Excerpt from The Litany the English Church: Considered in Its History, Its Plan, and the Manner in Which It Is Intended to Be Used Litany, with the belief that many will enter into that Office more, and value it more deeply, when they mark the great antiquity of it in its essential idea and fundamental form, and trace the steps by which the Litany was gradually developed, and note the wisdom and care with which our own Litany has been framed by a revision and reconstruction of earlier forms. If, with all its imperfections - of which he is fully con scious - the work should lead to this good result, and so to a more grateful and intelligent use of this beautiful and pathetic and comprehensive element in our Divine wor ship, the labour spent upon it will not have been in vain. A more complete comparative view of the principal Litanies in use in various ages of the Church, and a Commentary on our English Litany in detail, are additions which he hopes to make in a separate form at a future time. To the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn he has again to return his thanks for their kindness in allowing him access to their library, which has been to him a great source of help. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.