Perhaps the length of the series, and the difficulty of
making any but an arbitrary selection, has something to do with the
rarity of its appearance.
A set of not very satisfactory wood-engravings by MacWhirter and others,
one illustration to each verse, was published in a small book under the
title of the _Song of the Three Children illustrated_ (London, 1887)
The verse "O ye wells," etc., is said to be a frequent motto for the
floral well-dressings at Tissington, in Derbyshire, and elsewhere, on
Ascension Day; and a more appropriate one could hardly be found. But in
general the Song of the Three Children has not, for the reason given
above, and doubtless others besides, proved a popular subject in art.
LITURGICAL USE.
GENERAL.
There is, strange to say, no record of the Song's employment in this way
amongst the Jews. Statements sometimes made to the contrary in works on
the P.B., _e.g._ by W.G. Humphry, F. Procter, E. Daniel, and J.M. Fuller
(S.P.C.K. _Comm._ "Introd. to the Song"), "in the _later_ Jewish
Church," all appear to have originated in a misunderstanding of an
ambiguous sentence in Wheatley's _Rational Illustration_ (1875, p.
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