THE MORAVIAN HYMNS.
(Vol. v., pp. 30. 474.)
Having followed with interest the late discussion in your pages upon the earlier specimens of those strange productions, the Moravian Hymns, it seems to me, that although much that is curious has been elicited, the Query of P. H., touching the genuineness of the extraordinary sample reproduced by him from the Oxford Magazine for 1769, remains unanswered. It is therefore with a view to supply some information directly to this point, that I now beg to introduce to your readers my earliest edition, which looks very like the editio princeps of Part III.: at all events it takes precedence of that described by H. C. B. Its title is, A Collection of Hymns, consisting chiefly of Translations from the German Hymn-book of the Moravian Brethren. Part III. Small 8vo. pp. 168. London, printed for James Hutton, 1748.
At first sight there would appear to be no difference between H. C. B.'s volume and mine, beyond the latter being the earlier by one year; that year, however, seems to have been the exact period when the Brethren deemed it advisable, to avoid scandal, to revise and prune their hymn-book.
"In this part (especially) of our hymn-book," says the Preface, "a good deal of liberty has been taken in dispensing with what otherwise is customary and ornamental: and that for different reasons." Then follow these three reasons: the hymns being printed in prose, to save room; the retention of German diminutives which, although scarcely known in the English tongue, "have a certain elegance and effect" in the former language; and the use of "more antique, prosaic, and less polished diction, out of tenderness for the main point, the expressing more faithfully the doctrines of the congregation, rather than seek better at the expense of the sense."
"So much," continues the Preface, "seemed proper to mention to exempt this Book (which though calculated for our own congregation, will no doubt come into the hands of strangers) from the imputation of a needless singularity. Now we only wish that every Reader may also feel something of that solid and happy Bottom, from whence these free, familiar, and perhaps abrupt Aspirations, both in the composing and using of them, do sparkle forth: And so we commit this Third Part of our Hymn-book to the Providence and Blessing of that dear Redeemer, who with his Ever-blessed Atonement, is everywhere the subject thereof."
As to the hymns themselves, I need say little more to describe them than to observe that the present edition contains not only the one quoted by P. H. from the Oxford Magazine, but all the others which are there to be found, and which have raised doubt in your correspondent's mind whether they are not rather the fabrications of Anti-Moravians than genuine productions, and at the periods in use among the Brethren. Here, too, is to be found the "Chicken Blessed" of Anstey: in his Bath Guide he correctly quotes it as "No. 33. in Count Zinzendorf's Hymn-book,"—that being its position in the present volume. The satirist has, however, given only half of "the learned Moravian's ode," but that faithfully. Besides these there are some of the hymns enumerated by Rimius in his Candid Narrative of the Herrnhuters (London, 1753), in support of his charges against them.
Probably your readers are content with the specimens which have already appeared in your columns. Had it been otherwise, this curious volume would have supplied some of a singular character: as it is, I cannot resist extracting No. 77. and a part of No. 110.; the former relating an adventure between the Arch-Enemy and Saint Martin; the latter, "Concerning the happy little Birds in the Cross's-air, or in the Atmosphere of the Corpse of Jesus:"
"Once on a time a man there was,
A saint whose name was Martin,
Concerning whom, Severus says,