Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-09-18
NATIONAL NTELLlGENCER
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

of this volume and with the object proposed by its
editor and compiler. 1t is known to all our readers
that the Latin Church during the middle ages wit
messed the rise and progress of species of versf
cation formed on other principles than was that of
the classical models bequeathed to posterity by hea
thenism In the present volume, Mr. Trench, already
favorably known to us by previous valuable publ
cations, has presented to the public collection of
what he deems the "best sacred Latin poetry !"
and though miss in this anthology some favorite
specimens of the old Christian verse whose inser-
ton was not precluded we think, by the principles
which have governed him in his selection, yet it is
sufficiently replete with the farest products to be
culled from the wide field of the medieval hymn
ology to deserve the appreciation of every reader
who has found the time inclination to cultivate
taste for this quaint old verse. The immediate aim
of the learned editor in the work before is to Of
fer to the members of the established Church in
England selection of such Latin hymns as possess
the highest poetical merit without the mixture of
any doctrina statements peculiar to the Dark Ages,
and carefully excluding all productions which, how
ever beautiful as works of poetic art inspiration,
would not consist with the faith and fealty due to
his own spiritual mother. The present work, there
fore, is by no means such repertory of medieval
hymns as will satisfy the cravings of any reader
who wishes to drink deeply at these fountains of the
old Christian poesy, but is to be regarded rather
an earnest Of the field which remains to be explored
and occupied by the interested student, of yore
the grapes of Escho the pomegranatcs and the figs
borne by the messengers sent to spy out the "pro-
missed land" proved to the expectant children of
Israel that it was indeed land flowing with milk
and honey"
We are not of the number of those determined
laudatores ten,poris acti who regard the middle
ages as most Of all /" incarnate with the thought of
God" We leave it for Oxford doctors and ultra
II for fbo
gious light which then prevailed alike in the court
and the closter in society and the church. If the
dim light" of those ages had been confined to the
cathedral and the convent for the qualification of
religious estheticism, or the promotion of diet
tanti piety, we do not know that the general effect
would have been more disastrous then than is the
amateur christianity of the present day; but when
the religious light Of an entire period and of
whole continent, the seat too of Christendom, has
become so dim" as to justify us in terming the
times of its prevalence tbs " dark ages of Europe"
we are led to say of such an epoch the Teacher
of Gallee said of the individual man, If the light
that in thee be darkness how great is that dark
ness" Yet, if those ages were dark, they were not
without their starlight If it was then the winter
time of the human mind it is but fair to remember
that beneath the ice and preserved well
buried the seeds Of the coming harvest which only await
ed the spring that has dawned upon the earth
in order burst into life and beauty 1t is, however,
with the theology of this period that subject brings
into immediate contact Of this it is not too
much say that it partly the and partly the
effect OF the chrstanized barbarsm and barbaric chris
tianiy which then prevailed throughout Europe Soce
ty acted the church and the church reacted soce
ty That neither then in its pures will be de-
MED presume, by none, not by the most phlo
sophizng historian of the by the jealous
comiast of the other. STILL the middle ages and the
church of the middle ages have much by which nte-
and instruct the nqustve student; say inquisi
tive for its Of instruction and entertainment do
NOT lie upon surface like the precious metals which
Turk in the unwrought Of the mine, they be
sought and sfed by the patient gaherer OF course
Mr. Trench himself suggests those who consider that the
whole middle age theology is to be ignored and placed
under ban-that nothing is to be learned from it,
thing but harm-a those must be expected to disap-
prove not merely of small matter in the present
volume but of its entire content and the aim of its editor
for the very idea of the book expressly purpors rest
the supposition that it Is worth while to know what
the feelings of these ages what the Church do
ing during thousand years of her existence and the
assumption also that the voices in which men uttered
then the deepest things of their hearts, will be voices in
which may also and embody the deepest things
OF own. Mr. Trench might justly claim, think from
his readers only excupaton but actual gratitude for
what has evidently been to HIMSELF In the work before
US, labor Of love.
or poems here offered by the present compiler there
are many which only be found in costly editions Of
the Fathers or later medieval writer's in other coec
tons of the very occurrence" The greater part
of them however had been previously made accessible
to those interested in this department Of letters by the
learned elaborate, and comprehensive work of Daniel
German theologian and scholar, entitled " Thesdurus
Hynnoo9iclr &C. collection invaluable to the student
Of church history well lover Of church melody for
the ballads of nation pronounced by the well
known saying on this point even important than
nations laws also the lyrics of the church afford
criterion by which to judge of the spirit that in
sasca the DEGREES Of councils for it is in the
songs Of Church Of People that see, yelling
up from within the deepest fountains Of pious pari
otto feeling James H. was driven from his throne by
peasants refrain Charles H. had been restored by
popular dtty ~ and the eryd hymns of Hans Sacks
deemed potent in the Reformation the Of
Luther the epste Of Melanchon though the poet cob
bier has been far from nheriting celebrity equal that
which has been justly awarded to these his lustrious
contemporaries and colaborers Of his six thousand fu
gitive poems, all, or nearly all, have persisted.
Moreover without some knowledge Of the Latin hymns
OF the Church. is impossible appreciate how great
debt present generation 70 those that have gone
before for the Of sacred poetry now in actual
possession and which have BEEN in part the beguest Of
the ancient church That richest Of the modern hyTnnoo
gies the German is under especial obligations to these
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