203 



forth his " New Version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the tunes 

 used in the churches ; with several hymns out of the Old and New 

 Testaments." The second was by Kev. Thomas Prince of Boston. 



At this point the speaker read and compared the 137th Psalm, as 

 rendered in the different versions already described, including the ver- 

 sions of Prince and Barnard, both of whom were declared to be as 

 well qualified for the work of improving our psalmody as any of their 1 

 brethren. The character, position, and abilities of these reverend 

 authors were described by the speaker, who proceeded then to show 

 that their labors were unsuccessful against the popular tastes and the 

 growing determination to substitute Watts's Imitations and other 

 hymns of secular origin for the Psalms. 



In considering the movement which led to the adoption of Watts's 

 Imitations, Mr. Goodell referred to the Boston clergymen, Mather, 

 Colman, Walter, and Mather Byles, describing their several labors in 

 this behalf, noticing their terms of intimacy with English poetical 

 writers, as Pope, Watts, and Blackmore ; narrating many incidents 

 illustrative of the zeal with which the satirists of the period engaged 

 in the movement, and giving an account of the rapid decline of pure 

 Psalmody, the present scarcity of the old psalm books, and quoting 

 the very few stanzas now generally preserved out of those obsolete 

 versions. 



The services of Kev. John Todd, of Hanover Presbytery,' Virginia, 

 were noticed as having had a powerful effect in producing the change. 



Although hymns of secular origin had been occasionally sung in 

 Boston from as early as 1738, the innovation was far from general. 



The Psalmody of Watts, however, we find generally introduced 

 some years before the Revolution ; the pioneers in this movement, as 

 nearly as he could ascertain, being the society under the pastoral charge 

 of Rev. Dudley Leavitt, of Salem. 



As we approach the period of the Revolution, we find the same spirit 

 of enterprise which has been commented upon in the previous pape? 

 on Sacred Music, exhibiting itself in its action upon our Psalmody. 



Billings, whom we have seen leading off with his new system of 

 musical instruction, and his loud and lively fugues, was the intimate 

 friend of the great patriot Samuel Adams, himself also a great 

 singer, and was an equally ardent republican, so for his new music 

 he composed patriotic verses of the most singular character, and 

 amongst the rest the 137th Psalm underwent the torture of a para- 

 phrase, beginning 



' By the rivers of Watertown we sat down and wept; 

 ' We wept when we remembered thee, O Boston I 

 1 As for our friends, Lord God of Heaven preserve them. 

 ' Defend them, deliver and restore them unto us again; 

 For they that held them in Bondage required of them 

 ' To take up arms against their brethren," etc. 



