INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
Dear Sir,
The authenticity of the text of Bishop Ken's Morning, Evening, and Midnight Hymns, as given in the "Book of Praise," from the Edition of 1712, has been called in question by some writers, whose judgment, on such a point, is entitled to great consideration; and for whom, personally, I entertain a most sincere respect. I therefore think it necessary to give you my reasons for differing from them, and for retaining my own opinion, that the text of 1712 was the result of the Bishop's revision of his own compositions.
The facts are these. The "Manual of Prayers for Winchester Scholars" was originally published by Ken in 1674, (when he was thirty-seven years old, and a resident Fellow of Winchester College,) without any Hymns. It appears, however, from a passage in the "Manual," that the author had composed, for the use of the scholars, three Hymns, for "Morning," "Evening," and "Midnight;" of which copies must have been then in their hands.
In 1697, (six years after the Bishop had been deprived of his see, and twenty-three years after the first publication of the "Manual,") Charles Brome, a London bookseller, who had been the registered proprietor of the copyright of the "Manual" since 1680, brought out a new edition of that book, with the three Hymns added to it by way of appendix. The text of the Hymns, in this and three later editions (of 1700, 1705, and 1709), is that for the exclusive authenticity of which the writers, to whom I refer, contend.
In 1704, there issued from the press of Richard Smith, another London bookseller, a book similiar to the
