PREFACE
Providence, is slow. She waits for that majestic course to perfect in its own good time, what she cannot extort from it; for the gradual drifting of precious things upon her shore, now one and now another, out of which she may complete her rosary and enrich her beads,—beads and rosary more pure and true than those which at the command of duty she flung away.
As far as we know, the public Hymns of the early Church were not much more than the following. First, starting from Scripture, she adopted the repetition of the Hallelujah, which is described by St. John, in the Revelations, to be the chant of the blessed inhabitants of heaven. Next may be mentioned the Gloria Patri, pretty much as we now use it. Thirdly, the Trisagion, or "Holy, Holy, Holy," from Isaiah vi.; or, as it was also used, and now is, in the Roman Church, "Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis." Besides these, there was the Morning or Angelic Hymn, beginning with the words used by the Angels at the nativity; and for the evening the Hymn beginning "Hail gladdening Light," preserved by St. Basil. These are not metrical, as they were afterwards; nor are two others of a later date, which we still retain, the Te Deum and the Athanasian Creed. They are both of Gallican origin, though the former has been ascribed to St. Ambrose. Others, however, now extant, are certainly his; others are the compositions of St. Hilary, Prudentius, St. Gregory,
