Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/15

 INTRODUCTION.

HE firt edition of the Seven Great Hymns was publihed anonymouly, years ago, because I did not wih to aume a cholarhip which I did not poes. In framing the book the proces of election and rejection was intinctive or intuitive rather than the operation of a well-informed judgment. It was the cae of one reaching out for omething which he intenely deſired to find with the reult of finding it. The purpoe of the book was what might be termed expoition—to give to American readers an expoition of the ubject by placing before them the greatet of the mediæval hymns, and an expoition of each hymn by appending to it its bet tranlation. Since then there have been immene additions to the English branch of the subject in the form of translations and commentaries; and it would be an eay tak now with the material at hand to make this volume