Books of Scripture commentary by non-Catholic writers should be read with caution, and often ecclesiastical permission for their perusal must be sought.  Neale and Littledale’s Commentary on the Psalms (6 vols.  London. 1867) is a compilation by two Anglican scholars, from the commentators of the Middle Ages.  The wonderful piety of these men of old, saints and scholars, their beautiful comments, their glowing fervour, and above all their knowledge and love of the Bible text, surprise us all.  Sometimes, of course, these mediaevalists run into far-fetched, outlandish comments, but the compilers give always the comments of the Masters, St. Thomas, St. Bede, etc.

Very many metrical arrangements of the Psalms by non-Catholic authors exist in English.  Most of these metrical efforts are very poor, unreliable in giving the sense, and awkward and ungainly in poetic forms.  An interesting book is Prothero’s Psalms in Human Life.  The author was a Protestant, hence his numbering of the Psalms may at first sight be confusing,

Sermons fresh and beautiful, full of unction, and full of texts, sublime and practical, are to be found in the Psalms.  A work, little known in our islands, is Monsignor Doublet’s fine work, Psaumes etudies en vue de la Predication (3 vols. 8th Edition. 12s.).

A charming booklet, dealing chiefly with the Psalms as prayers, is Rolland Gosselin’s Prieres et Meditations bibliques (Paris. 1917.  Bauchesne. 3s.).

10.  Hymns. Immense labour has been devoted to the study of Latin sacred poetry.  The Analecta Hymnica in 60 huge volumes testifies to the learning and zeal of its Jesuit authors.  Ordinary mortals content themselves with lesser works, such as Pimont’s Hymnes du Breviare Romain (Paris Poussielgne. 2 vols, 12-1/2 francs), or with La Poesie du Breviaire, Les Hymns, by l’abbe C. Albin.  Price 6 francs.  The opinions and judgments in neither book are infallible; and some of Pimont’s findings have been roughly criticised and sometimes rejected.  But both books give good, sound knowledge of Breviary hymns and thus help to make their recitation a pious and a rational exercise, not a mechanical, soulless labour.

Translation of poetry has ever been a study and a pastime.  Every cleric is familiar with the prose translations which aided his boyhood’s labours in rendering the poetry of Horace and Euripides into modern speech.  But prose efforts are one thing, and poetical efforts are another, and just as many have laboured to present Virgil and Homer in modern language, in metre, in rhyme, in rhythm; so, many poets and verse-makers, in different ages and in different climes, have laboured to turn into modern poetic form and into their own national tongue the poems of the Breviary.  The Breviary hymns have met with several good, kind, translating poets; but very often they have been rudely handled by well-meaning verse builders.  Passing over in charitable silence the indifferent efforts of those people, it may interest some students of the Breviary to read the efforts of well-known authors to translate the liturgy, its anthems, responses, collects, hymns, into good English.