Where Truths we know foreshadow the Unknown, Behold! the adoring Planets wheel in space, Hear his still voice blend with the lute-like rill's, And die across the sea! COPSE HILL, GA. Paul Hamilton Hayne. THE PURITANS AND THEIR PSALM TUNES. It is now several years since Matthew Arnold expressed his famous (or, as many thought, infamous) judgment upon the Pilgrim Fathers. "Figure to ourselves," he said, "Shakespeare or Virgil, souls in whom sweetness and light and all that in human nature is most humane were eminent, accompanying [the Mayflower party] on their voyage, and think what intolerable company Shakespeare and Virgil would have found them!" This utterance naturally gave offense to many loyal descendants of the Pilgrims, and the feeling of resentment was none the less, if the conviction was sometimes felt that the intellectual disparagement thus implied was doubtless pretty well deserved. However that may be, it is certainly worthy of note that the spirit and turn of mind which Mr. Arnold calls Hellenism, and which he so much admires, should have become so conspicuous among the descendants of the Puritans that the capital of the colony with which the Plymouth company was soon identified has been called (whether in derision, or with true devotion, it matters not for our present purpose) the "Athens of America." If now we are to regard all things, according to modern scientific methods, as the outcome of certain inherent elements, as the unfolding of germs previously existing in some ruder form, should we not expect to find that the culture of the modern Puritan had its promise and potency in some of the characteristics of the primitive Puritan? Investigation would probably show such an a priori expectation to be well grounded, and might bring to light those seeds, that æsthetic protoplasm, in the apparently prim and rigid Puritan character, which have borne such rich fruitage in modern times. At all events, such a path of progress is demonstrable in respect to music, in regard to which the age of the Puritans was not such an unillumined Dark Age as it has been sometimes represented. Large allowance should of course be made for the influx of new elements and agencies from Teutonic and other sources, yet it can be shown that the great and active interest now felt in this art is not the result of any wayward wandering from the principles of the Puritans. It is rather a natural progress from the beginnings they made and the spirit they infused into New England life. Mrs. Hemans's lines, "And the sounding aisles of the forest rang To the anthem of the free," as a geographical description of the sandy shores of Cape Cod Bay, must perhaps be taken with some allowance for poetic color, but they record a veritable fact, so far as the singing is concerned. The Pilgrims were of a singing stock. The English Puritans were ever psalm-singers, and the men of the Mayflower, during their long stay in Holland, had come in contact with influences from Geneva and Wittenberg which set them still more strongly in this direction. Indeed, the Puritan movement in England has been too often judged from its later manifestations. In its earlier phases it was not so destitute of æsthetic culture and refinement as many have inferred. It is quite certain that the early Puritans designed to create neither a schism in the church nor a faction in the state. In their shrinking from the hypocrisy and profligacy into which the Established Church had largely fallen, they were of kindred mind and temper with Jeremy Taylor and George Herbert. Any defense of their position or principles is now superfluous. But it is important for us to observe that this early and noble Puritanism had no quarrel with the graces and humanities of life. It was not a movement among the humble and illiterate alone; it included the majority of the country clergy and many gentry in its ranks. The most shining example of its tastes and tendencies is no doubt Milton, "the genius of Puritan England," as Mr. Masson calls him; "not only the highest but the completest type of Puritanism," as he is called by Mr. Green. Not merely his vast classical learning, but also the inclination and influences of Mil ton's early years, show how far the gayety and the intellectual graces of Hellenism were compatible with Puritan ideals. Milton's father was a "precisian" (in the language of the day), but he was a skillful performer on the organ, a composer of psalm tunes and secular madrigals; and he devoted his son, "while yet a little boy, to the study of humane letters." This Puritan boy had a strict and severe training, yet he was not wholly forbidden the theatre when "sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child," was presented. His early poems show how fully he appreciated and felt the charm of the Gothic church architecture with its "storied windows" and its "dim religious light," its "pealing organ" and its"full-voiced choir in service high and anthem clear." They show us that he felt no scruples at joining sometimes the "crew of mirth," with its "jolly rebeck," and "Many a youth and many a maid Dancing in the chequered shade." And not only in the early poems, but throughout his life, we find his devotion to music undimmed and his love for it and faith in its divine potency among the most cherished sentiments of his soul. In the treatise on Education, after enumerating the other studies and pursuits which the youth, in his ideal system, should follow, he says: "The interim may both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and composing their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learned, either whilst the skillful organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues, or the whole symphony with artful and unimaginable touches adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute or soft organ stop, waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil ditties; which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle from rustic harshness and distempered passions." We see little lack of "what in human nature is most humane" in such Puritanism as this, and, judging from this picture alone, we should find it hard to believe in the gloomy hostility to sweetness and light for which the Puritans have been so often denounced. Yet hear the Rev. Dr. Barwick, in his treatise entitled “Querula Cantabrigiensis,” published after the Restoration : — "The knipper-dolings of the age," he says (speaking of the Puritans during the Commonwealth), "broke the heart-strings of Learning, thrust out one of the eyes of this kingdom, made Eloquence dumb, Philosophy sottish, widowed the Arts, drove the Muses from their ancient habitation, and tore the garland from off the head of Learning to place it on the dull brows of disloyal Ignorance." These are embittered and intemperate words, yet we must admit that there was much in the later developments of Puritanism to provoke them. Under the pressure of persecution and intolerance, that early movement for a higher purity in religion became a fierce partisan quarrel. Personal aims, ambitions, intrigues, and resentments were mingled in the struggle. In the heat of such dissensions much of the calm beauty of the first Puritanism disappeared. Reason, sense of proportion, and measure were overborne by the fierceness of partisan virulence. Little things became great, and non-essentials were made of chief moment, until an abnormal conscience came to be developed, which loathed a May-pole on the village green, or a sprig of holly, or a mince-pie at Christmas, with as much abhorrence as a black sin or foul uncleanness. But from very much of this deterioration and loss of breadth our New England Puritans were delivered by their very absence from the scene of strife. The Pilgrims of the Mayflower and their associates especially, withdrawing to Holland in the reign of Elizabeth and the early years of King James, were thus out of the country during all the years of the civil wars and the embitterments of that period. And during their stay in Holland the "church of Christ in Leyden" was brought near to other influences which cannot be overlooked in estimating truly the germs of æsthetic and musical feeling which came to this continent with the Mayflower. They were most affected, of course, by the discipline and doctrine of the Genevan church. And here Calvin's zeal for music had set the use of this art in worship in marked contrast to the employment of any other æsthetic or ornate appliances for religious purposes. Calvin dashed the stained glass from the church windows, and expelled the pictures and statues. But he required his congregations to sing. He even went beyond the Church of Rome in requiring the Psalms to be sung instead of read in public worship. In 1551 the first installment of the "Genevan Psalter" with tunes appeared. It comprised thirty-four psalm-tunes arranged by Louis Bourgeois. This book is memorable for the first known appearance in it of the tune which is called the Old Hundredth or Old Hundred. These tunes soon found their way through Europe into England. John Robinson's congregation may have sung some of them before they left their Lincolnshire homes. It is certain that during their stay in Holland this music was sung, and much of it taken into another collection, which the Pilgrims brought with them to this country. Musical influences from other quarters cannot perhaps be traced so directly, yet some of them were so near and potent that they well deserve consideration in such an estimate as we are making. John Robinson's church in Leyden was not an obscure or isolated company in the city. They were treated with much consideration by the other Protestants of the place, and had much intercourse with them. The famous old university held Pastor Robinson in high regard, and invited him to take part in their discussions on church polity, and when he died, Cotton Mather says, "the university and the ministers of the city accompanied him to his grave with all their accustomed solemnities." By such intercourse, the Pilgrims were brought into contact not only with the university, then as now one of the most famous seats of learning in the world, but also with a musical culture superior to any then existing in Europe. The Netherlands had been for more than a century the centre of a great school of musical composers. The masters who flourished there were really the founders of the modern science of music. One of them, Okeghem, "must," says Kiesewitter, "be regarded the founder of all schools of music from his own to the present day." Of Josquin des Prés, Okeghem's pupil and successor, Luther quaintly says, "Josquin is a master of the notes. They have to do as he wants them to, whereas other composers have to do as the notes want to." The Netherland school had left a decided impress upon the musical performances in all the churches with which the Pilgrims came in contact in Holland. The mention of Luther, too, suggests the fact that there were Lu theran churches in Holland at this time, and that Germany was but a few miles distant. The followers of Calvin, to be sure, would doubtless be little inclined to adopt Lutheran methods and usages, yet some influences from this source can be traced and others may reasonably be inferred. Luther's mighty and vigorous championship of music is well known. He went much farther in the matter of using music in worship than Calvin, who limited the performances to the singing of the Psalms by the congregation ; whereas Luther set himself to adapt a religious service to the ancient and splendid music of the Romish Church, as well as to introduce a variety of psalms and hymns for popular use. How little averse he was to retain Romish usages in this respect can be seen from his own words. In 1541, at the time of a threatened invasion of Europe by the Turks, he wrote: "I rejoice to let the |