Knights seem to be masquers enacting their parts, and that somewhat clumsily. In losing the mystical, we come into the unreal; because it is as hopeless, it seems to us, as it is undesirable, to attempt to separate the history from the poetry in the old Chronicles. We must take them as they stand, and if we fail to find in them deeper lessons than any mere history furnishes, it is our misfortune. Dr. Neale and many others have pleasantly drawn out the lessons hid in classical stories; cannot some English Fouqué come forward and perform the same office for the chronicle of Arthur, the grandest allegory that was ever written, because it does honour to the highest mystery of the Faith-CHRIST'S Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar?

HYMNS FOR THE MINOR FESTIVALS.

Hymns: chiefly for the Minor Festivals. Edited by the Rev. T. CHAMBERLAIN, M.A., Student of Christ Church, and Vicar of S. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford. London: Masters.

THE publication of these hymns will, we think, be a boon to many who have felt the need of some distinctive commemoration on the Festivals of those minor Saints in the Church's Calendar for whom we have no especial services provided.

To supply this deficiency, mainly, this small collection of original hymns is published. There are hymns also for some of the Great Seasons and Events in the Church's Year, which are full of life and beauty. Thus we have a very spirited hymn "for the First Vespers of Easter and other great Festivals"-a difficult subject very cleverly managed. The hymn for Ember days is full and expressive; and that for Advent, with its thrilling allusion to the "Four last things," while really sublime, is admirably fitted for singing. We might admit that the poetry is even a minor consideration compared with the bringing out the Church's Holy Seasons; yet there are several among the collection before us which we consider in the highest degree poetical. We may instance three; viz., that for the "Visitation of S. Mary," for "S. Mary Magdalene," and for "S. Peter ad Vincula, or Lammas Day."

We remark a beautiful contrast between the two first of these. The deep and holy love and faith that filled the spirit of the Blessed Mary, as she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth: the wild and passionate devotion of the Magdalene, now bowed in humble peni

tence and bitter anguish, and then in glorious triumph over sin, devoting those means through which she once sought to conquer in her sinful course, to bathe and dry the sacred Feet of JESUS! To give a verse from each :

Who

(1.)

"Bearing her GOD she goes,
Oh, wonder passing thought!
may the awe disclose
That in her spirit wrought?
How silent, fain

With Him to meet

In converse sweet,
She would remain."

(2.)

"Love lays at His Feet most humbly
Broken heart, and bitter sigh,
All her treasures, all her pleasures,
And hath triumphed gloriously."

The third of the hymns alluded to above we give in full :—
"S. PETER AD VINCULA, OR LAMMAS DAY.

"Calm the saint's slumber

O tyrant in vain,
Guards in their number,

The dungeon, the chain!

Gladly he weareth

What JESUS hath worn,
Thankful he beareth

What JESUS hath borne.

"Vainly thou deemest

In pride of thy might,

That peril extremest

The Saints shall affright.
Thou who wouldst smite them
With sword and with spear,
Know to requite them

A SAVIOUR is near.

"Strong spells are working,
The Church is at prayer,
Spirits are lurking

Thou knowest not where.

1 We are glad to see that S. Peter's chains is the subject selected for this Festival, because, although not mentioned in our Calendar, there is reason to believe that the word Lammas is abbreviated, not from Loaf-Mass, but from the word Vincula.

See angels bringing
Release to the prison
Hear the Church singing
From terror uprisen.

"His in the highest

Be glory and power,
Who still is nighest

In sorrow's dark hour

Ever receiving,

Blest Three and blest One,

Prayers which believing

We lift to His throne. Amen."

The power of the Church's prayer to break the spell of evil, to loose the chains of the sin-bound captive, and the communion of action between the Angels and the Church, as expressed in the third verse, are really grand.

The hymns for Evangelists and Apostles are not, with three exceptions, given in full. This we consider to be a wise restriction. But there is an additional stanza for each, to be added, before the Doxology, to the usual hymns for their commemoration. These stanzas contain exactly what is needed-the chief characteristic in the life of each saint. We instance that for S. Thomas :

"Th' Apostle of the Indies, fain

With one accord we laud again,

Who, faithless once, his faith did prove,
By wondrous deeds of wondrous love."

:

Those for S. Mark and S. Luke are two of the exceptions we mentioned above. They each give an admirably condensed summary of the individual history and ministry of the Evangelists; consequently they are less poetical in their construction. The hymn for S. John the Evangelist, however, combines the individuality and the poetical in a greater measure, and we think it is among the best in the collection. The high position allowed to this Apostle near the person of his LORD-the sacramental nature of his Gospel-the mystic visions in Patmos, and his martyr-willare all touched upon in this hymn, in a way highly suggestive and poetical. We give the hymn :

"Of all the twelve Thou calledst

To follow Thee on earth,
To whom, O LORD, Thou gavest
The new and better birth;
What lot to his was equal,
Who praised is to-day,
Who at the Paschal Supper
In JESU's bosom lay?

"His Master's will he learned
More deeply than the rest,
The Church has ever styled him,
Theologus the blest.
On eagle's wings he soared,
The heavenly courts within,
'Twas his the mystic visions
In Patmos' Isle to win.

"The martyr's pain he tasted,
But not the martyr's death;
For GOD would have him linger,
That with his latest breath
The Faithful he might strengthen,
And write that deepest lore,
Those sacramental sayings,
Which live for evermore.

"The Mount of Contemplation,
The watch at Calvary,
The torture and the exile,
Oh how they purify!

Then praise we GOD Who keepeth

By grace some pure and true,

From youth to age's limit,

His highest work to do. Amen."

The last in the collection, for "the Sunday next before Advent," is one of considerable spirit. We have often felt the want of a hymn for this day.

Perhaps the least successful of the whole are those for the Royal and Monastic Saints. We quite think that the compilers have done well in not attempting a separate hymn for those saints, whose personal history is but little known, or if known, possesses but a partial interest. The construction, however, is a little involved, and they do not flow so freely as the others.

We may add that there is a cheap edition published for use in Churches.

CALIXTUS.

The Life and Correspondence of George Calixtus, Lutheran Abbot of Königslutter, and Professor Primarius in the University of Helmstadt. By the Rev. W. C. DOWDING, M.A., Hon. Secretary to the Berkeley (Bermuda) College Committee, and formerly Incumbent of Llangrove, Herefordshire. Oxford and London: J. H. and J. Parker. 1863.

THERE are some characters which, instead of being moulded by the spirit of their age, stand out in remarkable contrast with everything around them. If their times have made them what they were, it must have been by a directly opposite process to that generally employed. George Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar were men of this class. What they would have been in other days we cannot say. They might have been as good, and great, and holy, but we think of them chiefly as brought out into strong relief by the turbulence of the epoch in which they lived. Bemerton and Little Gidding were the peaceful retreats in which gentle hearts found rest from the strife which raged around. It is not only true that the lover of peace attracts greater attention in turbulent days, but the strife, from which he shrinks, makes him love peace all the more. And so too, in days of time-serving and insincerity, the valiant defender of the truth will not only seem more valiant, but will really be so, than if his cause was popular and his supporters strong. Over great minds the spirit of the age is powerless. Instead of drawing them within its vortex, it makes them doubly watchful against its prevailing evils, and doubly anxious to stem the current of its influence. They may not always be successful; but they need not fear. Their example will live to be an encouragement to others, who tread the same difficult path in some future age, and to whom it may perhaps be given to see the end of labours which seemed futile, until they were on the very verge of consummation.

Calixtus was acknowledged to be the ablest man of his day, and yet his labours after peace were always unsuccessful. His great life, however, was not wasted, for its lesson is even now bearing fruit in the feeling which is growing up in Germany that, after all, Calixtus was right. In England, too, sore pressed as we are with many troubles, the Helmstadt Professor of the seventeenth century teaches us how zeal and charity can be united. He tells us how his longing desire for unity aroused just the same suspicions as have been raised amongst us lately; and yet all through the trial he was never tempted to swerve from his one great principle. Our business, however, is not to point the moral, which