It is worth while inqiuring what profane models the Greek hymnographers chose to work after. In the old religion of Greece the word ki/mn had already acquired a sacred and liturgical meaning, which could not fail to suggest its application to the productions of the Chris- tian muse. So much for the name. The special Jhrms of the Greek hymn were various. The Homeric and Orphic hymns were written in the epic style, and in hexameter verse. Their metre was not adapted for singing ; and therefore, though they inay have been re- cited, it is not Ukely that they were sung at the celebra- tion of the mysteries. We turn to the Pindaric hymns, and here we find a sufficient variety of metre, and a defi- nite relation to music. These hymns were sung to the accompaniment of the Ijnre, and it is very likely that they engaged the attention of the early hjTnu-writers. The dithjTamb, with its development into the dramatic chorus, was sufficiently connected with musical tradi- tions to make its form a fitting vehicle for Christian po- etry ; and there certainly is a dithyrambic savor about the earliest knomi Christian hymn, as it appears in Clem. Alex. p. 312, 313, ed Potter.
The first impidse of Christian devotion was to run into the moulds ordinarily used by the worshippers of the old religion. This was more than an impulse — it was a necessity, and a twofold necessity. The new spirit was strong ; but it had two limitations : the diffi- culty of conceiving a new musico-poetical literature ; and the quality so peculiar to devotional music, of lin- gering in the heart after the head lias been convinced and the beUef changed. The old tunes woidd be a real necessity to the new life; and the exile from his an- cient faith would delight to hear on the foreign soil of a new religion the familiar melodies of home. Dean Trench has indeed labored to show that the reverse was the case, and that the early Christian shrank with hor- ror from the sweet but polluted enchantments of his un- believing state. We can only assent to this in so far as we allow it to be the second phase in the history of hymns. AVhen old traditions died away, and the Chris- tian acquired not only a new belief, but a new social hu- manit}-, it was possible, and it was desirable too, to break forever the attenuated thread that bound him to the an- cient world. Thus it was broken ; and the trochaic and iambic metres, unassociated as they were with heathen worship, though largely associated with the heathen drama, obtained an ascendant in the Christian Church. In 1 Cor. xiv, 26, allusion is made to improrised hymns, which, being the outburst of a passionate emotion, would probably assume the dithyrambic form. But attempts have been made to detect fragments of ancient hymns conformed to more obvious metres in Eph. v, l-t ; James i, 17 ; Rev. i, 8 sq. ; xv, 8. These pretended fragments, however, may with much greater likelih.ood be referred to the swing of a prose composition unconscioush' cul- minatmg into metre. It was in the Latin Church that the trochaic and iambic metres became most deeplv root- IV.— E K
ed, and acquired the greatest depth of tone and grace of finish. As an exponent of Christian feeling tliey soon superseded the accentual hexameters ; they were used mnemonically against the heathen and the heretics by Commodianus and Augustine. The intHxhietion of hymns into the Latin Church is commonly referred to Ambrose. But it is impossible to conceive tliat I he A\'cst should have been so far behind the East: similar neces- sities must have i)roduced similar results ; and it is more likely that the tradition is due to the very marked prom- inence of Ambrose as the greatest of all the Latin hym- nographers.
The trochaic and iambic metres, thus impressed into the service of the Church, have continued to hold their ground, and are, in fact, the 7's, S. M., C. M., and L. M. of oiu: modern hymns, many of which arc translations, or, at any rate, imitations of Latin originals. These metres were peculiarly adapted to the grave and sombre spirit of Latui Christianity. Less ecstatic than the varied chorus of the Greek Church, they did not soar upon the pinion of a lofty praise so much as they drooped and sank into the depths of a great sorrow. They were sub- jective rather than objective; they appealed to the heart more than to the understanding; and, if they contained less theology, thej^ were fidler of a rich Christian lui- manity. (See Deyling, Obss. Sacr. iii, 430 ; Hilliger, l)e Psul. Hymn, atque odar. sac. discrimirw. Yiteh. 1720 ; (icr- bert. Be canfu et musico, Bamb. et Frib. 1774, 2 vols. 4to ; Rheinwald, Christl. Archaol. p. 2G2.) Ouj; information respecting the hymnology of the first Christians is ex- tremely scanty : the most distinct notice we possess of it is that contained in Pliny's celebrated epistle {Up. x, 97) : " Carmen Christo quasi deo, dicei-e secuni invicem." (See August!, Ilandbucli der Christlichen A 7-ckdoloffie, il, 1- 160 ; Walchii Miscellanea Sacra, i, 2 ; De Tiymnis ecclesics Apostolic(e,AmsiQ\,Yi\l; and other monographs cited in Volbeding, Index Profjrammatum, p. 133.) — Kitto; Smith.