358 OUR HYMNS :
good taste ; and where she avoids her one defect, monotony, she is sure to please by the justness of her sentiment and the ease and beauty of her expression.
There is one hymn by Mrs Hemans in the " New Congrega tional Hymn Book," a touching piece in an unusual and difficult
metre :
"Lowly and solemn be." No. 721.
It is given at page 470, volume 2, of Mrs. Hemans collected works, edited by her sister, 1847. It forms part of a funeral dirge given at the close of a poem in blank verse, and headed, " The Funeral-day of Sir Walter Scott." (He died on the 21st Sep tember, 1832.) The poem begins
" A glorious voice hath ceased ! "
The funeral song consists of nine stanzas, of which four are given in the " New Congregational "without alteration.
��EDWARD SWAINE.
17951862.
THE larger proportion of our hymns have been written by Christian ministers of different denominations, and for some we are indebted to those who have held less prominent offices in the Christian Church. The subject of this sketch filled, with efficiency, for forty years, the office of deacon of a Congregational Church. He was born of pious parents,, in the city of London, September 21st, 1795. He was an only -son, but had two sisters who survived him. While very young his parents removed to Piccadilly, where they carried on their business, and where he con tinued it, and spent his life. He was a delicate child, and long remembered the painful effect of the unsympathizing manner of his treatment at the school at Peckham, to which he was sent. His education was defective in the length of time devoted to it, as well as in its character. He was removed from school
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