Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home, page: 0118

450 Of The World's Best Songs And Hymns, With Lyrics & Sheet music for voice & piano.

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	118	FAVORITE SONGS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME
	Lullabies.�A recent writer, says: The subject of lullabies, or ' -sleep songs," as my little ones are fond of calling them, is by no means a common one, and until my attention was called to it by an article en�titled, "Wanted�A Lullaby." I imagined there could be no lack of them in the English language. Having a number of these "sleep" or dream songs in my collection in French and German, as well as in the English language, I have never been at a loss for one to soothe a restless child, or comfort a fretful babe. To me the perfection of a slumber song, or		lullaby, is the "Cradle Hymn,'* by good old Dr. Watts. The tune, as well as the words, has de�scended to me, being the same to which my weary eyes responded in baby sleep, and by which my fret�ful distress was soothed in restlessness or pain. I have ever used it with my children, and no matter what may be sung at the commencement of the sleepy time concert, the last of all is sure to be, "Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber." When in my own early child�hood, the last lines of the second verse were sung, the impression made upon my almost infant mind, as
	CRADLE HYMN.		Isaac Watts. J- J. Rousseau.
	1 lay in my little trundle bed, was one that can never be effaced. Often I was so affected as to beg that they should be sung softly, and that the next verse should be more loud and clear, to dispel in a degree tins feeling of sadness. The closing lines of the last verse have ever seemed a blessing descending on the youthful head. The air to which this " song of songs" to myself and children is wedded, is a soft and plain�tive one, well adapted to the words. It has long been m favorite lullaby in English-speaking homes the wide		world over. Next to this, which is sacred to me from association, and the appropriateness of the words as the evening song of a Christian mother to her babe and younger children, is that gem of Gottschalk's "Slumber on, baby dear." In the German we have the "Schlummerlied" of Kucken, in which the lullaby, as a refrain, has a solemn, impressive sound which, combined with the beauty of the words in the original, makes it a favorite wherever heard. In the Italian and Spanish there are several of these cradle-songs.