C. P. PH***. MORAVIAN HYMNS. (Vol. iv., p. 502.) John Wesley was at one time of his life a pupil of the Moravians, and Southey's _Life_ of that remarkable man, like most of his works, pregnant with interest and erudition, affords a satisfactory answer to your correspondent's Query. I quote from the 3rd edition of the _Life_, 2 vols., 1846. Of the Moravians he says:-- "Madness never gave birth to combinations of more _monstrous and blasphemous obscenity_ than they did in their fantastic allegories and spiritualizations. In such freaks of perverted fancy the abominations of the Phallus and the Lingam have unquestionably originated; and in some such abominations Moravianism might have ended, had it been instituted among the Mingrelian or Malabar Christians, where there was no antiseptic influence of surrounding circumstances to preserve it from putrescence. Fortunately for themselves, and for that part of the heathen world among whom they have laboured, and still are labouring with exemplary devotion, the Moravians were taught by their assailants to correct this perilous error in time."--Vol. i. p. 173. He adds in a note: "The reader who may have perused Rimius's _Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Herrnhuters_, and the 'Responsorial Letters of the Theological Faculty of Tübingen' annexed to it [the 2nd edition was published London, 1753], will not think this language too strong." In the Appendix, p. 481., Southey further says: "The most characteristic parts of the Moravian hymns are _too shocking_ to be inserted here: even in the humours and extravagances of the Spanish religious poets there is nothing which approaches to the monstrous perversion of religious feeling in these astonishing productions. The copy which I possess is of the third edition printed for James Hutton, 1746. An interesting account of James Hutton, who published the _Moravian Hymns_, may be seen in the great collection of _Literary Anecdotes_ by Mr. Nichols, vol. iii. p. 435. Of their _silliness_ I subjoin only such a specimen as may be read without offence:-- 'What is now to children the dearest thing here? To be the Lamb's lambkins and chickens most dear; Such lambkins are nourished with food which is best, Such chickens sit safely and warm in the nest.' 'And when Satan at an hour Comes our chickens to devour, Let the children's angels say, Those are Christ's chicks--go thy way.' "Yet even the _Moravian Hymns_ are equalled by a poem of Manchester manufacture in the _Gospel Magazine_ for August, 1808, entitled the 'Believer's Marriage in Christ.'"--Southey's _Life of Wesley_.