Beccles.
364. _Moravian Hymns._--Can any of your readers give me an account of
the earlier editions of the Moravian hymns? In the _Oxford Magazine_ for
July, 1769, some extraordinary specimens are given, which profess to be
taken from "a book of private devotions, printed for the use of the
Unitas Fratrum, or Moravians." One of them is--
"To you, ye wounds, we pay
A thousand tears a-day,
That you have us presented
With many happy virgin rows.
Since the year forty,
Pappa! mamma!
Your hearts Flamlein,
Brother Flamlein,
Gives the creatures
Virgin hearts and features."
The others look still more like burlesque. I cannot find them in any
Moravian hymn-book which I have seen; and have searched the British
Museum in vain for that which is referred to in the _Oxford Magazine_.
Are they genuine, or a fabrication of Anti-moravians?