Preface.

Germany, since the time of the Reformation, has always had its sacred poets; yet their beautiful hymns were till of late unknown in England, except to the few who read them in the original.

This small selection, now re-published in a slightly enlarged edition, was perhaps the first attempt to make them known to English readers. Some of its former contents are here replaced by hymns of more value.

Most of these were pointed out to the Translator as “national treasures” by the late Baron Bunsen, on whose authority the names and dates of the authors are given, and from whose large collection the hymns, with one exception, iv are taken. That entitled “Gethsemane,” recently translated for Lyra Mystica, is from a Treves hymn-book. The proximity of the German, which, as in the first Edition, is printed on corresponding pages, will betray that in this instance, as also in three or four others, the metre has been changed. In this hymn especially it was difficult to retain the short line and double rhyme in English verse, with sufficient reverence for the solemn theme.

The originals will, it is hoped, recommend this volume to young students of German, who may wish to become acquainted with some of the hymns of Gerhard, Angelus, and others, without searching through collections which mostly comprise several hundreds.