that it is truly the Bible which has been used by their fathers before them, and that is at present used by all the faithful in the land. If Geddes or Gilbert Wakefield printed their versions these appeared with their names, and no one was taken by surprise, and so the modern version of the Socinians is called an "improved version;" but every one knows that what they call improvement is expunging those passages which demonstrate the divinity of our Lord, even though it should force them to the desperate expedient of asserting, without any manner of proof, that such passages are interpolations. Monopoly may be borne with if it be the best means of securing so important an object as the unimpeachable integrity of the word of God, and preventing reckless tampering of this heretical kind.

It must have occurred to every one that our use of a different version of the Psalms, viz., the Psalter, in the daily service of the Church, is a deviation from this principle of uniformity: it is, therefore, well to remind our readers, and to inform such as do not already know the fact, that this seeming anomaly was occasioned by the desire to carry out the same principle which was enjoined upon the translators of the Bible, viz., retaining the old ecclesiastical usages where truth would permit. The Psalter is arranged and even pointed, in order to be sung in churches. The rhythm of its periods has been attended to, and each verse is divided by a colon into two periods, for the singing, whether the sense appear to require it or not. Hebrew scholars know that it is the same with the Psalms of David, and that one system of pointing is used in the Hebrew for poetry, another system for prose; nay, that the Decalogue both in Exodus and Deuteronomy is pointed in each place according to both systems. The Psalter, therefore, being that which had been used in the churches was continued, rather than change it for the Bible version to which the people in their liturgy were not accustomed.

The same practice, of having in the Church services a version of the Psalms differing from the Vulgate which was the authorised version, had obtained in the Roman Church from the very times of Jerome; and, as the Church music was for the most part Gregorian, so it was natural that the form of words connected with the music should be retained. The English Psalter is translated from a version of Jerome, which he made from the Septuagint before he undertook his great work of translating the Vulgate from the Hebrew: the variations, therefore, in our two versions, are not mistakes of the English translators, but pretty correctly represent the deviations of the

Greek from the Hebrew. The Romish Church had still greater diversity of practice, for they sometimes used the Italic and the Roman as well as ours, which is the Gallican Psalter, besides the Vulgate, and therefore had four Latin versions of the Psalms in use at the same time. The Italic was the old version before the time of Jerome; the Roman was Jerome's first correction, A.D. 383, which was used at Rome till the time of Pius V., although the council of Trent had already authorized the Gallican. This Gallican was also by Jerome, A.D. 389, made more carefully from Origen's copy of the Septuagint, and was adopted in Gaul as early as 580, and therefore brought over into England by Augustine, as some think; but, according to Hody, already in use both in Britain and Ireland. From the Gallican Psalter, itself translated from the Septuagint, our English Psalter was translated.

We regard this work of Mr. Anderson as a valuable accession both to our theological and to our historical libraries. The author has availed himself of much curious information, which has only recently been brought to light, and some of the MS., and other sources of facts, have been hitherto unexplored, or at least undivulged. Though the history of our Bible is the subject of investigation, this is so bound up with persons and things that it becomes a history of the Reformation in England, from its buddings in the time of Tyndale, the contemporary of Luther, to its completion under the successor of Elizabeth, who gave to the Church its greatest stay and security in a standard version of the Scriptures, and consolidated the realm into the one kingdom of Great Britain, able to afford effectual protection to the Church of these lands, and become the head of the Protestant faith throughout Europe. We have no doubt that England has been raised up, in the providence of God, mainly as a witness to the truth, and it is an historical fact that England has prospered as she has fulfilled this high vocation.

We ought not to conceal from our readers that Mr. Anderson, being a Scotchman, does not take the same view of these questions. He ought for this reason to be proud of King James; but he certainly takes a lower view of James Stuart than we do, and that because Mr. Anderson's modern Scotch predilections are rather too predominant. We have no sympathy with the independent, isolating, Free Church principles, with which Scotland at the present time seems to be so deeply leavened. Mr. Anderson may not be conscious of the extent to which these principles have warped his view; but that he is to some degree biassed there can be no doubt. This does not lesson the value of his work to those who are aware of it;

but it is a proof that the faith in all instances does precede and does regulate the judgment. Mr. Anderson's faith is more Calvinistic-his principles are more Presbyterian-than our own: and, therefore, while we equally approve of the work which has been done, we may differ from him in the motives, and look for different results.

We can safely recommend these volumes as containing a great variety of interesting information concerning the English Bible which can be found in no other book. It corrects all former histories in numberless particulars, which are so verified by their connection with printed documents as to leave no farther doubt on the matter; and it traces so diligently, and so carefully, the several stages through which the English translation of the Scripture has passed, to arrive at its present excellence, that we rest with confidence in the version we possess as the oracles of God; and Mr. Anderson insists strongly on the responsibilities which this involves, regarding the English language as now extended, by our colonies and commerce, over the face of the whole earth.

"After such a history as the past, and in the existing state of our country and its dependencies, the writer must own that he is drawn irresistibly, and with deep respect to those upon whose shoulders, as instruments, all hope for future exertion must depend. Of course, he alludes to the admiring and devout readers of our common version, whether at home or far distant. At present we regard them all as but one community, and the most united upon the face of the earth; possessing certain points of attraction to each other, for which we search in vain throughout the world. Although the most widely diffused branch of the family of man, except the Jews, yet they alone are in firm possession of the entire sacred volume; and once contemplated as a community, before the eye of him who never slumbers, it cannot be said, at any given moment, that its members have ceased to peruse and to search the same divine record, At any hour of the twenty-four, or rather any minute, the eyes of some of this body are in the act of resting on the same book of life, and that from the beginning of the year to the end of the year............and, however far apart, there alone they alike find their best and their happiest moments." (11. 656.)

May England, as a nation, prize her privileges, and act up to her responsibilities! May her sons of every degree, who carry her name and her language to the utmost bounds of the earth, walk worthy of the name they bear, and adorn their Christian profession with every Christian grace! That not in arts and arms alone-but in the higher and more enduring acts of moral worth-England may be foremost among the nations, and a blessing to the world.

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ART. II-Un Million de Faits, Aide-Mémoire Universel des Sciences, des Arts, et des Lettres. Paris. 1842. Brussells. 1845.

2. Dictionnaire Infernal. Par J. COLLIN DE PLANCY. Quatriemè Edition. Paris. 1845.

LITERATURE has received of late years an immense impulse and development. The ponderous tomes of our forefathers are reduced into hand-books for our children; the rare treasures of the convent library, reprinted in many a form, are to be seen on the book-stall of every crowded city; whilst that knowledge the possession of which, in former days, separated and distinguished a man from his fellows, is become the common inheritance of the many. The prevailing spirit of the times seems to be to break up and destroy all the ancient foundations of power, and to this spirit the course of circumstances is lending a singular energy. In the struggle between what has hitherto been considered legitimate right, and what is now called popular privilege, democracy is advancing to the victory with a sure and steady foot; and it would appear as though knowledge had changed masters, and was helping those to govern whom she once considered it her exclusive distinction to rule. The aristocracy of knowledge, like all other aristocracies, is indeed fast perishing from the earth: it is scarcely visionary to believe that the period is approaching when little will be left for men to acquire, and when teachers will be more numerous than scholars. "The Million" will soon be in possession of the knowledge which is said to constitute power-how they will use it is another matter. The mere possession of knowledge, after all, is not wisdom: the one is a mighty instrument it is true, but the other is the capacity to use it aright; and, in the absence of the latter, it is but as a murderous weapon in the hand of a strong bodied fool, which he either wields clumsily to his own hurt, or mischievously to the damage of those around him. One thing is clear, that, as regards the possession of knowledge, the distinction between governors and the governed is gradually subsiding, and those whom the people place at their head must become in future rather the ministers of their will, than their guides and rulers, as of old, by force of superior intelligence.

The history of literature is the history of the human mind. The development of one branch in preference to another has ever been indicative of some peculiar force of circumstances, lending for the time its bias to the reflective or imaginative

faculties; whilst the "amenities" or "curiosities" of literature are but the several gracious or rugged forms, in which human thought is brought to the birth of outward expression. Whoever traces this history back to its earliest records, and attends to all which it relates, will be able to accompany the human mind in its progress from its first dawning of intelligence to the vast expansion of the present day: he will become acquainted with, and perhaps be able to account for, the many mental and moral phenomena with which that progress has

been marked.

Much that is deeply interesting is involved in this history. The characteristic spirit of an age is to be gathered from the nature of its literary productions; the influence of clime, and the effects of association, are perceptible in the prevailing tastes of the national mind. The disputatious spirit of the Greek, the haughty magnificence of the Roman, the nobility of patriarchal descent and the fervour of an eastern sun which marked the Arabian, the love of abstract science and investigation which distinguished the northmen, are all to be traced in their literature. The same disposition which led the Greek to be quarrelsome with his neighbour may be traced in his love of philosophical disputation: the Arabian borrowed his inclination to occult science, his poetry and his eloquence, from his traditional acquaintance with the far-off ages of his fathers, as well as from his wandering life and the constant association of his thoughts with the wilder elements of nature: whilst the spirit that led the sea-kings of the north to traverse the ocean in search of other lands is perceptible in the hardy disposition to enquiry, and the love of intellectual freedom, which so signally distinguish their descendants.

Nor are there wanting in the course of this history facts which serve as indices to the prevalence of a particular faith, the peculiarities of a particular people or school, and the power of a repressive domination. Thus, for instance, the great dearth of literary labour, distinguishing the tenth century, is partly accounted for by the prevalence of the belief that the end of the world would take place in the year 1000. It is recorded that a great number of the charters of the tenth century commence with the words, Appropinquante fine mundi ; and whilst this almost universal belief redoubled the fervour of religious piety, and produced, as a necessary consequence, many acts of liberality and charity—whilst it led, on all hands, to mutual reconciliations, the pardon of unhappy culprits, and the emancipation of miserable slaves-it resulted in a total abstinence from all toil, mental or bodily; these being ac