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Page 26
Her confessed power at last expires amidst a hubbub of odes and
sonatas; and I suppose her presence at a Morning Popular is as little
anticipated as desired. Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints
for ever the greatest; and the child in its nurse's arms, and every
tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify in itself,--as the
eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing,--may still, whether behind the
Temple veil,[25] or at the fireside, and by the wayside, hear Cecilia
sing.
[Footnote 25:"But, standing in the lowest place,
And mingled with the work-day crowd,
A poor man looks, with lifted face,
And hears the Angels cry aloud.
"He seeks not how each instant flies,
One moment is Eternity;
His spirit with the Angels cries
To Thee, to Thee, continually.
"What if, Isaiah-like, he know
His heart be weak, his lips unclean,
His nature vile, his office low,
His dwelling and his people mean?
"To such the Angels spake of old--
To such of yore, the glory came;
These altar fires can ne'er grow cold:
Then be it his, that cleansing flame."
These verses, part of a very lovely poem, "To Thee all Angels cry
aloud," in the 'Monthly Packet' for September 1873, are only signed
'Veritas.' The volume for that year (the 16th) is well worth getting,
for the sake of the admirable papers in it by Miss Sewell, on
questions of the day; by Miss A.C. Owen, on Christian Art; and the
unsigned Cameos from English History.]
It would delay me too long just now to trace in specialty farther the
functions of the mythic, or, as in another sense they may be truly
called, the universal, Saints: the next greatest of them, St. Ursula,
is essentially British,--and you will find enough about her in
'Fors Clavigera'; the others, I will simply give you in entirely
authoritative order from the St. Louis' Psalter, as he read and
thought of them.
The proper Service-book of the thirteenth century consists first
of the pure Psalter; then of certain essential passages of the Old
Testament--invariably the Song of Miriam at the Red Sea and the last
song of Moses;--ordinarily also the 12th of Isaiah and the prayer of
Habakkuk; while St. Louis' Psalter has also the prayer of Hannah,
and that of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20); the Song of the Three
Children; then the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis.
Then follows the Athanasian Creed; and then, as in all Psalters after
their chosen Scripture passages, the collects to the Virgin, the
Te Deum, and Service to Christ, beginning with the Psalm 'The Lord
reigneth'; and then the collects to the greater individual saints,
closing with the Litany, or constant prayer for mercy to Christ, and
all saints; of whom the order is,--Archangels, Patriarchs, Apostles,
Disciples, Innocents, Martyrs, Confessors, Monks, and Virgins. Of
women the Magdalen _always_ leads; St. Mary of Egypt usually follows,
but _may_ be the last. Then the order varies in every place, and
prayer-book, no recognizable supremacy being traceable; except in
relation to the place, or person, for whom the book was written. In
St. Louis', St. Genevi�ve (the last saint to whom he prayed on his
death-bed) follows the two Maries; then come--memorable for you best,
as easiest, in this six-foil group,--Saints Catharine, Margaret, and
Scolastica, Agatha, Cecilia, and Agnes; and then ten more, whom
you may learn or not as you like: I note them now only for future
reference,--more lively and easy for your learning,--by their French
names,
Felicit�,
Colombe,
Christine,
* * * * *
Aur�e, Honorine,
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