Deep answereth unto deep, face to face, praise to praise.

To the sound of the trumpet the harp returns its own vibrating response--alike, but how different! The religious song of the country, I say again, is a growth, rooted deep in all its story.
Besides the fact that the lyric chiefly will rouse the devotional feeling, there is another reason why I should principally use it: I wish to make my book valuable in its parts as in itself.

The value of a thing depends in large measure upon its unity, its wholeness.

In a work of these limits, that form of verse alone can be available for its unity which is like the song of the bird--a warble and then a stillness.
However valuable an extract may be--and I shall not quite eschew such--an entire lyric, I had almost said _however inferior_, if worthy of a place at all, is of greater value, especially if regarded in relation to the form of setting with which I hope to surround it.
There is a sense in which I may, without presumption, adopt the name of Choragus, or leader of the chorus, in relation to these singers: I must take upon me to order who shall sing, when he shall sing, and which of his songs he shall sing.

But I would rather assume the office of master of the hearing, for my aim shall be to cause the song to be truly heard; to set forth worthy points in form, in matter, and in relation; to say with regard to the singer himself, his time, its modes, its beliefs, such things as may help to set the song in its true light--its relation, namely, to the source whence it sprung, which alone can secure its right reception by the heart of the hearer.