John Mason Neale; A Memior

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVIII Hymnology in the past--Webb's disapproval of hymns in the vernacular--Neale's taste in poetry--Southey's letter to Cornelius Neale--Neale's translations from the Latin and Greek--Examples of his original hymns. From his earliest years, as we have seen, Neale had had what Webb described as a "fatal facility" for versification. Already in 1843, Webb had written in strong depreciation of hymns in the vernacular. If he could not have the old Latin hymns in the Offices of the Church, he would have none at all. Neale's answer is--"Why not have English hymns, if we have English prayers? Surely English hymns, if good, are better than none? Depend upon it we shall be acting more upon the general principles of the Church, in making the best of a bad thing--allowing the universal abrogation of Latin to be so--than in saying, if we can't have that, we'll have none." It was a strange phase of the reaction from the evangelical revival at the close of the eighteenth century, that one of the chief spiritual weapons for the instruction and encouragement of the unlearned disciples and converts of Christ should have been deliberately condemned by those in earnest about reawakening the conscience and extending the influence of the English Church. Fortunately these views were confined to a minority of the most rigid advocates of Church principles. "The Christian Year," with its unprecedented success (no less than 108,000 copies being circulated in twenty-six years, in forty-three editions), bore witness to the demand for religious poetry; the "Lyra Apostolica" had gathered together many distinguished theologians of the day as its contributors; and food for meditation was provided, in the shape of translations from old standard books of devotion, to supply "Sunda...