50. The spacious firmament on high
Joseph Addison, 1672-1719
This hymn was praised by Lord Selbourne as “a very perfect and finished composition, taking rank among the best hymns of the English language.” The author, Joseph Addison, was an eminent Englishman of letters. Dr. Samuel Johnson said of him, “Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar, but not coarse, elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.” In 1712, Addison wrote a series of essays in the Spectator, concluding each essay with a hymn. In the issue of August 23, this hymn, a free rendering of Psalm 19, formed the conclusion to an essay on “The Proper Means of Strengthening and Confirming Faith in the Mind of Man.”
MUSIC. CREATION is an adaptation of a part of the magnificent chorus (No. 14) in Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation. For comments on Haydn, see Hymn [No. 27].