Excerpt from English Sacred Lyrics In adding another collection of sacred poetry to those already existing, a somewhat different aim has been proposed than that of many previous gatherers in the same field. There is here no attempt to frame a hymn book; in fact, the proportion of true hymns in the volume is unusually small, Nor is there any plan of presenting one system of doctrine, so as to include or exclude any opinions whatever. Neither, again, are great poets to be found here because they are great, nor lesser poets omitted because their names are little known, - the simple test has been whether the poems satisfied certain requirements, not in any degree who may have written them. It has been required that they satisfy the demands of lyrical form and expression, and to be infused with religious emotion. And it may be frankly allowed that both these are matters wherein tastes differ, nor can the sentiments of the heart be analysed with nice accuracy, especially when concerned with religion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.