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Preface. ix down to and including Raffaelle. The constant enthusiastic contemplation of a few subjects, dear to the universal heart of Christendom, and embodying the highest conceptions of Divine purity and beauty, produced a simplicity, refinement, and spirituality of style, which never tires, notwithstanding its limited range. These are the hymns of painters, addressed to the sense of sight. A similar law has always governed, and to this day governs Christian Hymnody; bind* ing together by the force of a central attraction, more powerful than all causes of difference, times ancient and modern, nations of various race and language, Churchmen and Noncon^ formists, Churches reformed and unreformed* It is refreshing to turn aside from the divisions of the Christian world, and to rest for a little time in the sense of that inward unity, which, after all, subsists among all good Christians, and which (is it too much to hope?) may perhaps receive some illustration, even from a volume like this,
Throughout the volume, the names of the authors, when known, are affixed to their hymns. When more authors than one have been concerned in the compositi: n of a hymn, or when it is a cento or variation by one person from the work of another, the names of all the |
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