if gold were found in sufficient quantities, mushroom towns of miners would at once spring up. Meantime we find that, even here, European inroads have led to conflict with the natives more terrible than any in other parts of Africa. Some 3,000 Zulus have fallen to the Maxim gun, in defence of their independence; and the new settlers have to deal with a native population of about 200,000 souls. But it is evident that the solution of the question rests entirely with the South African Colony and the chartered companies, and is of no immediate interest to the people of this country, who will not easily be tempted to emigrate to a sub-tropical region.

Mr. Selous' volume is mainly concerned with hunting adventures as exciting as those of Count Teleki, which are modestly related, in a style superior to that of the two works above noticed. It contains some interesting information as to the early relations of the South Africa Company with Lobengula, who, from the first, appears to have tried to resist the occupation of Mashonaland; but its estimate of the future is perhaps too enthusiastic. The company have now to pay for an expensive war, and for two partially completed railways, as well as for the normal expenses of administration. The chances of a dividend appear still to depend on the discovery of gold in quantities sufficient to pay a double profit-to the miner and to the companywhile bearing the heavy cost of transport, which still amounts to 401. per ton, equivalent to the payment of a sovereign for about a shilling's worth of coal delivered. It remains to be seen if any inducement to rapid increase of population exists in the country. If not, the European colonists of these remote regions cannot be expected to exceed in numbers those of the more accessible Transvaal.

The general results of such inquiry into the facts of African colonisation are far from encouraging. Popular enthusiasm seems to have been diverted from the Pole to the Equator, and we are reminded of the zeal once devoted to the discovery of the North-West passage.' But colonists are slow in appearing. America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are not yet exhausted; and the dangers which threaten the settler in Africa from climate, wild beasts, wild tribes, and waterless deserts do not exist in those countries towards which the tide of emigration now sets. Until such emigrants are convinced that Africa presents superior advantages, or until the more favoured regions are fully occupied, the expenditure of governments, or of commercial companies,

VOL. CLXXIX. NO. CCCLXVIII.

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does not promise any appreciable return. It must be plain, from what has here been said, that the districts in which agriculture can flourish are few, and comparatively small: that the deserts are extensive; and that the interests of the acclimatised Arab and of the naked native are both opposed to those of the European colonist. It is possible that the enthusiasm of the moment may lead to no greater results than were attained, centuries ago, by the Dutch or the Portuguese, and it may leave no greater mark in history than the buccaneering raids on the Spanish main, which excited popular admiration in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and to which some of the more recent expeditions may not unjustly be compared. It is at least to be hoped that the present account will show the reader what are the opinions of independent witnesses as to the real character of the vast regions over which we now claim sway on the eastern side of the African continent. If we are indeed pegging out claims' for futurity, that future appears to be at least uncertain and remote, while the vital interests of our trade and of our empire demand all our attention much nearer home.

ART. II.-1. A Dictionary of Hymnology, setting forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of all Ages and Nations, with special reference to those contained in the Hymn-books of English-speaking Countries, and now in common use; together with Biographical and Critical Notices of their Authors and Translators; and Historical Articles on National and Denominational Hymnody, Breviaries, Missals, Primers, Psalters, Sequences, &c. &c. By JOHN JULIAN. London: 1892.

2. Hymns: their History and Development in the Greek and Latin Churches, Germany and Great Britain. By ROUNDELL, Earl of SELBORNE. London and Edinburgh : 1892.

3. The Book of Praise, from the best English Hymn Writers. Selected and arranged by RoUNDELL PALMER. London: 1862.

THE

HE Dictionary of Hymnology,' which after many years of patient research Dr. Julian has happily been able to complete, is a volume of 1,628 large pages, printed in close but distinct type. The first 1,306 pages are taken up with very full biographical and critical notices, alphabetically

arranged, of the hymn-writers of Christendom, including the most notable psalms and hymns described under their respective first lines. In this part of the book are included also comprehensive accounts of groups, most of them supplemented by special details under the head of the several writers. Thus, to give a few examples out of many, there are separate articles on the hymnody of the Church of England, Baptists, Presbyterians, and many others; there is one consisting of thirty-two columns on English psalters. Pages 1307-1504 contain an admirable and well-nigh perfect cross-reference index of first lines in nearly every European language, compiled by Major G. A. Crawford. Those who have felt the want of an index like this in such books as Daniel's 'Thesaurus Hymnologicus' will appreciate its inestimable value to the student. This crossreference index is followed by an alphabetical list of authors, translators, and editors, while the last ninety-two pages contain supplements bringing the whole book up to date.

Dr. Julian has been assisted by thirty-five contributors, but a casual glance through the Dictionary will show what a large proportion of the work has been done by himself. Indeed, no one of them has helped to any considerable extent, with the marked exception of the Rev. James 'Mearns, whose assistance has been so extensive, varied, and prolonged as to earn the unsolicited and unexpected, 'but well-deserved and cheerfully-accorded, position of 'assistant-editor of this work.'

Much of the work of preparing the book must have been intricate and baffling. No less than ten thousand manuscripts have been consulted; rare books, almost inaccessible pamphlets, and broadsides without number. The main difficulty lies, as a rule, in the discovering where the desired information is lurking; this once scented out, there is usually a clear run. Not always even then. Manuscripts damaged by time and by damp have to be deciphered as best one may; crabbed and nearly illegible writing has to be read. In very many cases a few lines of print mean weeks of toilsome research. The words of one of the contributors are evidently no idle boast: All the references by page or number to the works of German authors have been made either by [the writer] or by others at his request specially for this Dictionary.' Just realise what that means. And throughout the book signs of original work are constantly turning up. It is no compilation. Alike in its comprehen

sive breadth of view, its catholicity of tone, and its minutely accurate scholarship, it is worthy of its subject.

The total number of Christian hymns is reckoned to amount to some four hundred thousand, and these are written in two hundred languages. More than one hundred thousand are German, and about thirty thousand English. Third and fourth in respect of the number of their hymns come the Latin and Greek languages.

It will, we think, be obvious that so complete a book, written by a committee of specialists and dealing with every branch of the subject-from Bohemian to Syriac hymnody; from the temperance ballads to Troparia-could be adequately reviewed only by a like committee. We shall in this article content ourselves with pointing out the many good qualities of the Dictionary and the few faults we have been able to discover in it; as we proceed to talk, somewhat eclectically, about one or two branches of the science of hymnology; above all, directing attention, as the Dictionary itself also does, to the hymns contained in the hymn-books of English-speaking countries.' At the same time we disclaim all intention of giving a connected history even of these divisions of the subject.

In 1881 Lord Selborne, who had already laid us under great obligations by the publication of the original texts of the choicest English hymns in his 'Book of Praise,' increased these obligations by a masterly article on English Hymnody in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.' The little book which we have prefixed as the second part of our title is an amplification of this, and is further illustrated by a selection of hymns, these being accompanied when not in English by representative translations. The Book of 'Praise,' small and unpretending as it was, has proved to be no less an epoch-making work than Bunsen's 'Gesangbuch' was in Germany. Since its publication in 1862 few hymnbooks have failed to follow more or less closely the principles there laid down by him.

Let us begin, then, by asking ourselves, What is a hymn? St. Augustine's definition, the praise of God with singing,' is good so far as it goes. But the expansion of Church life and the developement of Christian doctrine have forced us to widen this a little, so as to admit into the rank of hymns both certain meditations and certain prayers. For instance, James Montgomery's hymn beginning Prayer is the soul's 'sincere desire' is an expanded definition of prayer of great beauty.' The first few stanzas of Tennyson's 'In

'Memoriam,' beginning with 'Strong Son of God, immortal 'Love,' which are inserted as the 109th hymn in the Congregational Hymn-book, do not fit into the limits imposed by Augustine. The metrical litanies now to be found in every hymn-book are, as their name implies, prayers.

6

The liturgical use of hymns in the early Church was by no means extensive. Still, they were sung, and scattered throughout the New Testament we find either examples of them, such as the Magnificat,' or allusions to them. But when once we leave the Bible the next hint as to their being sung comes from a non-Christian source. The younger Pliny,* writing from Bithynia in the year A.D. 103 to the Emperor Trajan, says that the Christians were accustomed on a fixed day to assemble before daybreak and to sing a 'hymn antiphonally to Christ as God.' Now, Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, had just, owing to a remarkable dream, introduced antiphonal singing into the Church services in his diocese, whence it had spread to other parts. And Hippolytus,† Bishop of Porto early in the third century, says: All the psalms and odes which have been written by 'faithful brethren from the beginning hymn the Christ, the 'Word of God, as God.'

Yet the use of hymns sung in the public services of the Church was, as we have said, rare. There was, for some reason or other, a prejudice against them, and the Council of Braga, at a later date, forbade the singing of them throughout Spain. The impulse which first brought them into greater prominence came from without. Bardesanes, or Bar-Daisan, a Gnostic teacher of ability and poetic skill, hit upon the plan of writing and singing hymns which should enforce his peculiar views among the congregation at Edessa, a flourishing city in Northern Mesopotamia. These caught the popular taste, and were still sung by the people of Edessa when Ephraem, the orthodox Syrian Father, came there some century and a half after. The idea struck him: Why not fight these Gnostics with their own weapons? So Ephraem, who had a very pretty knack of composing songs, set to work and produced a good many metrical homilies and hymns. With these he hoped not only to counteract the wrong teaching of the Gnostics, but at one and the same.

Pliny, Letters, x. 96.

The Dictionary, p. 640, says Caius; but it is generally acknowledged now that Hippolytus was the writer referred to by Eusebius, v. 28.