Roger Williams a desertion from the full number of principles. As long as he lived the Baptist churches all might be called SixPrinciple churches not only in Rhode Island, but elsewhere; and that vagary should not be unjustly added to Governor Coddington's long and truthful list.

Across the green meadows, and by the lonely bridle-paths which were then the only roads through the woods, the early settlers rode in the eighteenth century to this Stony Lane church. Each farmer carried his wife, or daughter, or little child, on a pillion behind him; the wealthier church members were mounted on Narragansett Pacers, that famous Rhode Island breed, the first distinctively American race of horses. The poorer families, and the negro slaves, rode on heavier, clumsier horses, which often, too, were pacers, "then so highly prized, now so odious deemed." Horseflesh was economized by the "ride and tie" system. In that way four persons could ride very comfortably part of the way to church. A man and his wife would mount the saddle and pillion, ride a couple of miles, tie the steed, and walk on. The horse would soon again be mounted by the second couple, who had walked the first two miles. The second pair of riders would pass the first riders, go on for a mile, dismount and tie, and so on to the church.

The men doubtless rode fully armed with matchlocks or muskets, as did always the church-going Puritans:

"Each man equipped on Sunday morn

With psalm-book, shot, and powder-horn."

Though Narragansett Indians were kindly natured and quickly subdued, the fear of treacherous assault and robbery lingered long in the settlers' hearts. Stray wolves, too, were feared, that might have wandered down from wolf-abounding Massachusetts woods, -as had also the heretical spiritual wolves, — and glad were Plymouth Pilgrims to be rid of both. But the question of wolfdom depends somewhat on the point of vision, and I doubt not the mild, peaceful, and too quiet sheepfold of the Six-Principle Baptists was held by the Puritan ministers Mather, and Wilson, and Cotton, to be the home, the den, of a pack of ravening and pestilent wolves.

The disburdened horses were tied during the long services to the trees, horse-posts, and fences near the church; and the scene resembled the outskirts of a gypsy camp or an English horse fair. The men of the congregation were dressed in leathern

breeches, scarlet doublets or heavy cloth waistcoats, and coats with great flaps and pockets. On their feet they wore heavy milled stockings and square-toed shoes with buckles. Very old or infirm men wore great-coats or cloaks and high boots. Upon their heads were straight-brimmed hats, though a very vain or worldly man might wear a great wig, with a "costly black beaverett," or, at a later date, a cocked hat. The women wore camlet or persian or calimanco loose gowns, covered with long, full aprons. Around their necks were folded kerchiefs or "cross-cloths." They wore one of two kinds of caps, which were then in high fashion, — a "round cord cap," which did not cover the ears, or a “strap cap,' which was fastened under the chin. The richer dames may have dignified their caps by the fine names of "quoif" or "ciffer," Narragansett French for coiffure, but the article of head-gear was the same. Flat chip or woven horse-hair hats were worn by the women in summer, and warm riding-hoods of " tabby" or "persian" in the winter. Silk and tiffany hoods were town luxuries, too fine for simple Six-Principled souls. Red "whittles" or great cloaks called "capuchins," and heavy drugget petticoats, added warmth to their winter attire; while long gloves, fastened at the elbow with "glove-tightens" of horse-hair, covered their hands. Sometimes a black velvet mask with a silver mouth-piece was added to their riding attire as a protection against the weather. This was, of course, removed within the church. The children were little miniatures of their parents; caps, gowns, aprons, and kerchiefs attired the little girls, while the youngest boys, as soon as they could walk, wore knee-breeches and flapped coats. So the Six-Principle congregation was cheerful enough to the sight, though the little country church did not blossom with the colors of a tropical forest, with gay mantles, hooped petticoats, white wigs, and velvet coats, with "erminett" and "russelett" and "hum-hum" and "wild-bore " gowns, as did the

Puritan and Episcopal town churches at that date.

Not very interesting were the long services in this old church. There was neither singing nor chanting - that were Popish. Their preachers received no salaries, lest they be thought like Simon Magus, and thus were often neither brilliant nor clever men, though there are traditions of a few fine, eloquent preachers in the church. Tedious prayers and more tedious prophesyings and exhortings were listened to by the patient congregation, who sat with the sexes divided and placed on either side of the church, as in Quaker and Puritan meetings. Through fierce winter

weather these Six-Principle believers sat in the unheated, freezing church, with a patient godliness that seemed to deserve a better fate than that of extinction.

But selfish and passive goodness is not all that is necessary. This dying church teaches in its career and in its fast-approaching end the unswerving truth, that the life and success and advancement of the Christian Church is not in faith alone, but in deeds. May this short account of its quiet and fading existence help to extend the lesson.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

Alice Morse Earle.

THE ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF THE "TE DEUM."

THERE are three distinct stages in the development of the early Latin hymnody, the Hebraic, the classic, and the popular. The first belongs to that age when the Psalm-Book was still the chief manual of the church's praises, and the influence of classic culture was felt but slightly. The second is that inaugurated by Hilary and Ambrose, in which the quantitative metres, borrowed by the classic Latin poets from their Greek predecessors, were introduced with more or less consistency into the church's songs of praise. The third is that of a return to the accented and rhymed verse which constituted the primitive and really popular poetry of the Latin tongue, and which still survived among the peasants, the artificers, and the soldiers, after it had been banished from literary use. The name of Pope Damasus is inseparably associated with this revival of the genuine and native poetry of the Latin tongue. In addition to these, there were some attempts to adopt into the Latin hymns the alliterative forms of Celtic and Teutonic verse, but they were not carried out with any thoroughness.

The remains of the second and third eras or states of hymnodic development are ample and valuable, and they constitute the body of the hymns of the early Latin Church. But those of the first stage are not so. We have many Latin hymns, but very few Latin psalms. Partly this may be due to the fact that the productive force in this field was but weak; more probably it was due to the formless and free character of these compositions. As we see from the Apostle's reference to the matter (1 Cor. xiv. 26), the freedom of individual action in composing for the praises of

the church was as great as in the case of its prayers. They might be made up under the inspiration of the moment, as is still done by the freedmen of the South, the composer bearing the burden in singing, and the people joining in the refrain. Unpremeditated and formless compositions of this kind seldom would be thought worthy of preservation; and if any came down to us they would be those whose extraordinary excellence had impressed them on the memories of the hearers. So even in the Greek

Church there are but half a dozen of these Christian psalms still in existence, and in Latin hymnody just half as many, of which one is certainly a translation from the Greek, and a second partly so. The three are the "Gloria in excelsis Deo," the "Te Deum laudamus," and the "Salvum fac populum tuum," which we find appended to the "Te Deum laudamus," but which I shall endeavor to show is an independent hymn.

Of the "Gloria in excelsis" we have the Greek original in the Apostolical Constitutions and in the Alexandrian manuscript of the New Testament. As for the Latin version, we only know that it must have been made before the rise of the Macedonian heresy with regard to the godhead of the Holy Spirit, as both the original and the translation have been interpolated with regard to that heresy, but in different places. It therefore was translated most probably before A. D. 381, when Macedonius and his following were condemned by the Second Ecumenical Synod. This is the lower limit of date, but it may have been composed more than two centuries earlier. Bunsen is positive that it is the very hymn Pliny found the Christians of Bithynia singing in the opening years of the second century, and that in alternative strophes after the Hebrew fashion (carmen Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem). As he says, "there is no trace in it of any metre; and indeed it would be quite inexplicable if we found in it any but the primitive Hebrew element. . . . It is easily reducible to the antiphonic system of Hebrew poetry."

The composite hymn we call the "Te Deum laudamus" cannot -as it stands be older than the beginning of the fifth century or younger than the first quarter of the sixth. If it be all of a piece, that is, if the "Salvum fac populum" be inseparable from the earlier part of the psalm, these are the two limits of its date. As it uses in its last verses the Vulgate version of the Latin Scriptures, finished by Jerome in A. D. 404, it cannot be much older than A. D. 450, when that version, in spite of the hostile influence of Augustine of Hippo, would be established

in liturgic use. And as it is mentioned in the Monastic Rules of Cæsarius of Arles, and of Benedict of Nursia, it cannot be of later date than A. D. 525–530.

This is what makes it especially well worth inquiring whether we have before us two psalms of different date, or only one psalm, in what we call the "Te Deum." All attempts to establish a higher antiquity for the whole composition have broken down. The most careful comparison of all the early manuscript copies shows the influence of the Vulgate in each and all, as regards those concluding verses. If they are part of the original psalm, then it is not the work of Ambrose or of Hilary, or of any still earlier poet of the era before Ambrose and Hilary substituted classic for Hebraic forms in the praise songs of the church. It is of the fifth century, and by some unknown poet, who may be the Abundus, or the Sisebutus, or the Nicetas, to each of whom it is ascribed vaguely by early but uncritical writers.

The psalm, however, bears so evidently the stamp of a greater antiquity than this, that some have tried to overcome the difficulty by assuming that it is a comparatively late translation of a very early Greek psalm. But here, also, there is a want of evidence, and also a strong presumption to the contrary. No Greek original has ever been found for any but three of the concluding verses (24, 25, 26). And is it likely that if the Greek Church ever had possessed so great a psalm as this, it would have allowed it to lapse into oblivion? If it already existed in Greek, why did the compiler of the Apostolical Constitutions ignore it, while inserting others of far less value? It is true that the Byzantine Church was so much enamored of its elaborate and long-drawn "troparia" and "canons," as to neglect the earlier Greek hymnody almost entirely. But we are not dependent on the Byzantines in this matter, and in all the ample literature of the Greek Church liturgic, historical, and dogmatic there has not been found a trace of an allusion to our psalm. It would be no compliment to the Greek Church to deprive the Latin of the credit and honor of having given the "Te Deum" to the Christian world.

On the other hand, if we draw a line of division between the twenty-first and the twenty-second verses of the psalm, we shall find no difficulty in giving to each of the psalms, into which we thus divide the whole, its proper place and honor. As it is necessary for my purpose that my readers should have the original text before them, I insert it here in its authentic form: :