t commentary on these words is to be found in the
following passage from the second epistle of Basil to Gregory
Nazianzen: "What can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the
angelic host by giving oneself at the peep of dawn to prayer and by
turning at sunrise to work with hymns and songs: yea, all the day
through to make prayer the accompaniment of our toils and to season
them with praise as with salt? For the solace of hymns changes the
soul's sadness into mirth."

II

1 This poem furnishes two hymns to the Roman Breviary, one to be sung
on Wednesday at Lauds, and consisting of ll. 1-8, 48-53 (omitting l.
50), 57, 59, 60, 67 (_tu vera lux caelestium_) and 68: the other
for Thursday at Lauds, consisting of ll. 25 (_lux ecce surgit
aurea_), 93-108.

17 Cf. Ambrose, ii. 8, _de Cain et Abel_: "The thief shuns the day
as the witness of his crime: the adulterer is abashed by the dawn
as the accomplice of his adultery."

51 The practice of praying on bended knees is frequently referred to
in early Christian writers. Cf. Clem., 1 Ad. Cor. cc. xlviii.: "Let
us fall down before the Lord," and Shepherd of Hermas, vis. 1. i.:
"After I had crossed that river I came unto the banks and there
knelt down and began to pray." Dressel quotes from Juvencus (iv.
648), a Spanish poet and Christian contemporary of Prudentius,
_genibus nixi regem dominumque salutant_, "on bended knees they
make obeisance unto their King and Lord."

63 The Jordan is a poetical figure for baptism, suggested doubtless
by the baptism of our Lord in that river. Cf. vii. 73-75.

67 Cf. Milton, _Paradise Regained_, i. 293: "So spake our Morning
Star, then in his rise." The figure is suggested by Rev. xxii. 16:
"I am ... the bright, the morning star."

105 The conception of God as _speculator_ may be paralleled by a
passage in the epistle of Polycarp _ad Philipp._ iv., where God is
described as the Arch-critic (_panta momoschopeitai_) and subsequently
(vii.) as _ton pantepopten theon_, "the All-witnessing God." The
last verse contains a distinct echo of the closing words of the
fourth chapter of Polycarp: "None of the reasonings or thoughts,
nor any of the hidden things of the heart escape His notice."

III

2 _Word-