ENGLAND'S ANTIPHON.




INTRODUCTION.


If the act of worship be the highest human condition, it follows that the
highest human art must find material in the modes of worship. The first
poetry of a nation will not be religious poetry: the nation must have a
history at least before it can possess any material capable of being cast
into the mould of religious utterance; but, the nation once possessed of
this material, poetry is the first form religious utterance will assume.

The earliest form of literature is the ballad, which is the germ of all
subsequent forms of poetry, for it has in itself all their elements: the
_lyric_, for it was first chanted to some stringed instrument; the
_epic_, for it tells a tale, often of solemn and ancient report; the
_dramatic_, for its actors are ever ready to start forward into life,
snatch the word from the mouth of the narrator, and speak in their own
persons. All these forms have been used for the utterance of religious
thought and feeling. Of the lyrical poems of England, religion possesses
the most; of the epic, the best; of the dramatic, the oldest.

Of each of these I shall have occasion to speak; but, as the title of the
book implies,--for _Antiphon_ means the responsive song of the parted
choir,--I shall have chiefly to do with the lyric or song form.