Septuagesima and Trinity
XXI. are, on account of their first lessons, fitting Sundays for its
use; nor is it by any means unsuitable for a harvest festival. An
entirely different kind of reason for its Lenten suitability is provided
by H.P. Cornish (_Notes on P.B._, Evans, Redditch, n.d., p. 17). Lent,
he says, is the time "when all nature begins to wake from its Lenten
sleep": hence its appropriateness in spring. It is questionable,
however, whether medi?¦val liturgical authorities paid much attention to
the natural seasons of the year; and the variety of 'reasons' proves the
difficulty of discovering a really conclusive one. The idea that the
_Benedicite_ is consonant with Lenten feelings is singularly out of
accord with the opinion expressed as to its character as being
'festivius' in the _Gemma animae_, given above, p. 90. Indeed it can
hardly be disputed that its tone is joyful. But though its special
aptness for a fasting-time is not easy to make out clearly, few
unprejudiced people will dissent from the opinion of Freeman as to its
scope when he writes, that "though wanting in the grand structure of
the _Te Deum_, in point of range it is in no way inferior" (_Divine
Service_, Lond.
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