Among Billings' contemporaries may be mentioned Oliver Holden, Andrew Law, Jacob Kimball, Jr., Samuel Holyoke, Samuel Read, and Lowell Mason. None of these possessed much more musical knowledge than Billings and all of them, with one exception, possessed much less talent. Holden is known chiefly for his 'Coronation' hymn, which is still popular. He published 'The American Harmony' in 1792. Law was the author of a collection of anthems and hymns, besides some compilations on musical theory. His taste was better than the average of his time, but his information and creative capacity were limited. One of his hymns, 'Archdale,' acquired wide popularity. There is nothing particular to say about Kimball, Holyoke or Read. They were of about the same stamp as Holden and Law--mediocre writers of uninspired and conventional psalm-tunes. Lowell Mason stands out above the rest as a musician in the truer sense of the word. The earnest valor with which he combated the condition prevalent in the New England churches, flooded with 'fugue tunes' in imitation of the imported variety but devoid of any musical value, must be recognized. He was a pioneer in the work of substituting for this worthless stuff tunes at once simple and noble, in accordance with the principles of harmony, and symmetrical in form. Mason was born in 1792, at Medfield, Mass., and died in 1872 at Orange, N. J. He went to Savannah, Ga., and divided his time between banking and musical study under F. L. Abell. In 1822 he returned to Boston and published the 'Boston Handel-Haydn Society's Collection of Church Music,' containing a number of his own compositions. The most familiar of his tunes are probably 'Corinth' ('I love to steal a while away'), 'Cowper' ('There is a fountain filled with blood'), 'Bethany' ('Nearer, my God, to Thee'), 'The Missionary Hymn' ('From Greenland's Icy Mountains'), and 'Mount Vernon' ('Sister thou wert mild and lovely'). After 1827 Dr. Mason (the degree of Mus.D. was conferred on him by New York University) took charge of the music in no less than three churches, but subsequently confined his labors to Dr. Lyman Beecher's Bowdoin Street Church, whither pilgrimages were soon made from all over the country 'to hear the wonderful singing.' His training of boys' voices particularly was a marvel to his generation. Mason's educational work is indeed of uncommon importance and will be touched upon in a later chapter. With Professors Park and Phelps he edited the 'Sabbath Hymn Book' (1858) and in 1830 he issued the 'Juvenile Lyrics,' said to be the earliest collection of songs for secular schools published in America.