Note 2 — Chapter I · WHAT IS A HYMN?
Reading edition
“A hymn must have a beginning, middle, and end. There should be a manifest graduation in the thoughts, and their mutual dependence should be so perceptible that they could not be transposed without injuring the unity of the piece; every line carrying forward the connection, and every verse adding a well-proportioned limb to a symmetrical body. The reader should know when the strain is complete, and be satisfied, as at the close of an air in music.” (James Montgomery.)