PREFACE MY former volume of Early Christian Hytnns is largely devoted to a reproduction of the sacred poetry found in the Roman Breviary. Many beauti ful and some powerful hymns were necessarily left out for want of space. This second series is needed to give a more complete presentation, or rather a more gcneral survey, of the work of the most r otable Latin writers of tlic early ant1 rnbldle ages. To have included all in onc voluirie would have made the book uncomfortably bulky, or else required such small type as to make it unpleasant to thc eye. This would be a serious defect in a book of this character, tvllich, being one for frequent use, should be made as Inviting as possible. This I have at tempted to do, and my constant aim has been to select only such writings as seemed to possess some degree of merit. Another and more cor clusive reason for not including in my former voIume the hymns here con tained, consists in the fact that most of them have been translated since the publication ol that book. Many of these hymns appear now for the first time in an English dress while others, which have been heretofore only partially rendered, are now given in full. On the whole, I trust that the work here presented will fairly represent the hymn-writers of the period covered. A comparison of these renderings with the orig inals will, I hope, disclose the fact that an honest effort has been made to preserve and present to the reader the actual sentiments and feelings of the authors whose work is offered, without any attempt at change, improvement, or regard for controversial features. Of course such changes were necessaly as the exegencies of a modern tongue and our different socialconditions demanded. Exprcssions which were perfectly proper in the original hymns, and which conveyed pure and beailtjful sentiments at the time and through the medium used, would, if trans lated with absolute literalness, give a very false color to the work of the author. In such cases the letter killeth, but tlae spirit giveth life. This presentation of the spirit of the original is, I think, one of the chief difficulties of translatir gth e poems of these earIy writers. I trust the critical reader will find no instance of a wrong done to any of these bcautif pol ems. Certainly there has been no intentiollnl wro11g. Not only have I cl deavorctlt o fairljr present the thought and feeling of the original, but it1 most instaticcs the meter has been strictly preserved, and as far as possible, all other artistic features. The originals of ihcse hymns may be found in Mones Hymni Latini Mectii Aevi, Daniels Tliesaurus Hymnalogicus, and the first volume of lTackcrnagels Das Dcutsche Kirchenliccl. M ii j...