melody first beguiled him from his bodily wants to a dream of the final
Fruition Day.

Ingalls died in Hancock, Vt., April 6, 1828.

CHAPTER XIV.

HYMNS OF HOPE AND CONSOLATION.

"JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN."

_Urbs Sion Aurea._

"The Seven Great Hymns" of the Latin Church are:

Laus Patriae Coelestis,--(Praise of the Heavenly Country).
Veni, Sancte Spiritus,--(Come, Holy Spirit)
Veni, Creator Spiritus,--(Come, Creator Spirit)
Dies Irae,--(The Day of Wrath)
Stabat Mater,--(The Mother Stood By)
Mater Speciosa,--(The Fair Mother.)
Vexilla Regis.--(The Banner of the King.)

Chief of these is the first named, though that is but part of a
religious poem of three thousand lines, which the author, Bernard of
Cluny, named "De Contemptu Mundi" (Concerning Disdain of the World.)

Bernard was of English parentage, though born at Morlaix, a seaport town
in the north of France. The exact date of his birth is unknown, though
it was probably about A.D. 1100. He is called Bernard of Cluny because
he lived and wrote at that place, a French town on the Grone where he
was abbot of a famous monastery, and also to distinguish him from
Bernard of Clairvaux.

His great poem is rarely spoken of as a whole, but in three portions, as
if each were a complete work. The first is the long exordium, exhausting
the pessimistic title (contempt of the world), and passing on to the
second, where begins the real "Laus Patriae Coelestis." This being cut
in two, making a third portion, has enriched the Christian world with
two of its best hymns, "For Thee, O Dear, Dear Country," and "Jerusalem
the Golden."

Bernard wrote the medieval or church Latin in its prime of literary
refinement, and its accent is so obvious and its rhythm so musical that
even one ignorant of the language could pronounce it, and catch its
rhymes. The "Contemptu Mundi" begins with these two lines, in a
hexameter impossible to copy in translation:

Hora novissima; tempora pessima sunt; Vigilemus!
Ecce minaciter imminet Arbiter, Ille Supremus!

'Tis the last hour; the times are at their worst;
Watch; lo the Judge Supreme stands threat'ning nigh!

Or, as Dr. Neale paraphrases and softens it,--

The World is very evil,
The times are waxing late,
Be sober and keep vigil,
The Judge is at the gate,

--and, after the poet's long, dark diorama of the world's wicked
condition, follows the "Praise of t