68 CENTENNIAL HISTORY
of prayer ; they lived near to God, and from that purest and richest fountain drew a strength and influence that have blessed the nation. Passing to the service of song, we come to that branch of public worship in which the Puritan forefathers took less interest than any other-not even excepting the weekly contribution. Puritanism was a protest not only against immorality, but against luxury, and very naturally, art was included. On the hard soil of New England, in a pioneer society, art had really but little opportunity. It is not surprising, therefore, that music was greatly neglected, and that in the services of the Sabbath there was little that deserved the name. At first, congregational singing was exclusively practised, some one person leading the people. The psalms only were sung, and the version at first used (that of Ainsworth) was so rugged and uncouth that the renderings of the Bay Psalm Book were considered an improvement upon it. But no one can look through that book without fully accepting the declaration of the translators : 'We have respected rather a plain translation than to smooth our verses with any paraphrase, and so have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than poetry." As there was great poverty of true lyrical song, so was there great destitntion in regard to music. The tunes were few-one tune for each metre being, in the opinion of some, all that was necessary. Abont [i.e., about] 1714, however, the Rev. John Tuffts published a singing-book containing twenty-eight tunes. A few years later the practice of singing by note was fairly inaugurated, but it opened a ten years' quarrel. A writer in the "New England Chronicle," in 1723, said ; " Truly I have a great jealousy, that if we begin to sing by rule, the next thing will be to pray by rule and preach by rule, and then comes popery ! " What was thus foreboded has not yet come to pass ; but a result which speedily followed was the establishment throughout New England of choirs, with all the perils and sorrows therein involved-including the old-time singing-school. "Clean round the front