant recollection, that the Presbyterian churches were indebted for their book of christian songs to one, who died an unbeliever in the truth of the christian religion.

In 1795 Dr. BELKNAP published a selection of Psalms and Hymns from Watts, Tate, Doddridge, Mrs. Steele, &c. Though he altered Watts at pleasure, it was not with reference to the errors of the poetry or the improprieties of the rhyme.

In 1800 Dr. DWIGHT published his edition of Watts,-in which he proposed to accommodate it to our republican institutions; also to versify what WATTS had omitted, and to enlarge the number of proper, or heroic metres. A writer in the Spirit of the Pilgrims has remarked on this work, "There is evidence enough, that it was no part of his conception to improve the lyric character" of our psalms. Indeed his 10 versions in proper metre, most of them extending from 6 to 10 stanzas of 6 long lines each, are entirely unsuitable for public worship. His 18th Psalm has 60 hexameter lines.

Besides retaining the bad rhymes of Watts, the following are some of the rhymes in the pieces, which are original; "arrayed, fed; showed, God; sway, free; beam, name; sin, decline; o'erthrown, runs; smiles, hills; power, cure; force, doors; prevail, tell; crew, now; presents, wants; will, smiles; moon,

sun."

Dr. SAMUEL WORCESTER was so aware of the imperfections of Dr. Watts' version, that in 1814 he abridged it, being persuaded that by an abridgement "redundancies would be retrenched and passages of little merit would be excluded." He omitted Parts and stanzas of Psalms and many Hymns; but there was no attempt to improve the passages, which were retained, and the work was not satisfactory to the public. Indeed some of Watts' pieces, which are deemed peculiarly excellent, were struck out. In 1819 Dr. Worcester published Watts entire, with all his faults, adding 237 select Hymns. In 1834 his son added 240 to these, making 474 Hymns. Arbitrary marks for musical expression were invented by Dr. W., being certain consonants, and vowels, not the established symbols, used in the books of music.

In 1818 Rev. J. M. WINCHELL, a Baptist minister in Boston, published Watts entire, unaltered, except that the

Psalms and Hymns are intermingled, being arranged promiscuously according to subjects. To this was added a selection of 327 Hymns, among which are nearly 80 of Watts' Hymns, from his Lyrics &c., which Watts himself did not think worthy of being inserted in his Book for public worship. It is a sufficient objection to the plan of Mr. W. that the Psalms are too interesting and important, and too familiar to the reader, to allow their order to be broken up and destroyed.

In 1832 the "Church Psalmody" was published at Boston, by Mr. L. MASON & Rev. D. GREENE, containing Select Psalms and Hymns, in number 1185; of which 421 are from Watts, omitting 300 of his pieces and many stanzas, so that on the whole about one half of Watts' book is omitted. There are added 150 pieces in the Psalms from Tate and Brady and 20 other writers. Except in a few instances there is no attempt to correct the bad rhymes of WATTS or of other writers, as may be concluded from the following pairs of words, designed to rhyme together:-"secure, more; peace, days ; feet, straight; laws, foes; joy, day; thoughts, faults; deserts, hearts; light, wait; those, laws; commands, chains; heart, guard; stars, years; seeks, breaks; theme, Lamb; endured, Lord; earth, breath; condescend, stand; declares, heir; change, strains; man, concern; God, thought; far, appear; glory, adore thee; unheard, barred; station, compassion; exert, heart; hour, secure ;" and hundreds of others but little more harmonious.

This work, by a misnomer, is entitled " Psalmody," which word implies actual singing, and not merely a book of odes. It is understood, that it was chiefly compiled by Mr. Mason, an eminent professor of music; and the alterations, made in the Psalms and Hymns, seem to be made, not for the improvement of the poetry, but in fact in many instances to its defacement, for the sake of accommodating the lines to the music. But the sentiment, and the beauty of poetry should never be sacrificed to the tune. It is easy to prepare Hymns with a dull, weary uniformity of accent, like the fall of a hammer or the beat of a drum; and this may accommodate the singers, and perhaps may be pleasing, so far as the mere music is concerned. But surely sense is superior to sound; and there is a beauty in poetry, which cannot exist without ease and variety.

Watts' line, in his 84th Psalm, "Around thy throne of majesty," is changed to " Around thy throne above the sky," obviously for the sake of the music, to avoid the slender, closing syllable of the word majesty, substituting for it the full sound of sky. Music is gratified; but poetry is offended. The sentiment is enfeebled, and a needless repetition comes instead of a new and sublime thought; for " above the sky" is synonymous

with " on high" in the preceding line, and we lose the conception of the "Majesty' of Jehovah, seated on the throne. The poetic diction is also impaired by the substitution of monosylÎables for the word majesty. If to promote and express a spirit of devotion be the design of a Hymn; then the sentiment and language are more important, than any difference between a slender and a full sound of a particular syllable.

The last line of the same Psalın, 2d part, of Watts is this, "Blest is the man, who trusts in Thee." And these are the exact closing words of the Psalmist. This is the inspired sentiment; the important principle, taught by the whole Psalm. But we have, instead of it, the sonorous lines,—

"Display thy grace-exert thy power,

Till all on earth thy name adore!"

An unpleasant poetic effect is also produced by the recurrence of the word, display, immediately after the word, obey, which ends the preceding line.

In Watts' 90th Ps. is this line, "Nor will our minutes stay;" which is changed to "Our feeble powers decay;" diverting the thought from the rapid flight of time; and then the phrase, "Just like a flood" is changed to "Swift as a flood," when the reference of the Psalmist and of Watts is to the impetuous power, rather than to the swiftness of the flood. The word "powers," may be sung better than Watts' slender word, "minutes;" but the change impairs the sentiment.

For the same musical reasons the following changes in Watts are made to the injury of the sense or the poetry; Ps. 90. "Till a wise care of piety,"

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"Till, cleansed by grace, we all may be;"

Ps. 144; "And mountains tremble at his frown,"

"While terrors wait his awful frown."

to

In this last case the slender sound, at, is avoided; but the sublime sentiment of the Psalmist, "touch the mountains, and they shall smoke," is obliterated, and changed into the unimpressive abstraction of "terrors waiting upon a frown."

Ps. 19. Watts says, "Bless the dark world," which is changed to "Oh, bless the world." Bless may sound better than the, in the accented place; but here again the sense and the poetry are sacrificed to the music. In a similar spirit is the following change made in Ps. 25; "Through the wide earth thy name is spread," to "Through all the earth thy name is spread'substituting the general epithet all for the descriptive one wide, and restoring the dull uniformity for the sake of the singers. Thus too, in Watts' 100th Ps. "And earth with her ten thousand tongues," is, for the sake of the music, de