[Illustration: England's Antiphon]



ENGLAND'S ANTIPHON

BY GEORGE MACDONALD


ENGLAND'S ANTIPHON
was originally published in 1868




PREFACE


In this book I have sought to trace the course of our religious poetry
from an early period of our literary history.

This could hardly be done without reference to some of the principal
phases of the religious history of the nation. To give anything like a
full history of the religious feeling of a single county, would require a
large book, and--not to mention sermons--would involve a thorough
acquaintance with the hymns of the country,--a very wide subject, which I
have not considered of sufficient importance from a literary point of
view to come within the scope of the volume.

But if its poetry be the cream of a people's thought, some true