BATTLE HYMN OE THE REPUBLIC. (Vol. II, p. 607.) It is stated that Julia Ward Howe once awoke near midnight, and immediately became inspired to write a poem; and arising, she found her table and writing material and wrote down the poem, all without any light, and then returned to her couch. Will some reader furnish the poem? X. Y. Z.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPURLIC.

BY MRS. JULIA WARD HOWE.

Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage

Where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fatal lightnings
Of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watch-fires
Of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar
In the evening dews and damps;
I have read His righteous sentence
By the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel

Writ in burnished rows of steel: "As ye deal with my contemners

So my grace with you shall deal!

Let the hero born of womon
Crush the serpent with his heel;
Since God is marching on."

He hath sounded forth the trumpet
That shall never call retreat;
He is sitting out the hearts of men
Before His judgment seat;
O, swift my soul, to answer Him!
Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauties of the lilies

Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom

That transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy

Let us die to make men free.
While God is marching on.

[COMMUNICATED BY MRS. CLARA B. HEATH.]

THE FIRST SONG. Fabricius in his collections of apocryphal writings of the Old Testament, has preserved the song of Triumph which the Archangel Michael sang on obtaining the victory over Satan when the revolt took place. This song is as follows:

"Glory to our God! Praise His Holy Name! He is our God; glory be to Him! He is our Lord! His be the triumph! He has stretched forth his right hand; He has manifested His power; He has cast down our adversaries. They are mad who resist Him; they are accursed who depart from His commandments! He knoweth all things, and cannot err. His will is sovereignly just, and all that He wills is good, all that He advises is holy. Supreme Intelligence cannot be deceived; Perfect Being cannot will what is evil. Nothing is above that which is supreme, nothing is better than that which is perfect. None is worthy beside Him but him whom He has made worthy. He must be loved above all things and adored as the Eternal King. abandoned your God; you have revolted against Him; you have desired to be gods; you have fallen from your high estates; you have gone down like a fallen stone. Acknowledge that God is great, that His works are perfect, and that His judgments are just. Glory be to God through ages of ages, praises of joy for all His works!,"

You have

This song of the Archangel is said to have been revealed to Saint Amadeus.

ICHTHUS. THE ACROSTICAL HYMN. (Vol. III, p. 92.) I have seen it stated that there is a remarkable acrostical hymn on the words, Iesous Christos Theos Uios Soter, said to have been composed by the Sibyls. Can some one furnish it or inform me where it is found? The initials of these words give us Ichthus the Greek word for "fish," which was often carved on monuments in the middle ages as a Christian emblem.

Z.

This acrostical hymn is found in Book VIII (ver. 217-250) of what are known as the "Sibylline Oracles"; fragments of fourteen books have been preserved. The initial letters of 34 lines are acrostical and make words Iesous Chreistos Theou Uiou Soter Stauros which are Greek. The Latin version of this singular acrostical hymn contains the words Jesus Christus Dei Filius Salus in Cruce. "Jesus Christ the Son of God the Crucified Savior." The number of lines in some copies are limited to 27. The form Chreistos has no parallel; hence the version cited by the correspondent above.

There are many legends in the works of the ancient poets relating to the Sibyls and their Oracles, and some doubt the genuinness of the books attributed to them; others place them in the same relation to the ancient historians as the Apocrypha is to the Bible. Virgil has a Pastoral (Pollio vi) containing utterances from their works, and Pope has an imitation of Virgil's Pollio. The most celebrated Sibyl was the Cumaan, who was generally called Herophilé.

:

The Greek text and a Latin translation are printed in Appendix ix, (pp. 309-310), Joseph T. Goodsir's "Seven Homilies on Ethnic Inspiration; or on the Evidence supplied by the Pagan Religions of both Primæval and Later Guidance and Inspiration from Heaven " London, 1871. The following English translation is from the Church Review, March, 1848, it being in a twenty-seven-page article on the "Sibylline Oracles," and signed "J. M. S." It should be remembered that this hymn was referred to by the supposed author, Thomas von Celano, of that famous Latin judgment hymn Dies Irae, in the first stanza :

Dies irae, dies illa,

Solvet saeclum in favilla,

Teste David cum Sibylla.

Day of wrath, that woful day,
Shall the world in ashes lay,
David and the Sibyl say.

The general characteristics of this Sibylline hymn are contained in the entire nineteen stanzas of the Dies Irae :

"IESOUS CHREISTOS THEOU UIOS SOTER.-ICHTHUS.

Judgment impends. Lo! the earth reeks with sweat;
He, the destined king of future ages, comes;

S oon he descends-the Judge in human form.

On speeds the God-his friends and foes behind him.
Vengeance he wears, enthroned with his holy ones.
See how the dead assume their ancient forms.

Choked with thorny hedges lies the waste, weary world;
Ruined are their idol gods; they scorn their heaps of gold.
E ven land and sea and sky shall raging fire consume.

Its penetrating flames shall burs the gates of hell.
Shining in light behold the saints immortal.

Turn to the guilty, burning in endless flames.

O'er hidden deeds of darkness no veil shall be spread.
Sinners to their God will revaal their secret thoughts.

There will be a bitter wailing, there they gnash with their teeth.
E bon clouds veil the sun; the stars their chorus cease;

O'er our heads the heavens roll not,-the lunar splendors tade.
Underneath the mountains lie; the vallies touch the sky.

Unknown the hights or depths of man,-since all shall prostrate lie.
In the ocean's dark gulf sink the mountains and the plains.

O rder casts away her empire; creatiou ends in chaos.

S wollen rivers and leaping fountains are consumed in flames.

S hrill sounds the trumpet; its blast rends the sky.

O fearful are the groanings, the sorrows of the doomed.
Tartarean chaotic depths the gaping earth reveals.
Earth's vaunted monarchs shall stand before their Lord.
Rivers of sulphur roll along and flames descend the sky.

The famous Franciscan hymn Dies Irae has had many translations. Dr. Abraham Coles, an American layman, of Newark, N. J., prepared thirteen distinct versions, six of which are in the double trochaic measure, and double rhyme of the original; five like in rhythm, but in single rhyme; one in iambic triplets, like Roscommon's; the last in quatrains, like Crashaw's version. They have been all published togther with an introduction, and a photograph picture of Michael Angelo's famous Last Judgment.

The beginning has been rendered in various ways and we publish a few which may be of interest:

"Heard'st thou, my soul, what serious things."-RICHARD Crashaw. "The day of wrath, that dreadful day."-EARL OF ROSCOMMON. "That day of wrath, that dreadful day."-SIR WALTER SCOTT. "On that great day, that awful day."-THOMAS B. MACAULAY. "O that day, that day of ire."—ARCH. RICHARD C. TRENCH. "Day of anger, that dread day."-DEAN HENRY ALVORD, 1845. "Lo, the day of wrath, the day."-MRS. CHARLES, 1864. "Day of wrath, the sinner dooming."-HENRY MILLS. "Day of wrath, that day impending."-EPES SARGENT. Nigher still, and still more nigh."-E. CASWALL.

Day of wrath! that day is hasting."-ROBERT Davidson.

"That day of wrath-upon that day."-W. G. Dix.

"Day of wrath! oh direful day."-CHARLES Rockwell.

Day of wrath and tribulation."-J. H. ABRAHALL, 1868. "Day of wrath! O day of mourning."-W. J. IRONS.

66

Day of wrath! that day dismaying."-W. R. WILLIAMS.
Day of wrath of days that day."-EDWARD SLOSSON.

Day of wrath! that final day." }

Day of threatened wrath from heaven."

ERASTUS C. Benedict.

Day of vengeance without morrow."-JOHN A. Dix.

Among these nineteen translators, America is represented by Benedict, Davidson, J. A. and W. G. Dix, Mills, Rockwell, Sargent, Slosson, and Williams.

FOURTH OF MARCH ON SUNDAY. Do your readers generally know the reason why the Fourth of March was chosen as the day of Inauguration of the President? It was selected because the Fourth of March in every year, commencing from the first Inauguration-March 4th, 1789-cannot fall on Sunday for at least 300 years.

CARLOS F. LAGRANGE.

A glance at the calendar for the first 100 years shows that March 4, 1849, fell on Sunday. How about the second and third 100 years?

SOME SINGULARLY - CONSTRUCTED WORDS. We are informed by Robert Southey, in his book, "The Doctor," (interchapter XIII,) that if the book of The Doctor were to have its title denominated according to one or the other of the various schemes of bibliogony which have been devised for explaining its phenomena, the reader might be expected in good earnest to exclaim,

Bless us what a word on a title page is this!

Among other varieties, the following present themselves for choice:

16 Satacoroso,

8 Heneco,

15 Venarchly,

22 Thehojowicro,
23 Rosohenecoharco,
24 Thehojowicrogecro,
25 Harcohenecosaheco,

17 Samrothomo, 26 Satacoharcojotacohenecosaheco.

9 Thojama, 18 Verevfrawra,

These fictitiously-formed words are no doubt constructed on a similar basis to the "Smectymnuus "—a word previously explained. Let us examine the list. No 2 gives us the key. Roso appears to stand

for Robert Southey himself. We would place the names as follows:

4 Har-co-Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849).

5 Sam-ro-Samuel Rogers (1763-1855).

6 G-robe-George Robertson (1755- ).

7

Th-e-ho-Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841). 8 He-ne-co-Henry Nelson Coleridge (1800-1843). 9 Tho-ja-ma-Thomas James Mathias (1757-1835). 10 Jo-ho-fre-John Hookham Frere (1769-1846).

II

12

13

Rev-er-ne-Reverend Erskine Neale (

He-ta-ro-so-Henry Taylor, Robert Southey.

).

Wa-la-ro-so-Walter [Savage] Landor (1775-1864), Robert
Southey.

14 Ro-so-g-robe-Robert Southey, George Robertson.

15 Ven-arch-ly-Venerable Archbishop [Henry F.] Lyte (1793-1847). Sa-ta-co-ro-so-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Southey.

Sam-ro-tho-mo-Samuel Rogers, Thomas Moore (1779-1849). 18 Ve-rev-fra-wra-Very Reverend Francis Wrangham (1769-1843). Is-dis-ben-dis-Isaac Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli (1805- ). Har-co-he-ne-co-Hartley Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge. He-ne-co-sa-he-co-Henry Nelson Coleridge, Sarah Henry Coleridge (1803-1852).

20

21

22

23

Th-e-ho-jo-wi-cro-Theodore Edward Hook, John Wilson Croker (1780-1857).

Ro-so-he-ne-co-har-co-Robert Southey, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge.

24 Th-e-ho-jo-wi-cro-ge-cro-Theodore Edward Hook, John Wilson Croker, George Croley (1780-1860).

25 Har-co-he-ne-co-sa-he-co-Hartley Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Sarah Henry Coleridge.

26 Sa-ta-co-har-co-jo-ta-co-he-ne-co-sa-he-co-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Hartley Coleridge, John Taylor Coleridge (1790-1876), Henry Nelson Coleridge, Sarah Henry Coleridge. This list of authors comprises quite an array of literary talent, and they are all cotemporaries. The Coleridges predominate, there being five in the list, and each a relative of the others.

Southey closes Chapter xvi of "The Doctor" with the following: "Eat beans, if thou wilt, in spite of Pythagoras. Eat bacon with them, for the Levitical law hath been abrogated; and indulge in black puddings, if thou likest such food, though there be some that prohibit them as sinful. But abstain from Aballiboozobanganorribo." Who can pronoune and explain this last word?