Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/609

593 BRITISH.] From the preface to Simon Browne s hymns, published in 1720, we learn that down to the time of Dr Watts the only hymns known to be &quot;in common use, either in private families or in Christian assemblies,&quot; were those of Barton, Mason, and Shepherd, together with &quot; an attempt to turn some of Mr Herbert s poems into common metre,&quot; and a few sacramental hymns by authors now forgotten, named Vincent, Boyse, and (Joseph) Stennett. Of the 1410 authors of original British hymns enumerated in Mr Sedgwick s catalogue, published in 18G3, 1213 are of later date than 1707; and, if any correct enumeration could be made of the total number of hymns of all kinds published in Great Britain before and after that date, the proportion subse quent to 1707 would be very much larger. The English Independents, as represented by Dr Watts, have a just claim to be considered the real founders of modern English hymnody. Watts was the first to under stand the nature of the want, and, by the publication of his Hymns in 1707-1709, and Psalms (not translations, but hymns founded on psalms) in 1719, he led the way in pro viding for it. His immediate followers were Simon Browne and Doddridge. Later in the 18th century, Hart, Gibbons, Grigg, and Mrs Barbauld (the two first Independents, the two last Presbyterians), and Miss Steele, Medley, Samuel Stennett, Ryland, Beddome, and Swaine (all Baptists), succeeded to them. Among these writers (most of whom produced some hymns of merit, and several are extremely voluminous), Watts and Doddridge are pre-eminent. It has been the fashion with some to disparage Watts, as if lie* had never risen above the level of his Hymns for Little Children. No doubt his taste is often faulty, and his style very unequal, but, looking to the good, and disregarding the large quantity of inferior matter, it is probable that more hymns which approach to a very high standard of excellence, and are at the same time suitable for congregational use, may be found in his works than in those of any other English writer. Such are &quot;When I survey the wondrous cross,&quot; &quot;Jesus shall reign where er the sun &quot; (and also another adapta tion of the same 72d Psalm), &quot;Before Jehovah s awful throne &quot; (which first line, however, is not his, but Wesley s), &quot; Joy to the world, the Lord is come, 1 &quot; My soul, repeat His praise,&quot; &quot; Why do we mourn departing friends,&quot; &quot; There is a land of pure delight.&quot; &quot; Our God, our help in ages past,&quot; &quot; Up to the hills I lift mine eyes,&quot; and many more. It is true that in some of these cases dross is found in the original poems mixed with gold ; but the process of separation, by selection without change, is not difficult. As long as pure nervous English, unaffected fervour, strong simplicity, and liquid yet manly sweetness are admitted to be characteristics of a good hymn, works such as these must command admiration. Doddridge is, generally, much more laboured and arti ficial ; but his place also as a hymn-writer ought to be determined, not by his failures, but by his successes, of for Andrew Marvell (who died in 1G78), in the preface to Captain Thomson s edition (1776) of MarvelPs Works. But this claim does not appear to he substantiated. The editor did not give his readers the means of judging as to the real age, character, or value of a manuscript to which he referred ; he did not say that these portions of it were in Marvell s handwriting ; he did not even himself include them among Marvell s poems, as published in the body of his edition ; and he advanced a like claim on like grounds to two other poems, in very different styles, which had been published as their own by Tickell and Mallet. It is certain that all the five hymns were first made public in 1712, in papers contributed by Addison to the Spectator (Nos. 441, 453, 465, 489, 513), in which they were introduced in a way which might have been expected if they were by the hand which wrote those papers, but which would have been improbable, and unworthy of Addison, if they were unpublished works of a writer of so much genius, and such note in his day, as Marvell. They are all printed as Addison s in Dr Johnson s edition of the British Poets, 593 which the number is not inconsiderable. In his better works he is distinguished by a graceful and pointed, some times even a noble style. His &quot;Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes &quot; (which is, indeed, his masterpiece), is as sweet, vigorous, and perfect a composition as can any where be found. Two other hymns, &quot; How gentle God s commands,&quot; and that which, in a form slightly varied, became the &quot; O God of Bethel, by whose hand,&quot; of the Scottish &quot; Paraphrases,&quot; well represent his softer manner. Of the other followers in the school of Watts, Miss Steele Miss (1780) is the most popular and perhaps the best. Her Steele. hymn beginning &quot; Far from these narrow scenes of night &quot; deserves high praise, even by the side of other good perfor mances on the same subject. The influence of Watts was felt in Scotland, and among Ralph the first whom it reached there was Ralph Erskine. This Erskine. seems to have been after the publication of Erskine s Gospel Sonnets, which appeared in 1732, five years before he joined his brother Ebenezer in the Secession Church. The Gospel Sonnets became (as some have said) a &quot; people s classic &quot;; but there is in them very little which belongs to the category of hymnody. More than nineteen-twentieths of this very curious book are occupied with what are, in fact, theological treatises and catechisms, mystical meditations on Christ as a Bridegroom or Husband, and spiritual enigmas, paradoxes, and antithetical conceits, versified, it is true, but of a quality of which such lines as &quot; Faith s certain by fiducial acts, Sense by its evidential facts,&quot; may be taken as a sample. The grains of poetry scattered through this large mass of Calvinistic divinity are very few ; yet in one short passage of seven stanzas (&quot; O send me down a draught of love &quot;), the fire burns with a bright ness so remarkable as to justify a strong feeling of regret that the gift which this writer evidently had in him was not more often cultivated. Another passage, not so well sustained, but of considerable beauty (part of the last piece under the title &quot; The Believer s Soliloquy &quot;), became after wards, in the hands of Berridge, the foundation of a very striking hymn (&quot; O happy saints, who walk in light &quot;). After his secession, Ralph Erskine published two para phrases of the &quot; Song of Solomon,&quot; and a number of other &quot; Scripture songs,&quot; paraphrased, in like manner, from the Old and New Testaments. In these the influence of Watts became very apparent, not only by a change in the writer s general style, but by the direct appropriation of no small quantity of matter from Dr Watts s hymns, with variations which were not always improvements. His paraphrases of 1 Cor. i. 24, Gal. vi. 14, Heb. vi. 17-19, Rev. v. 11, 12, vii. 10-17, and xii. 7-12 are little else than Watts transformed. One of these (Rev. vii. 10-17) is interesting as a variation and improvement, intermediate between the original and the form which it ultimately assumed as the GGth &quot;Paraphrase &quot; of the Church of Scotland, of Watts s &quot; What happy men or angels these,&quot; and &quot; These glorious minds, how bright they shine.&quot; No one can compare it with its ultimate product, &quot;How bright these glorious spirits shine,&quot; without perceiving that Cameron followed Erskine, and only added finish and grace to his work, both excelling Watts, in this instance, in simplicity as well as in conciseness. Of the contributions to the authorized &quot; Paraphrases &quot; Scottish (with the settlement of which committees of the General 1 ara- Assembly of the Church of Scotland were occupied from l hrases - 1745 or earlier till 1781), the most noteworthy (besides the two already mentioned) were those of John Morrison and those claimed for Michael Bruce. The obligations of these &quot; Paraphrases &quot; to English hymnody, already traced in some instances (to which may be added the adoption from Addison of three out of the five &quot; hymns &quot; appended Xtl. 7.5