LABENTE JAM SOLIS.
Now with the declining sun,
Day to night is passing on.
So doth mortal life descend
Swiftly to its destined end.
From the cross, thine arms spread wide
Fold the world, O Crucified!
Help us love the cross. In thy
Dear embrace help us to die!
Glory to the Eternal One,
Glory to the only Son,
Glory to the Spirit be,
Now and through eternity.
Of the other writers of the Breviary only a few need detain us. Most of them are poets of the conventional sort, whose verse evidences the care taken with their education rather than their possession of any native genius, although Jean Commire (1625-1702) was of wide reputation in his day. Even of good Claude Santeul the best that can be said is that several of his hymns have passed for the composition of his brother, and that the two Trinity hymns (Ter sancte, ter potens Deus and O luce quae tua lates) and the three on Lazarus (Redditum luce, Domino vocante, Panditur saxo tumulus remoto, and Intrante Christo Bethanicam domum) deserve the honor. They make us regret the loss of these two manuscript volumes. An unfinished translation of one of these, left by Mr. Duffield, has been completed for us by Dr. A. R. Thompson. The asterisk marks the transition from the one translator to the other—