Hymn Writers of the Church

Auber, Harriet, was born October 4, 1773; and died January 20, 1862. She led a quiet and contented life, writing much, but publishing only one volume. The full title of this book was: The Spirit of the Psalms; A Compressed Version of Select Portions of the Psalms of David. It was published anonymously in 1829. It is not entirely original; some pieces were selected from well-known writers. This book is sometimes confounded with The Spirit of the Psalms, by the Rev. H. F. Lyte, but it is entirely different. The author became known through the Rev. Henry Auber Harvey. In a note to Daniel Sedgwick, dated November 25, 1862, he wrote: "The Spirit of the Psalms was partly a compilation and partly the composition of the late Miss Harriet Auber, an aunt of my mother's; and the preface to the book was drawn up by the editor, my late father, Mr. Harvey, a canon of Bristol." Julian, in the Dictionary of Hymnology, gives the first lines of twenty-five of Miss Auber's hymns which he says are in common use. This Hymnal contains only three: