This is not like other collections of religious verse; still less is it
a hymnal. The present volume is directed to a very specific and wholly
practical end, the production of high personal character; and only those
poems which have an immediate bearing in this direction have been
admitted. We know of no other book published which has followed this
special line. There are fine hymnals, deservedly dear to the Church, but
they are necessarily devoted in large measure to institutional and
theological subjects, are adapted to the wants of the general
congregation and to purposes of song; while many poetical productions
that touch the heart the closest are for that very reason unsuited to
the hymnal. There are many anthologies and plentiful volumes of
religious poetry, but not one coming within our ken has been made up as
this has been. We have sought far and wide, through many libraries,
carefully conning hundreds of books and glancing through hundreds more,
to find just those lines which would have the most tonic and stimulating
effect in the direction of holier, nobler living. We have coveted verses
whose influence would be directly on daily life and would help to form
the very best habits of thought and conduct, which would have intrinsic
spiritual value and elevating power; those whose immediate tendency
would be to make people better, toughening their moral fibre and helping
them heavenward; those which they could hardly read attentively without
feeling an impulse toward the things which are pure and true and
honorable and lovely and of good report, things virtuous and
praiseworthy.
It is surprising to one who has not made the search how very many poets
there are whose voluminous and popular works yield nothing, or scarcely
anything, of this sort. We have looked carefully through many scores of
volumes of poetry without finding a line that could be of the slightest
use in this collection. They were taken up altogether with other topics.
They contained many pretty conceits, pleasant descriptions, lovely or
lively narrations--these in abundance, but words that would send the
spirit heavenward, or even earthward with any added love for humanity,
not one. On the other hand, in papers and periodicals, even in books,
are great multitudes of verses, unexceptionable in sentiment and helpful
in influence, which bear so little of the true poetic afflatus, are so
careless in construction or so faulty in diction, so imperfect in rhyme
or rhythm, so much mingled with colloquialisms or so hopelessly
commonplace in thought, as to be unworthy of a permanent place in a book
like this. They would not bear reading many times. They would offend a
properly educated taste. They would not so capture the ear as to linger
on the memory with compelling persistence, nor strike the intellect as
an exceptional presentation of important truth. The combination of fine
form and deep or inspiring thought is by no means common, but, when
found, very precious. We will not claim that this has been secured in
all the poems here presented. Not all will approve our choice in all
respects. There is nothing in which tastes more differ than in matters
of this kind. And we will admit that in some cases we have let
in--because of the important truth which they so well voiced--stanzas
not fully up to the mark in point of poetic merit. Where it has not been
possible to get the two desirable things together, as it has not always,
we have been more solicitous for the sentiment that would benefit than
for mere prettiness or perfection of form. Helpfulness has been the test
oftener than a high literary standard. The labored workmanship of the
vessel has not weighed so much with us as its perfect fitness to convey
the water of life wherewith the thirsty soul of man has been or may be
refreshed. If poets are properly judged, as has been alleged, by the
frame of mind they induce, then some who have not gained great literary
fame may still hold up their heads and claim a worthy crown.
Some poems fully within the scope of the book--like Longfellow's "Psalm
of Life"--have been omitted because of their exceeding commonness and
their accessibility. Many hymns of very high value--like "Jesus, Lover
of my soul," "My faith looks up to thee," "Nearer, my God, to thee,"
"When all thy mercies, O my God," "How firm a foundation"--have also
been omitted because they are found in all the hymnals, and to include
them would unduly swell the size of the book. A few others, although
similarly familiar, like "Jesus, I my cross have taken," and "God moves
in a mysterious way," have been inserted from a feeling that even yet
their depth and richness are not properly appreciated and that they can
never be sufficiently pondered. A few poems we have been unable to
procure permission to use; but in nearly all cases we have met with most
generous treatment from both authors and publishers owning copyrights,
and we take this occasion to express our hearty thanks for the kindness
afforded in the following instances:
Houghton, Mifflin & Company, for the use of the poems and stanzas
here found from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell,
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Edward Rowland Sill, Celia Thaxter, Caroline Atherton
Mason, Edna Dean Proctor, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John Burroughs,
John Hay, William Dean Howells, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucy Larcom,
Margaret E. Sangster, Francis Bret Harte, James Freeman Clarke,
Samuel Longfellow, Samuel Johnson, Christopher Pearse Cranch,
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and John Vance
Cheney.
Little, Brown & Company, for poems by Helen Hunt Jackson, Louise
Chandler Moulton, William Rounseville Alger, "Susan Coolidge"
[Sarah Chauncey Woolsey], and John White Chadwick.
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, for poems by Sam Walter Foss.