no Chapter to these, and only one Psalm. They are therefore very short offices. Great latitude was always allowed as to the time of day when the Hours should be recited, though scarcely to the extent to which it prevails now among our congregations, who meet at 11 A.M. to sing "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," &c. It is therefore an useful feature of the Primer that offices for any length whatever can be selected for use according to time and opportunity. There is also much plasticity in the offices themselves. Thus at the end of Lauds and other Hours the Memorials (or Collects) can be used or omitted at pleasure, or a portion of the Golden Litany can be substituted for them. At the end of Matins the Te Deum or the Responsory can be used, or both. The Primer differs from the Breviary in allowing the use of both: the latter giving the Te Deum as a substitute for the Responsory. These Matin Responses are from the Primer of 1539, as also (and from earlier editions) is the Invitatory, which I have divided according to the use of the Public Offices. This seemed to me a justifiable liberty. The Primer use of the Invitatory interpolated the whole verse, "Come unto me," &c., after each verse of the Venite, each verse of course of the Old Italic Version. This was certainly monotonous and inferior in beauty to the ordinary arrangement of the Venite. I have therefore restored the latter in editing the Venite itself according to the translation in the Common Prayer. The Golden Litany, which was a great favourite with our forefathers, I have edited from the Old Lambeth MS. It is a composition of very high antiquity. In this instance it would be more useful than the Litany of the Common Prayer which occupies this position in all the Primers.

The old translations of the Latin Hymns in the original being, in some instances, too quaint for modern use, I have been obliged to use some liberty in substituting and adapting the Hymns here and there never, however, when I could avoid doing so. the modern versions of the Hymns in Prime, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours, and in Compline, I am in

For

debted to the kindness of the editors of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," which I take this opportunity of acknowledging. To their permission I also owe the fine translation of S. Bonaventura's Hymn, In Passione Domini, given in the Sixth Hour. The translation of the Salvator Mundi is from Bishop Cosin's "Hours of Prayer."

The Paradise of the Soul is from a Primer of 1536. The name, so far as I am aware, is first used in that edition, but the substance of the Prayers is common to much earlier Primers. The book from which I have edited the Paradise of the Soul is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. I have allowed myself much liberty in reducing the quaint old English expressions to modern language, and also in omitting collections of Scripture Texts, &c., which are of no use at the present day. Of course the Paradise of the Soul is entirely distinct from the publication of the same name which was compiled long after by Horst, and is very popular on the Continent.

For the Rubrical Directions I myself am solely re sponsible, as also for the Metrical pieces at the end of the Appendix. The prayers before the Hours (pp. 135, 174) are from the Henrican editions of the Primer.

The Latin Offices in the Appendix I have published from the Horarium of Queen Elizabeth (the Latin edition of the Primer), at the suggestion of my learned friend, the Rev. W. J. Blew, to whose deep liturgical knowledge, and to that of the Rev. T. Lathbury, I am indebted for much valuable information. It is thought that these Latin Offices will be very useful in our classical schools and colleges, as well as for private use among the clergy and "Latiners." The metrical antiphon in the memorial "De Passione," (pp. 178, 183,) from "Patris Sapientia" is there reinstated from the Henrican and earlier editions. In the very few insignificant points where the Horarium differs from the Primer I have assimilated the former to the latter. In the "Preces Private" there is a beautiful prayer in the English which is not to be found in the Latin. Being unwilling to omit it, I

with much fear and trembling have trusted to my own wings and translated it into Latin myself. I need not point out which prayer it is, as that will be evident enough, I fear.

I have been minute in indicating these changes which I have made in editing the Primer, as in all other respects the book is the Elizabethan Primer. And in those cases-they are few and unimportant,wherein one edition of the Elizabethan Primer differs from another; I have followed the latest reading. It is no ambition of mine to compile a Prayer Book after my own devices, but to contribute my efforts to the reinstatement of old and authorized offices, the late disuse of which I believe from my heart to have been a most serious loss to our communion.

I would venture to call especial attention to the Dirge. It is the revised edition of the private version of the Ancient Vigilia (or Officium) Mortuorum, and is the parallel office to our Burial Service. In the present excitement about the latter it seems to me impossible to overrate the importance of this Office, prepared and published as it was with much careful revision, for private use, by the same hands which issued our present Public Service.

It derives its name "DIRGE" from the first word of the Latin Antiphon to the first Matin Psalm in the full Breviary Office,-" Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam.' In the same manner Vespers (or Evensong) of the Departed is sometimes called the PLACEBO from the first word of the opening Antiphon, "Placebo Domino in regione vivorum." And the term REQUIEM has still lingered in use, in the sense of a funeral chant, from the fact that at the end of every Psalm in the Office of the Departed instead of the usual Gloria the following chant was sung, from 2 Esdras ii. 34, 35.

"Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine;
Et lux perpetua luceat eis."

It will be observed that the Primer differs from the Breviary in retaining the usual Gloria after the Psalms

instead of the Requiem, which it uses however in the Versicles.

I will not venture to say more about the substance of the Dirge, but will refer those who wish to compare it with the Breviary Office to the Analysis of Psalms at the end of the preface.

Let me, however, call attention to the fact that, though later in date of revision than the Common Prayer, yet nevertheless the Dirge keeps nearer, both in substance and in structure, to the Ancient Office of the Departed; and that in exact proportion to this conservatism it is free from the distressing embarrassments which fetter, and threaten even to destroy, our Public Service for the Burial of the Dead. It would seem as though one might suspect that any office may sooner or later get into trouble which, with a view to avoidance of fancied doctrinal danger to the uneducated, changes petitions, addressed to the infinite mercies of Almighty God, into general expressions directed merely to the hopeful feelings of the faithful who are present. Few of those who now conscientiously shrink from uttering an apparently presumptuous expression of sure and certain hope, when standing over the grave of a notorious sinner, would refuse to ask of God that his mercy at least may be extended in some measure to him for whose joyful Resurrection with us at the last day we ourselves may scarcely dare to hope. If when the sum of a man's life is made up and complete, and his soul is in the act of departure to the waiting-place of the dead, we are bidden by the Church, in her Visitation Service, to pray that God will "wash it in the blood of that immaculate Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the world, that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty world, through the lusts of the flesh or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away, it may be presented pure and without spot before him,"-then it would seem to be a false scruple which would deny a similar petition when, a few hours later, the body is committed to the Seedland of the Resurrection.

Of the Graces in the Appendix, (p. 192,) re-published from the Elizabethan books, No. II. is of surpassing interest. It is certainly the oldest Grace in the world; and may very possibly, to judge from certain indications in it, be of Apostolic antiquity. Certainly in the time of Constantine, in the fourth century, it was spoken of with great reverence as being of unknown age. Both S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom quote it. The passage in the latter Father is so remarkable that I give it entire as follows:

"I praise and admire the Monks who have taken up their abode in the Desert, (the Egyptian Desert,) for this Office among other things. For they, after having breakfasted, or rather after dinner,-for they know nothing of breakfast, being well assured that the present is a season of sorrow and fasting,-after dinner then, when saying grace to God, they offer also this memorial chant. And if you are desirous of hearing their hymn, in order that you yourselves also may constantly say it, I will repeat to you all that sacred Ode. The words of it then run thus:-Blessed be God, who hast fed me from my tender age and givest sustenance to all flesh. Replenish our hearts with joy and gladness, that we alway having sufficient may abound unto every good work in Christ Jesus our Lord; with whom to thee be glory, honour, and might, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. Glory to thee, O Lord; Glory to thee, O Holy One; Glory to thee, O King; for thou hast given us meat for gladness. Fill us with the Holy Spirit, that we may be found well-pleasing in thy sight, and may not be ashamed when thou renderest to every man according to his works. In every respect therefore this Hymn is worthy of admiration, but especially this ending."-Homily on S. Matt. xvi. 24.

The Tables of Psalms at the end of the Preface exhibit the progressive or retrogressive changes effected in the substance of the Private Offices as com