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nebulous matter into lucid centres, and even into central stars, we recognise the first of these agents; and in the sudden disappearance of the most brilliant stars, we have some indication of the second. Thus may we study, in these distant regions, the active operations of creative power; and thus, in relation to the past and the future in our own globe, may we be permitted to witness the types of those great events which are necessarily excluded from the short span of our existence.

If such, then, be the prospects which the cultivation of astronomy holds out to the human mind, can we, as a nation, be indifferent to the part we are to take in these intellectual achievements? When we look at the state of science on the continent, pursued by academicians freed from the embarrassments of professional labour, and when we look at their numerous and wellappointed observatories, we shrink from the comparison which is thus forced upon our attention. We feel as if it were a species of treason to record the fact that, within the wide range of the British islands, there is only one observatory, and scarcely one supported by the government! We say scarcely one, because we believe that some of the instruments in the observatory of Greenwich were purchased out of the private funds of the Royal Society of London. The observatories of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, Edinburgh,* Armagh, and Glasgow, are all private establishments, to the support of which government contributes nothing. The consequence of this is, that many of them are in a state of comparative inactivity; and none of them, but that of Dublin, have acquired any celebrity in the astronomical world. Such, indeed, was the state of practical astronomy in Scotland, that within these few years, a Danish vessel, which arrived at Leith, could not obtain, even in Edinburgh, the time of the day for the purpose of setting its chronometers.

Under such circumstances, it would be a painful task to enumerate, the thriving institutions in which astronomy is cultivated in all the other kingdoms of civilised Europe. It is sufficient to state, that in such a list Great Britain would be placed beside Spain or Turkey!

We must make a slight exception in the case of Edinburgh, During the king's visit, the observatory had permission to take the name of the Royal Observatory of George IV.; and yet it has received from government only the sum of 20007. to purchase instruments. The sum of 50004, subscribed by public spirited individuals, was expended in a

polis of the northe Greek building, which frowns in empty grandeur over the metros observatory is still without any provision for an astronomer. + It gives us great pleasure to state, that Lord J. G. Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh, has given a very handsome sum in order to supply this observatory with new instruments. Within the last twenty years, four observatories, completely furnished with instruments, have been formed, by the Emperor of Russia, at Dorpat, Abo, Warsaw, and Nicolajef.

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ART. II.-1. Hymns, written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year. By the late Reginald Heber, DD., Lord Bishop of Calcutta. London.

1828.

2. The Christian Psalmist. By James Montgomery. London. 1827.

A GENERAL impression seems to prevail, that the Psalmody

of our church requires amendment and regulation. In no one point are all parties within the established church-we might add among the dissenters-so far agreed, as in admitting the importance of this part of public worship; and, perhaps, there is scarcely less unanimity of dissatisfaction as to its present unsettled and variable state. In these days, if every individual, as St. Paul complained concerning the church of Corinth, has not a psalm, yet almost every congregation has a book of psalms and hymns, selected with greater or less judgment, according to the taste, opinions, and feelings of the compiler. We have before us collections used in different churches of the establishment, varying from the zero of the most icy Socinianism up to the boiling-water heat of the most feverish enthusiasm. This is a serious evil; first, as a direct infringement on the principle of uniformity which regulates our liturgical services. If a prescribed form of prayer be found convenient, and appear essentially interwoven with the constitution of our church, surely some limit should be assigned to the disagreement and discord in this part of our service, which render it impossible for a stranger, on entering a place of worship, to feel secure in what spirit that praise or adoration of God, in which it is his duty, as well as his desire, to join, is about to be offered. Secondly, it appears highly inexpedient to leave this part of the service in the power of the parochial clergy. For, not to inquire whether each individual pastor is likely to possess the taste, discretion, and piety, which will warrant his demanding deference to his opinion on a subject of acknowledged difficulty, the psalms and hymns may vary according to the judgment of each successive incumbent. The rector, on his appointment, finds a selection established, which, right or wrong, he considers highly objectionable; he discards it, and substitutes another, to the great mortification of some part of his flock, who are attached, either from principle or habit, to the old service. Some are offended by the slight put upon the memory of their former pastor; others (we studiously avoid the more dangerous cause of disunion, the diversity of doctrine) are dissatisfied because the time and pains which they have employed in enabling themselves to join in the service have been thrown away; at all events, the poorer inhabitants find their old books useless, and are put to an expense, at which they reasonably complain, if they would still unite their voices with the general song of praise or thanksgiving.

thanksgiving. Hence disunion, dissension, perhaps secession; and this is a mischief, of which we do not as yet entirely see the fatal operation; but, as the present generation of clergy, by whom the innovation has generally been introduced, shall, in the course of nature, be withdrawn from their places, we cannot but anticipate its more extensive and increasing influence. If, in the present state of ecclesiastical affairs, it should appear inexpedient to regulate this part of our service by law or by episcopal authority, yet, if a selection could be made, which should meet the approbation of the rulers of the church, and emanate from the great organ of the establishment, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, we are persuaded it would gradually work its way into most congregations; and we trust that the candour and moderation of those, whose views it might not entirely meet, would admit the expediency of some sacrifice of their personal feelings or opinions, for the great and sacred end of promoting unity within the church.

We are desirous, therefore, of throwing out some suggestions on the subject, which may be useful, if the ecclesiastical authorities of the Church of England and Ireland should seriously apply themselves to the question. The Church of Scotland is actually employed on the revision of her psalmody; and as we are sure that our end would be the same-a selection, full of fervour, without fanaticism; tempered, but not chilled, by sobriety-our inquiries may not be without advantage in that quarter also.* Our object is, to develope certain principles, which we conceive ought to be constantly kept in mind by the compilers of a congregational service; but we shall enter into a preliminary historical sketch of the psalmody, and what we shall take the liberty of calling the hymnology, of the Christian church. Even if we should not succeed in establishing our own principles, the discussion cannot fail to be of the highest importance, and, we conceive, public interest. For if we consider the millions who are employed on every Sabbath in offering up public praise and adoration to God; if we estimate the extent of those countries, of those worlds, we might have siad, over which the English language is, and will be, that of public worship; if, as we dare hope, the church of England is to be almost co-extensive with the limits of our native tongue; we may enter into the enthusiasm which dictated the following sentence of Mr. Montgomery, the sincerity of which his character

* Since the above was written, we find that the American Episcopal Church put forth, in the course of last year, a selection for the use of their congregations-we have not yet seen it. Nor are we aware whether Dr. Baird, the Principal of Edinburgh College, has as yet printed any specimens of the new collection which he is about to submit to the consideration of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

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forbids us to question: If he who pens these sentiments knows his own heart-though it has deceived him too often to be trusted without jealousy-he would rather be the anonymous author of a few hymns, which should thus become an imperishable inheritance to the people of God, than bequeath another epic poem to the world, which should rank his name with Homer, Virgil, and "our greater Milton.",

The earliest poetry of all nations, if it has not directly grown out of their religion, has always been inseparably connected with it. The first fruits of song have invariably been offered on the altar of the Deity, the residue only devoted to the praise of the wise or heroic ancestry of the race or tribe. That which is universal must be grounded on some eternal principle of our nature; and, at the risk of being considered too fanciful, we are inclined to think the connexion between music and devotion philosophically true. Religious adoration is an intercourse with something beyond the region of sense,-the indefinite, the immaterial, the impalpable. Even in the grossest idolatry, it is the unseen and mysterious power which is represented by the statue or the painting. The imagination, therefore, must be strongly excited, and the feelings violently awakened, before the Invisible will become present to the eye of faith, and the spirit withdraw itself from the immediate dominion of the senses, to a communion with that of which at last it can form no clear or distinct notion. The power of sound appears to produce exactly that state of mind most favourable for this sort of illusion. It seems to stimulate the imagination, yet to leave it free to follow its own course; to agitate the feelings, without attaching them to any definite object. But we break away from an inquiry, which we have intentionally touched in a superficial manner; for, be this as it may, the simple fact, that poetry and music have almost invariably been admitted as an essential part of the public service of the Deity, is sufficient to vindicate the importance of our subject. That which has been often said, has never been better said, than by one of the most agreeable, though not the purest or most philosophical, of the Greek authors;-VETV vàg EvσEßÈS και προηγούμενον ἀνθρώποις τοὺς χαρισαμένους αὐτοῖς μόνοις τήν ἔναρ θρον φωνὴν, θεούς—it is a sacred and leading duty of mankind, to hymn the gods, who have endowed them only with an articulate voice.* It is well known how much the poetry of Greece owed to its religious ceremonies. We are inclined, however, to doubt whether we possess any Greek hymn, which actually constituted a part of the religious worship of that poetic people. Those of Callimachus are the artificial productions of a later age, written not so much to excite devotion towards the gods, as admiration towards

*Plutarch de Musicâ,

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the poet. Even those which pass under the name of Homer (though the fragments of which some of them were composed may have been generally used on public occasions) are evidently poems rather than hymns. They may have been recited by the individual poet during the religious festival, but clearly were not the choral song, in which the multitude of worshippers celebrated the praises of their god.* The old vintage and harvest hymns, common to the Greeks with many of the oriental nations, if ever written, were, of course, lost in the splendid scenic exhibitions which grew out of them. Some fragments of the coarser may, perhaps, be traced in Aristophanes; and in some of the choric songs of the Bacchanals of Euripides, the old dithyrambic hymns may appear in a more regular and polished character.

But the Christian church succeeded to an inheritance of devotional poetry, as unrivalled in the history of verse as in that of religion. Doubtless the hymns of the Jewish people did not fall below the general splendour of that most sublime scene described in the Book of Chronicles :

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. So that the priests could not stand to minister, by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.'—2 Chron, v., 13, 14.

There appears little doubt, that those noble psalms, the 135th, and, as the burthen seems to show, the 136th, were used upon this solemn occasion. The fifth verse of the 47th, 'God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet,' points, in the opinion of learned men, to the august ceremony of the removal of the ark to the Temple; and the 97th, 98th, 99th, and 100th psalms bear, likewise, internal evidence to their having been used on this or some other great national thanksgiving. The temple of Solomon was utterly destroyed, and succeeded by that building, which afflicted its wor shippers with a melancholy sense of its inferiority. According to the pathetic words of Ezra, many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice.' The building of Ezra was succeeded by the noble edifice of Herod, and that, in its turn,

Were they not evidently of very modern date, the hymns of a certain Dionysius, of which Dr. Burney published the music, would appear to have the best pretensions to having formed part of a public liturgy. c 2

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