176 LIFE AND CORRESrOXDENCE OF THE [1786 



Rev. Dr. Smith io Rev. Dr. White. 



Chester, February 6, 17S6. 



I hope, as yon have ordered matters, there will be no great delay at 

 the press. I received by your sending me these proofs, the psalmody. 

 It was only that I might have a specimen with me across the Bay as far 

 as the book is printed. If you have attended fully to what I wrote in 

 my former letter, I tliink I left you at liberty to follow the arrangement 

 you have made of the psalms, provided enough could be had from 

 every one psalm, for a short portion to sing, which from memory I did 

 not apprehend would be the case, as from some of the reading j^salms 

 but one or two verses were retained ; and these I thought must either 

 be rejected in the singing psalms or joined with some other psalms. 

 After all I see no difference in this mode, for all that comes under the 

 first metre, on praise and adoration, stands exactly in the same order it 

 would have done in the other mode, and would have made but thirty- 

 five verses as one chapter or psalm. But I am very well satisfied as it 

 is: only as in the rubric prefixed, all of them are said to be "selected 

 from the Psalms of David" — the name of David need stand at the 

 head of each particular new psalm or selection. Might it not be 

 Psalm I [from 8th,] and yet it seems as well as you have it — so I have 

 no more to say on this head. 



I think the substitutes for O come let us sing, etc., on Christmas, Ash 

 Wednesday, etc.. Good Friday, etc., as well as the old one for Easter, 

 in all future editions, had better be inserted with their proper titles in the 

 place where they are to be read, that is just after the daily Venite or O 

 come, etc., to save the trouble of turning the book and to be consistent 

 with the rest of our arrangements. There is a precedent for this in the 

 Communion Service, where all the Prefaces for these particular days are 

 collected into the place where they are to be said or sung. If you 

 approve this, it is easy to alter the rubric prefixed to these new Veiiites 

 accordingly. That for Ascension Day might have concluded with the 

 eighth verse. The following verses, especially from Psalm 2, might 

 have better been for Whit-Sunday with some other verses which are now 

 set apart for it. But I do not now wish to alter the press, except in the 

 rubric aforesaid, if you approve the transposition of all the substitutes 

 into one place with the daily Venite in future editions. 



The line "See streaming from th' accursed tree" — is by taking it 

 from the original author, Watts. 'Tis altered thus in the Magdalen 

 Collection from which you recommended in your note: 



See, streaming from theyi?/rt/ tree — 



And the other line — 



Thou sun as deepest night lie lilack. 



I can see no more impropriety in transferring the singing psalms into 



