personal feelings and soul experiences, of events and situations in private life. A number of poor hymn books appeared. Public taste for the right kind of church song was spoiled. This paved the way for a hymnological revolution, brought about mainly by Rationalism, during the last half of the eighteenth century. The fourth period, the era of decline, includes the last half of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth. This is the time of the destructive influences of Neologism or Rationalism in Germany. German hymnody suffered. Rationalism is a denial of positive Christian life, and lacks sympathy for the primitive, the simple, and the popular. It cannot attend to the needs of the common people. It possesses a character of superficial and heartless intellectualism. Reason was made the highest authority in all religious matters. Genuine hymn writing could not grow up in a soil which was destitute both of poetry and of true Christianity. The dominion of rationalism in German hymnody began about the middle of the eighteenth century with a revision of the old church hymns in accordance with the new ideas of the age, an age of enlightenment and illumination. To begin with this hymnological revision was mainly in the interest of form. Severity, irregularity and archaism in expression and style, in rhyme and meter, etc., had to be eliminated from the church hymns. Up-to-date language had to be used. The revision of form was soon followed by a revision of content. Old ideas in the hymns had to be removed. The church hymns had to be in harmony with the new ethical ideas of the age. A great work in hymnological vandalism was in progress. It was not sufficient to merely improve the old hymns. Most of the grand old church hymns were dropped and new ones produced—new hymns which were in perfect harmony with the new ideas of the age. The new hymn book was to be a kind of textbook in moral philosophy. The new hymn book should instruct the people in many useful things. Hymns were written on such subjects as profitable economy, extravagance, superstition, scepticism, quiet and peaceful life, contentedness, integrity, the right use of pleasure, commerce, agriculture, vaccination, sleep, etc. The direction was not heavenward so much as worldward. The leading hymnological revisor or editor was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803). He also wrote a few original hymns. One of the best hymn writers of this hymnological era was Christian Fuerchtegott Gellert (1715-1769). He wrote a number of excellent hymns. Johann Casper Lavater (1741-1801) was perhaps the greatest hymn writer of this period.