Note (return) — CHAP III.

In subsequent times the Hours of prayer were gradually developed from the three, or (with midnight) the four seasons above enumerated, to seven, viz. by the addition of Prime (the first hour), Vespers (the evening), and Compline (bedtime); according to the words of the Psalm, "Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgment. Other pious and instructive reasons existed, or have since been perceived for this number".46 Thus far our Protestant author, with whose remarks we are too well pleased to go out of our way to dispute with him the truth of some other portions of his tract, which are objectionable.