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A

7lo-l

HISTORY

OF THE

translations

WHICH HAVE LEEN MADE OF THE

SCRIPTURES,

FROM THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT AGE.

THROUGHOUT

EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA .

COMPOSED CHIEFLY WITH THE VIEW OF ASCERTAINING IN HOW MANY NEW LANGUAGES

C&e T5riti$b anu jFomgn TBi&le %>ocietp

HAS BEEN THE MEANS OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL. NOW PUBLISHED AS AN APPENDIX TO A LATE PAMPHLET,

ENTITLED,

AN INQUIRY INTO THE CONSEQUENCES OF NEGLECTING TO GIVE THE PRAYER BOOK WITH THE BIBLE.

— a***®—

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BY HERBERT MARSH, D.D. F.R.S .

KiROARET PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN CAMBRIDGE.

Lonnon:

Printed by Law and Gilbert, St. John’s-Square, Clerkenwcll ;

AND SOI.D BY

aiVINGTONS, ST. PAUL’S CHURCH-YARD; AND BY DEIGHTON, NICHOLSON, AND BARRETT, CAMBRIDGE.

1812.

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PREFACE.

IN my former pamphlet on the Bible Society, which relates entirely to its home department, I promised, in a future publication, to give some ac- count of its operations in foreign countries. But as the promised publication has not followed so soon as was expected, it is proper that I should assign the cause of the delay.

My original design was to have divided the Inquiry itself into two parts, the one relating to the Society’6 operations at home, the other to its operations abroad. In the progress of the Inquiry relative to the home department, the danger of neglecting to give the Prayer-book with the Bible became more apparent at every step which was taken ; and this danger was greatly augmented by the notion then propagated, even by Churchmen and Clergymen, that the spirit of true Protest- antism required the distribution of the Bible alone. Because the Bible only is the religion of the Pro- testant, it was inferred, that the Bible only should be distributed by the Protestant. And so far was this notion carried only four months ago, that merely because I had contended that Churchmen should distribute both Bible and Prayer-Book, I

a 2

IV

PREFACE.

was publicly accused in my own University of en- tertaining principles which savoured of Popery. Thus the omission of the Prayer-Book was publicly defended , and its joint distribution with the Bible condemned. These facts are on record ; they are recorded in the speeches and writings which the authors themselves have industriously circulated in every part of the kingdom. It was therefore high time, if the Church was worth preserving, to repel the erroneous notion in respect to the distribution of the Bible alone; it was high time to explain to the friends of the Establishment the consequences of neglecting to give also the Prayer-Book; and I have every reason to believe, that my endeavours to repel that erroneous notion, and to bring the Prayer-Book into more general notice, will, not- withstanding the personal abuse to which I have been exposed, produce effects most beneficial to the Church.

The Inquiry, therefore, which was instituted in the former pamphlet, being professedly confined to that single subject, it became unnecessary for my immediate purpose to enter at all into the foreign department. But having previously intimated my intention to do so, I determined that the pamphlet should be followed by a short Appendix, containing the information, which then appeared to be suffici- ent for the purpose. But, as very frequently hap-, pens in literary researches, the materials, as I went aiong, accumulated in such a degree, that the pub- lication, which was designed only as an Appendix, has become a consideiable and important work of

4 PREFACE. V

itself*. To form a due estimate of what the Bible Society has performed in respect to the translation of the Scriptures , it is necessary, that we should know, what translations have been made, either be- fore this Society existed, or independently of the Society’s assistance. And it is the more necessary, that this estimate should be correct, because the immensity of the benefits, supposed to be con- ferred on foreign nations, is that which chiefly in- duces men to overlook or disregard the dangers at home f.

* I have given it therefore a title, which expresses its con- tents, though 1 have likewise used the word Appendix on the title-page, because I referred to it under this name in the for- mer pamphlet.

f Mr. Vansittart, in his Answer to my Address to the Senate* after observing, that the Bible Society has “ done more for the “ diffusion of Christianity, than has been effected in the same “ space of time in any age since the Apostolic,” illustrates this assertion by adding, that the Society “ has in seven years been “ the means of preaching the Gospel in fifty-four languages.” Now, as the persons who translate the Scriptures into any lan- guage, may with more propriety be considered as the means of preaching the Gospel in that language, than they who only re- print an existing translation ; and as the printing of new edi- tions, however numerous, can hardly be considered as exceed- ing every thing done since the apostolic age, Mr. Vansittart’s expression, though certainly capable of two meanings, will be naturally understood, as signifying that the Society had trans- lated the Scriptures into so many languages. And that it teas so understood, I am well assured from various observations which were made on it, though Mr. V. has lately declared, that such was not his meaning. But there are other writers on this sub- ject, who speak of translations in literal terms. For instance, Jdr. Clarkson, in his Letter printed in the Ipswich Journal for

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tntt ace.

As it is urirtecessary for our present purpose to attempt a critical examination of the several trans- lations which have been made of the Scriptures, the account, which it is proposed to give of them, will

November 23, 1 8 / 1 , said, that the Society had il translated the “ Scriptures into no less than forty-three different languages or “ dialects.” Mr. Hardy, in his Speech at Leeds, (printed in the Cambridge Chronicle, Nov. 29, 1811) speaking of the exer- tions of the Bible Society, said, the Scriptures “ have been al- “ ready translated into more than thirty languages ; and, by the “ blessing of Providence on the labours of those employed, “ Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in “ Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Ppntus, and Asia, strangers of “ Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, may hear “ in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.” At the meeting at Bristol, Feb. 13, 1812, one of the speakers said, 44 the Scriptures were translated or translating into twenty jive “ languages, in which they had not before appeared;” and another represented the Scriptures as translated, through the exertions of the Society, into twenty-one languages (European and Asiatic), and that translations into twenty-jive foreign lan- guages were going forward. See the Proceedings, p. 7. 21. Now the diversity, observable in these several statements, is not favourable to the opinion, that any of them are very accurate. Yet in one point they all agree , namely, in shewing what im- portance is attached to the supposed extensiveness of the trans- lations made by the Bible Society. These very numerous trans- lations, thus ascribed to the Bible Society, constitute its chief attraction ; another miraculous Pentecost is supposed to have arrived ; and the imagination is hurried away by the splendid thought, that this Society is the means of preaching the Gospel to al! nations, and in all languages. So much the more impor- tant is it to examine what translations of the Scriptures have been made independently of this Society, and hot v many have really been added to the former stock, by the sole exertions of this Society.

]

PREFACE.

VII

be rendered most perspicuous by a geographical arrangement. And to the several heads of this arrangement may be referred also what has been done in this respect by the British and Foreign Bi- ble Society.

The labour, which is requisite for a work, con- taining notices, however short, of all the transla- tions, which have been made of the Scriptures, from the earliest to the latest age, might sufficiently account, had no other cause intervened, for an in- terval of twelve weeks between the former and the present publication. I can assure my impatient adversaries, who have begun to suspect, that the threatened Appendix would never appear, that it comes before the public, as soon as it was possible tp bring it.

Cambridge , 20 th April , 1812.

ERRATA.

P. 19, note *5, for 174 read 1 75 32, line 2, 1688 — 1 6'6'S 2 j, — 3, note 1 9,for was read were

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CONTENTS.

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SECTION I.

rxar.

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages and Dialects of Europe - - - I

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SECTION II.

Translations of the Scriptui'es into the Languages and Dialects of Asia ------ 30

SECTION III.

• * ‘ 1 t * ‘ ' "• - . * IfT.X-

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages of Africa - -- -- - - -94

SECTION IY.

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages of America - - - - .- - -‘-9B

SECTION V.

Result of the four preceding Sections, in respect to the Extent of the Services, which have been rendered by the British and Foreign Bible Society. - - 102

SECTION I.

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages and Dialects of Europe.

\

O F the languages, which were formerly spoken in Europe, and are now become dead languages, there are only Jive,' in which we have translations of the Scriptures; namely, the Greek, the Latin, the Mceso-Gothic, the Anglo-Saxon, and the old Scla- vonian. The Greek version might also be referred either to the Asiatic or African versions ; and in- deed the country, in which it was made, was Egypt. But as the European Greeks have used it from the earliest ages of Christianity, it may be placed in the present section. It was first printed in the Com- plutensian Polyglot, in 1515; but the very first edi- tion of the Bible in any language was that of the Latin Vulgate, which was printed at Mayntz, in 1462, Of the Moeso-Gpthic, if we except a few fragments of the epistle to the Romans, we have only the four Gospels extant, which were first print- ed at Dordrecht, in 1665. We have more remains of the Anglo-Saxon version : for beside the four Gospels, which were first printed in 1571, and the Psalms printed in 1640, the Pentateuch, with the Looks of Joshua, Judges, and Job, were printed in 1699- The whole Bible in the old Sclavonian language, was first printed in 1581, though the

B

2 Translations of the Scriptures into

Pentateuch had been published at Prague so early as 15 19'. This version, though slid used in the Russian Church, (in the same manner as the Sep- tuagint and the Vulgate are used by the Greek and Homan Churches) is different from the modern Russian translation, of which mention will be made hereafter.

The translations however, with which we are par- ticularly concerned at present, are those in the languages which are now spoken \ And of the Eu- ropean languages which are now spoken, there is hardlij one , into which the Scriptures had not been translated before the existence of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The first printed edition of the Bible in any modern language was in the Gci" man, there being a copy preserved in the public library of the city of Leipsic, which was printed in 1467. An Italian' Bible was published at Venice, in 1471. The next in order was a Dutch Bible, first printed at Cologne in 1475, and reprinted at Delft in 147 7- In 14S7 was printed at Paris a French translation of the Bible. The Bohemian translation of the Bibie was first printed at Prague in 1488, where it was several times reprinted1 2 * * 5. At

1 See Michaelis’s Introduction, vol. ii. p. 154*.

2 A detailed account of these translations, as far as the year

1720, may be seen in the folio edition of Le Long’s Bibliotheca

sacra ; to which the reader may refer, when no other authority is quoted. The table of contents, at the beginning of the first volume, will immediately shew in which page the account of each version may be found.

5 This first edition of the Bohemian version was unknown to Le Long, who mentions the Venice edition of 1506, as the first edition of the Bohemian Bibie. But a copy of the Prague edi-

3

the Languages and Dialects of Europe.

the beginning of the sixteenth century (for the pre- cise date is not known) a Spanish translation of the Bible, in the dialect of Valencia, was printed at Amsterdam.

The preceding translations were made from the Latin Vulgate ; but in 1522 Luther published his translation of the New Testament from the Greek, which was followed by his translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew, published in separate portions, and at different times, from 1523 to 1532. The whole was printed at Wittenberg in 1534. Of this translation, says Walch* * 4 5, Lutheri interpreta- tio ipsa codicis sacri German ica non solum tain frequenter typis exscripta est, ut editiones ej us fere innumerabiles sint, sed etiam in alias conversa lin* guas vernaculas. He then describes the transla- tions, which have been made from Luther's; namely, in the dialect of Lower Saxony, first print- ed at Lubeck in 1533 ; in the dialect of Pomerania, first printed at Barth in 1588; in the Swedish lan- guage, first printed at Upsal in 1541; in the Da- nish, first printed at Copenhagen in 1550 s; in the Dutch, in which the first edition of this translation appeared in 1560 ; in the Icelandic, first printed at Holum, in Iceland, in 15S4; in the Finnish lan-

tfen of 1488, is preserved in the public library at Dresden.

Walchii Bibliotheca Theclogica, tom. IV. p. 130.

4 lb. p. 95.

1 , v

5 Of the later Danish editions Walch says, “ non omnes con- formatae sunt ad solam Lutheri interpretationem.” The Sweetish version, at present used, is likewise different from that which was first printed,

B 2

4

Translations of the Scriptures into guage, first printed at Stockholm in 1642 6 ; in the

Lettish or Livonian, first printed at Riga in 16B<> 7 ; in the dialect of Upper Lusatia, first printed at Bautzen, in 1728; and in the Lithuanian language, in which the first edition of this translation was printed at Koenigsberg, in 1735 ®. To these may be added the translation of the Bible in the Helve- tian, or German-Swiss dialect, first printed at Zu- rich in 1525-1529; for it was taken at least parti}7 from Luthers translation9. In making the first printed English translation, that of Luther was likewise used I0.

In 1543 a Spanish translation (in the Castile dia- lect) of the Greek Testament, was printed at Ant- werp, apd in 1553, of the Hebrew Bible. In 1561 w as published at Cracow, a Polish translation of

* Another translation of the Bible in the Finnish language was printed at Abo, in Finland, in 1685. The New Testament, with the Psalter, in the Finnish language, had been already printed at Stockholm in 1518.

7 This edition was accompanied with a translation in the Es - thonian language. Le Long, vol. i. p. 447. An edition of the New Testament, both in Livonian and Esthonian, had been al- ready printed at Riga, in 1685 and 1686. It was reprinted at Koenigsberg, in 1701, lb. The Lettish, or Livonian, is a Sclavonian dialect. The Esthnish, or Esthonian, though spoken in the adjacent province of Esthland, or Esthonia, is a totally distinct language, being closely allied to the Finnish.

8 A Lithuanian translation of the Bible, made by Chylinsky, had been already printed in London in 1660. Le Long, vol. i. p. 447.

9 lb. p. 399.

10 See Michaelis’s Introduction, vol. ii. p. 108, with the trans- lator’s note at p. 618.

5

the Languages and Dialects of Europe.

the Bible, made by the Catholics In 1563 was published at Brescz, in Lithuania, a Polish trans- lation of the Bible made by the Socinians, under the patronage, and at the expcnce of Nicolas Kadzivil, and reprinted in 1572. A third Polish translation of the Bible was made by the Calvinists, whose first edition was printed in 1596 ,x. In 1 o 34 was printed at "W ittenberg, a translation of the Bible into ano- ther branch of the Sclavonian, that which is spoken by the Wenden, or Venedi. In 1588 was published the first edition of the Welsh Bible. In 1589 was printed the first edition of the Hungarian Bible1*, reprinted at Hanau, in 16'08, and again at Oppe** heim in 1612. In 1636 was printed at Leyden, the first edition of the version, which became the au- thorised Dutch version. In the Romanese lan- guage, as spoken in the Engadine, a translation of the Bible was printed at Schucl, a town of the lower Engadine, in 1657. Another dialect of this language is that spoken by the Orisons, in which the Bible was printed at Coire in 1719- An Irish translation of the Bible, made by King, and revised by Bishop Bedell, was printed in London in 1685. The first edition of the old Sclavonian, or old Hus-

“ Walchii Bibl. theol. tom. iv. p. 131. This edition was un- known to Le Long, who represents that of 1599 as the first published by the Catholics.

11 The New Testament had been already printed in 1585 ; and it has been frequently reprinted at Thorn, Dantzic, Dresden, and other places.

13 The Hungarian New Testament had been previously- printed at Vienna, in 157 4. The edition of the whole Bible in 1589 is noted by Walch (tom. iv. p, 130) nut not by Le Long.

6

Translations of the Scriptures into

sian, has been already noticed ; but as this version, though the established version of the Prussian Church, is no longer intelligible to the common people, a translation of the Bible into the modem Russian was made by Gluck, a Livonian clergy- man, and printed at Amsterdam in 1 698. In 17(13 the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge published the Bible in the Manx language. In 1?6'7 the New Testament was published in Gaelic, and in 1802 the Old Testament14. In the same

14 As a writer in the British Review, (No. v. p. 139) with the usual propensity of the advocates for the British and Fo- reign Bible Society, speaks of the great want of the Gaelic Bi- ble, “ till the Society translated and dispersed it in that lan- guage,” I will appeal to the records of his own Society to prove, that the Bible was not only translated into Gaelic, but printed and circulated in that language before the existence of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In the Appendix to the second Report, No- XXIII. is printed a Letter, dated Edin- burgh, 12th of April, 1806, from the Secretary to the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, which, like the English Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, not only existed, but contributed to the circulation of the Scriptures long before the formation of the modern Bible Society, in the praises. of which the merits of all other Societies are now to be forgotten. In this letter from thp Society in Scotland it is stated, that a translation of the New Testament into the Gaelic language, made by the Rev. James Stew^art, Minister of Killin, “ was printed at the expence of the Society , in 1767.’’ It is added that, “ a new edition, consisting of twenty thousand copies, was “ afterwards printed, and has been in circulation for several “ years.” The Highlanders therefore had not been left desti- ute of the Scriptures, before the formation of the Bible So- ciety. Nor was the translation confined to the New Testament. For a translation of the Old Testament (as appears from thf

7

the Languages and Dialects of Europe.

year was published at Lisboa the Bible in the Por- tuguese language IS. Lastly, before the year 1 804, the Bible in the language of Lapland (in which certain portions of it«had been already printed in 1648) was published at Stockholm, though I know not the year of the first edition ,6.

same letter) was printed in 1802, to the amount of five thou- sand copies, and likewise at the expence of the Society in Scot- land. Nor did this Society rest here. For “ soon after the “ publication of this work (as is added in the same letter) the “ Directors, anxious to promote the circulation of the Gaelic

“ Scriptures resolved to print an impression of twenty thou-"

“ sand copies. From many generous individuals and societies, “ contributions were received, which, though not adequate to “ the expence incurred, encouraged them to proceed with the “ work.” It appears from the same letter, that they did pro- ceed with the work, and when this letter was written, the Se- cretary says, “ The Directors indulge the hope, that the whole “ will be completed in the course oj the ensuing summer Thus matters stood on the 12th of April, 1806, when the British and Foreign Bible Society had contributed nothing to the Gaelic Bible; for the very first entry which I find under this head, is among the disbursements for the year, ending 31st of March, 1807, where 771/. is entered on account of the Gaelic Bible. But they seem to have had a. quid pro quo. For the Secretary to the Society in Scotland concludes with the following propo-. sal : “ I am further charged to offer to the Directors of the “ Bible Society, ten thousand copies of the Gaelic Bible, being “ one half of the impression, on condition that they pay half °f “ the ex pence thereby incurred.”

The New Testament had been already printed in 1681, at Amsterdam ; and the Pentateuch, with some other portions qf the Old Testament, had been printed at Tranquebar.

16 This will presently appear from a letter written by the Stockholm Society, Pro fide et Christianisrno ,

8 Translations of the Scriptures into

The modern translations hitherto mentioned are all translations of the whole Bible ; but there are others, in which we have only the New Testament entire. In 1553 a Croatian New Testament was printed at Tubingen ; and in 1571 was printed at Rochelle, a New Testament, in the Basque dialect. In 1638 the New Testament was printed at Geneva in modern Greek'7. Another edition was printed in London in 1703, which was reprinted at Halle in 1710, with the ancient Greek in a parallel co- lumn. In 1648 was printed at Belgrade, a transla- tion of the New Testament in the Wallachian lan- guage. Le Long, who has noticed it, (tom. i. p. 373) refers to No. 5225 of the Bodleian manu- scripts, whence a doubt might arise whether this copy of the Wallachian New Testament was not wiitten at Belgrade, in 1648. But in the cata- logue of the Bodleian manuscripts, the number 5225 is, “ Novum Testamentum Valachiutn im- pressum .” It is therefore a printed edition, though of all editions probably the most scarce. In 1666 was printed at Oxford, the New Testament, in Turkish, by Lazarus Seaman 18 ; and in 1686 was

*7 The Jews at Constantinople had already translated the He- brew Pentateuch into modern Greek, and printed it in 1547; and still earlier, namely, in 1543, the Psalter had been printed in modern Greek at Venice. See Le Long, Bibl. sacra, ed. Masch. P. II. vol. ii. sect. 2.

»s Whether the Turkish New Testament, which the Edin- burgh Missionary Society is printing at Karass, on the borders of the Caspian sea, and for which the British and Foreign Bible Society has furnished types and paper, is Seaman’s translation,

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 9

printed a New Testament in a particular dialect of the Esthonian language ‘9. To these printed trans- lations may be added a translation of the whole Bible into the Catalonian dialect; and translations of the New Testament into the dialects of Piedmont and Provence. The places, where manuscripts of these three translations are preserved, may be seen on consulting the Bibliotheca Sacra.

The preceding statement shews what pains had been taken in every part of Europe with translations of the Scriptures, long before the existence of the Bible Society ; it shews, that little or nothing was left to this Society, in respect to the European lan- guages and dialects, but to re-print existing trans-

it quite a new translation, I do not know. Seaman’s transla- tion, according to Helladius, (De statu Ecclesiae Gr&'ca;, p. 187, 289) has been much esteemed ; and Dr. Callenberg, who pre- sided over the Oriental, or Jewish and Mahomedan Institution, at Halle, reprinted there, for the purpose of sending them into Turkey, the Gospel of St. Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and to the Hebrews, and the first Epistle of St. John, with the beginning of his Gospel. See Le Long. Bibl. sacra, ed. Masch. P. II. vol. i. p. 168.

*9 See a Letter, written by a respectable Lutheran Minister, in the island of Nucko, in Esthonia, printed in the Society’* * second Report, Appendix, No. XIV. He observes, that “ the “ Bible, in the Esthonian language, has been repeatedly printed “ at Reval but he is mistaken in respect to the first edition of it. The Esthonian Bible was first printed at Riga ; and not in 1739, as he says, but in 1689. See the preceding note 7. Perhaps the accounts may be reconciled on the supposition, that 1739 was the year in which the Esthonian Bible was first print- ed by itself ; for the Riga edition of 1689 contained also the Lettouian or Livon’an Bible.

10

Translations of the Scriptures into

lations. And however beneficial it may be to re- print editions, in order to supply the place of such as are exhausted, let not those who merely reprint and distribute, claim the whole merit, or regard themselves as the so/e means of preaching the Gos- pel in those languages, as if nothing were due to the learned and industrious translators , as if nothing were due to the munificence of those, under whose patronage, and at whose expence, those translations were originally printed. In fact, the first transla- tors afforded the means of preaching the Gospel in the languages into which they translated it; where- as they, who only reprint what had been printed be- fore, however meritorious their exertions may be, augment only the means which already existed 10.

Nor let it be imagined, that all the European translations were become so scarce, or that the edi- tions of them had been so few, that, without the intervention of the Bible Society, the inhabitants of those countries would have had no access to the Word of God. I have in general mentioned only the first edition of each translation, which presents to the reader an historical view of them ; but most of them have been many times reprinted, and some of them so very frequently, that it would be diffi- cult, if not impossible, to recount the editions. It is true, that in the Catholic countries of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, translations of the Scrip-

10 Dr. Buchanan says, “ The learned man, who produces a “ translation of the Bible into a new language, is a greater be- “ nefactor to mankind, than the prince, who founds an empire.” See his Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India, p. 70.

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 1 1

lures are not common. Nor will they ever become so, while the use of them is discouraged by the Ca- tholic Clergy; for the individual examples of en- couragement, which have been occasionally quoted, are certainly exceptions to the general rule, which especially applies to Protestant editions of the ili- ble 1I. And whenever that encouragement becomes

21 To say nothing of that decree of the Council of Trent which prohibits the indiscriminate use of the Scriptures, the Catholic Clergy, however liberally they may interpret that decree, can- not, consistently with their own religion, admit the introduction of Protestant Bibles, in which the apocryphal books of the Old Testament are separated from the canonical, as books, which, according to the sixth of our Articles, the C hurch of England does not apply “ to establish any doctrine.” For the Church of Borne rejects this distinction, and assigns the same authority to the books, which we call apocryphal, as to those which we call canonical. In the Latin Vulgate, which is the authorized version of the Church of Rome, the former are intermixed with the latter, some being placed in one part, others in other parts of the Bible ; as is the case also in the manuscripts of the Greek Bible, from which the Latin version was originally taken. But when Luther translated the Hebrew Bible into German, he ad- mitted into the Protestant Canon only the books, which were contained in the Hebrew Canon, and referred those books to a separate class, by the name of apocryphal, which were contained in the Greek and Latin Canon, but not in the Hebrciv. This distinction has been adopted by Protestants in general : and hence the French Bibles, which have been printed in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and England, for the use of French Pro- testants, are printed like our English Bibles, either vcithout the Apocrypha, or with the apocryphal books placed together in a separate class. Since therefore the Church of Rome considers the books, which we call apocryphal, as being equally canonical, or as having equal authority with the other books of the Old Testament, wc may be assured, that the Catholic Clergy in ge-

12 Translations of the Scriptures into

general, France especially will be able to supply it- self much better than they can be supplied by us. Indeed the French translations of the Scriptures, which have been already made, are more numerous than those in any other language ; and the account of them, with their several editions, occupies not less than twenty folio pages of the Bibliotheca Sa- cra.

If we turn to the Protestant part of the European Continent, we shall find, that the Scriptures in the four principal languages, German, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish, were common, and easily procured,

neral (though there is no rule without an exception) will object to the introduction of Protestant Bibles where a portion of Scripture, equal in their opinion to the rest, is either totally re- jected, or separated from the other books, as of less value. On this subject the British and Foreign Bible Society had very early intimation : for in the Appendix to the first Report, No. X, is printed a Letter from a Catholic Clergyman in Suabia, who, though very liberally disposed, yet is compelled to say, “ Let “ me however candidly observe, that a Protestant edition of the “ Bible would hardly be suffered to have its free course, after “ all I know of the minds of most of the Catholic people and “ Clergy. It ought therefore to be either a Catholic edition of “ the Bible, or, if a Protestant, it ought to have the same ap - “ pearance , as if printed in a Catholic town ; for instance, the “ books of the Bible ought to be placed in an order different from that which is generally adopted in Protestant Bibles.” — Whether the French Bible, which the Society has stereotyped, is printed according to this advice, I do not know. I hardly suppose that it is ; because it w ould be contrary to our religion to place the apocryphal books on a level with the canonical. On the other hand, if it is not, the Letter above quoted is suffi- cient proof, that it will “ hardhj he suffered to have its free course ” in Catholic countries.

the Languages and Dialects of Europe » IS

long before the existence of the Bible Society. Tho truth of this assertion, in respect to the Dutch, Da- nish, and Swedish, (and even in respect to the Fin- nish and Laponese versions) is confirmed by the records of the Society itself. In the Appendix to the very first Report, No. XVII, is printed the “ Extract of a Letter from a respectable Minister “ in Holland, dated October <2 6, 1S04;” in which year the Society was founded, and began to make inquiries, whether there was a scarcity of Bibles on the Continent. Now this respectable Dutch Mi- nister says in this very Letter, “ With us, there is, “ thank God, no scarcity of Bibles." And a few lines afterwards, he says, “ Even the poorest per- “ son among us can easily procure a Bible; and “ our Deacons make strict enquiry of their indi- “ gent parishioners, whether they possess a Bible, “ and read it.” In the same Appendix, at No. XVI, is printed “ the extract of a Letter from the 4‘ Society Pro fide et Christ ianismo, at Stockholm, “ addressed to tiie Rev. G. Brunmark, Chaplain to u the Swedish Embassy at the Court of St. James's, “ dated Stockholm, May 31, 1804.” The first pa- ragraph of this Letter, which is signed O. Linder- holm, is as follows: “ In answer to your question, “ made in behalf of the British and Foreign Bible “ Society, “ whether the inhabitants of Sweden in “ general, and the Laplanders in particular, are u sufficiently well provided with Bibles,” we do tl with heartfelt satisfaction inform vou, that, owino' “ to the gracious and paternal care of the govern- “ rnent of our country, as well as from the Gospel l< light and zeal which have generally spread among

14 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ individuals, no want exists at present of this Holy “ Book , which contains in it the fountain of all “ knowledge, bringing salvation, and producing “ good-will among men : and moreover, that Bi~ “ hies in the Finland, and Lapland languages are “ now currently printed at this place , and distri- “ buted either gratis or at very reduced prices, by “ Societies formed for that benevolent purpose The Danish Society for promoting the Gospel and true Christianity, addressed a Letter to the British and Foreign Bible Society, dated June 17, 1807, which is remarkable on various accounts13. It be- gins, “ Labouring for one and the same end with “ you, in dispersing books adapted to excite and

That no want exists of Swedish Bibles, appears further from the following remarkable fact. At the beginning of the year 1807, which was previous to any remittance of the Bible Society to Sweden, twelve hundred Swedish prisoners were brought to Leipsic, then in the possession of the French ; and it was a matter of notoriety, that among these twelve hundred men, there was hardly one who had not a Swedish Bible in his knapsack. I state this on the authority of a person, who was in Leipsic at that very time — In 1 808, the Society Pro fide et Christianismo, addressed another Letter, to the Chaplain of the Swedish Legation, in which they commend the exertions of the Bible Society : but no mention is made of any want of Bibles in Sivedcn. See 4th Report, Appendix, No. V. I must not how- ever neglect to mention, that another Society was founded at Stockholm, at the end of 1808, by the name of the Evangelical Society: that this Society, in a Letter dated February 20, 1809, applied to the Bible Society for pecuniary assistance toward a new exlition of the Swedish Bible; and that, in this Letter, com- plaint is made of a leant of Bibles in Sweden. See the Society’s fifth Report, Appendix, No. IV.

11 It is printed in the fourth Report, Appendix, No. IV.

4

the' Languages and Dialects of Europe. 15

“ cherish the pursuit of piety, hut especially the “ sacred Scripture itself, we cannot, & c.” It then proceeds to speak of a new edition of the Icelandic Testament : “ You have, dearest Brethren, been ‘‘ long ago informed, that, upon receiving indubi- <c table accounts of the scarcity of the Holy Scrip- “ tures in Iceland, zee resolved to have a new edi- “ tion of the New Testament in the Icelandic lan- “ guage, printed without delay. This resolution “ has, through the divine favour, been carried into “ effect1*'” In a subsequent paragraph is said,

24 From tills passage, it appears, that the late edition of the Icelandic Testament, was undertaken by the Danish Society for promoting the Gospel at their own suggestion. This appears also from the third Report of the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety ; where, in allusion to the want of Bibles in Iceland, and the resolution, of the Danish Society to supply it, we find, “ that “ some respectable, persons in Denmark, with a view to supply “ this deficiency, had resolved to print an edition of 2000 co- “ pies of the New Testament in the Icelandic dialect, under the “ direction of a native Icelander of great respectability, who “ has generously offered his service for correcting the press.” It is true, that the number of copies of this edition was consi- derably augmented, in consequence of pecuniary aid from the Bible Society ; as further appears from the next page of the Report, where mention is made of “ increasing the proposed “ edition of the Icelandic New Testament to 5000 copies.” But it is equally obvious, from this very expression, as well as from the passage in the Letter of the Danish Society above quoted, that an edition of the Icelandic Testament, though con- sisting only of two thousand copies, would have taken place, even without the intervention of the Bible Society. For the late supply of the New Testament, therefore, in the Icelandic language, the Icelanders were indebted, in the first instance, to tl\e Danish Society. In like manner, the new edition of the

16 Translations of the Scriptures into

u With us, in Denmark and Norway, there is nfrt 1 so great a scarcity of the sacred Scriptures; for “ not to mention, that, beside the entire Bible, the “ New Testament, in the Danish language, is to be “ procured at a moderate price , and that the po- verty of the common people is not an obstacle to “ the purchasing , if they please , individually, a copy “ of the sacred Scriptures . Every year, agreeably “ to the direction of a fund some years ago be- “ queathed, a considerable number of books is “ given away, and gratuitously distributed among

Icelandic Bible was not only undertaken, but supported by a fund raised in Denmark for that purpose, before any contribu- tions were even voted for the Icelandic Bible by the Society in England. This appears from the very words used by the Com- mittee of the Bible Society in their Summary Account for 1809, p. 12; when, after mentioning the 3000 copies of the New Tes- tament, printed at the expence of the Society, is added: “ The “ sum of 3001. has also been voted by the Society in aid of a “ fund raising in Denmark for printing the whole Bible in the “ Icelandic dialect.” These very words are again used at p. 12 of the Summary Account for 1810: and they sufficiently shew, that, though the Bible Society has contributed toward the pub- lication of a new edition at Copenhagen, as well of the Icelandic Bible, as of the Icelandic Testament, its advocates do great in- justice to the Danish Society, when they assume for their own Society either the credit of commencing the new edition of the Icelandic Scriptures, or of supplying exclusively the funds for its execution. And to shew that such representations are really made, I need only appeal to Mr. Scott’s Sermon for the benefit of the Bible Society; when, speaking of the scarcity of the Scriptures in Iceland before the late supply, he adds, (p. 39), «» That the Bible Society has furnished this interesting people “ with 5000 copies of the New Testament, and is preparing for “ them an edition of the entire Bible.”

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 1 7

“ the provinces of both kingdoms. Our Society “ has besides, within the space of a few years, an* “ nually supplied about 400 copies of the New “ Testament, which are also distributed gratis. It “ now only remains to be wished, that a desire to “ read and study the truths of the sacred Scrip- “ tures, and make a right improvement of them, “ may more and more increase, See."

Let us now consider the question in respect to Germany. And here I must confess, that having resided twelve years in the University of Leipsic, having had constant intercourse with the most dis- tinguished among the literary characters of Ger-. many, and having thus become well acquainted with the general state of literature in that country, I have felt equal surprise and indignation at the representations which have been lately made, in respect to the Continent in general, and to Ger- many in particular, on the state'of religious know- ledge, and the scarcity of the Bible. Mr. Dealtry, in his Vindication, p. 39, says, “ The continent of “ Europe, it is well known, was in the year 1804, “ with respect to religious knowledge, in a state of “ the mostdeplorable degradation.’ —“In some few “ places indeed (Mr. Dealtry adds) the Scriptures “ were to be found.” But that among these few places , he did not include Germanv, appears from what he says in the next page but one, where, speaking of the “ extreme scarcity of the Scriptures,” he adds, “ This remark is meant particularly to apply to'Prussia, Bohemia, Germany, and Swit- zerland.” And to shew the deplorable state of degradation, in which he represents the Con*

' c

13 Translations of the Scriptures into

tinent, before the formation of his wonder-working Society, in a still more deplorable light, he says, p. 3a, “ Great Britain is the only nation in the “ world, which, before the establishment of the

Bible Society, had in modern times shewn any “ anxiety for the dispersion of the Scriptures.” Indeed he goes so far at p. 39, as to say, that “ a “ famine of the sacred word prevailed on every “ side.”

Now, to say nothing at present of the very extra- ordinary exertions made in the last century by the German Missionaries, to translate and disperse the Scriptures in India, to say nothing at present of the similar exertions on the part of the Dutch, the Let- ters from Sweden and Denmark, above quoted, afford abundant proofs of “ anxiety for the dis~ “ pension of the Scriptures '1 in these countries, in- dependently of any stimulus from the British and Foreign Bible Society. We have seen, that the re- spectable Society, Pro fide et Christianismo , at Stockholm, after having stated, that there was no want of Swedish Bibles, and that even Lapland and Finland Bibles were then currently printed atStock- holm, adds, that they are “ distributed either gratis, i ‘ or at very reduced prices, by Societies, formed for “ that benevolent purpose Now the Societies, to which allusion is here made, as well as the Society, in the name of which the Letter is written, must have existed before the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the Letter is dated May 31, 1804. — The above quoted Letter from the Danish Society, though dated June 17, 1S07, shews, that this So- cle:}’ also had shewn “ anxiety for the dispersion

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 19

<l of the Scriptures” before the existence of the British and Foreign Bible Society; for they speak of their exertions for the distribution of the Scrip- tures as having been continued many years. In fact, they had continued not less than ninety years: for the Danish Society for promoting the Gospel was founded by Frederick IV. in 1 714. And with respect to Germany “ an anxiety for the dispersion- of the Scriptures” has been uninterruptedly dis- played there from the invention of printing to the present day.

They began with printing tire Scriptures; for a Latin Psalter was printed by Fust and SchoefFer so early as 1457 ; they printed the whole Latin Bible so early as 1462; and a German translation was printed in 1467.

Indeed I believe a greater number of Bibles, in various languages, has been produced by Germany than by the rest of Europe put together. So great has been the industry of the Germans in this re- spect, that by the exertions of an individual, Elias Flutter, Hebrew Professor at Leipsic, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Old Testament was printed in six languages, and the New Testament in twelve languages *5. It has been already ob-

15 Walcli Bibliotheca -Theologica, tom. iv. p. 36. 174. If we except the Mohawk and Esquimaux, in which the Bible Society has printed only the Gospel of St. John, the number of languages' in which the New Testament has been printed at the expence of this Society in England amounts likewise to twelve; namely, Greek, English, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Manks, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Danish. See the Summary

c 2

20 Translations of the Scriptures into

served, that a German Bible was printed so early as 146?; and before the expiration of the fifteenth century seven other editions were printed, chiefly at Niirenberg and Augsburg. But to pass over other German translations and editions, let us con- fine our present consideration to the authorised version, the version of Luther. We have seen that this version was printed in separate portions from 1522 to 1532, and that the whole of it was printed in 1.534. From that time to the year 16'00 Le Long enumerates between sixty and seventy editions; and it is scarce possible that he should have been acquainted with them all. Likewise during the seventeenth century there was hardly a year with- out an edition; and the places where they were chiefly printed were Wittenberg, Leipsic, Dresden, Luneburg, Brunswick, Frankfort, Nuremberg, and Strasburg. In 1712 Baron Canstein founded at Halle an Institution for the sole purpose of print- ing Bibles, especially German Bibles, according to Luther’s version. This institution has been in a state of never-ceasing activity. In the printing- office of this institution the frames are kept con- stantly set for the whole Bible, of various si?es,

Account for 181 1, p. 23. These reimpressions are precisely equivalent to the labours of one man two hundred years ago. But so eager are the advocates of the Bible Society to claim the merit of translations, that one of the orators at the late anniversary meeting at Bristol, instead of saying that the Scrip- -tures had been printed by the Society in twelve European lan- guages, said they had been “ translated into twelve European'’ languages. See p. 21 of the Proceeding® of the Public Meet* iiig at Bristol, Feb. 13, 181?.

the Languages and Dialects df Europe. 2 1

from the folio to the duodecimo ; and the Bibles and Testaments which have emanated from this institution amount to more than three millions of copies. Dr. Knapp, Director of the Orphan-house in Halle, (than whom we cannot have better au- thority) in a letter printed in the Second Report of the Society, Appendix No. IX. speaking of the Canstein Bible Institution, Says, “ This establish- “ ment has now subsisted ninety-five years, during “ which time above three millions of copies, either “ of the whole Bible or of the New Testament, “ have been printed in different languages, and “ dispersed, not only throughout most of the Euro - “ pean countries, but even throughout America “ and the Russian colonics in Asia. Many thoii- “ sand copies have been given array gi'atis to the “ poor, and the most signal blessing has attended “ the whole undertaking .” Dr. Knapp subjoins, that unto this very day Bibles are printing in “ such large numbers , that there is always a con - “ siderable store of ' them for sale .” Nor is the Canstein institution the only source from which German Bibles have emanated during the last cen- tury. I have now before me a catalogue, by no means including all the editions of Luther's version, which were published only in the first half of the last century, and even these amount to more than eighty. Nor were these editions confined to a few places only; they were printed at Hamburgh, Luneburgh, Brunswick, Minden, Lemgo, Stade, Rostock, and Koenigsberg, in the North; at Dres- den, Leipsic, Wittenberg, Jena, Gotha, Erfurt, Altdorf, in the centre; at Tubingen, Stuttgard,

23 Translations of the Scriptures into

Ulm, Ilatisbon, in the South: to which may be added five editions printed at Bale in Switzerland. See Walch. 13ibl. Theob T. iv. p. 89 — -95. Now all these editions are independent of the Canstein Institution , and the produce of only half a cen- tury. They are independent of the Institution, of which Dr. Knapp says “ unto this eery day Bibles “ are printing in such large numbers, that there is “ always a considerable store oj them for sale. ’’ we are told that there is a scarcity of Bibles in Germany, and that Great Britain is the only natioti in the world, which in modern times had shewn any anxiety for the dispersion of the Scriptures, till the British and Foreign Bible Society had given an im- pulse to the Continent. I have in my possession a middle-sized octavo edition, printed at the Can- stein Institution, with the prices of this octavo edi- tion, according to the different kinds of paper. My copy cost about fourteen pence English unbound, but tlrere are copies on inferior paper, which cost less. Now this edition contains the Old and New Testament with the Apocrypha, very numerous re- ferences to parallel passages, an Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures, and a glossary of dif- ficult expressions. All this is to be had on very decent paper for about fourteen pence, and on in- ferior paper for about a shilling. The duodecimo edition is of course still cheaper. In fact, there is no country in Europe where the common* people have the means of obtaining the Scriptures at so low a price, and where they do obtain them so generally, as in Protestant Germany. Indeed it is obvious, that the sale must keep pace with the editions, or

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 23

the editions could not have proceeded to such an extent. I have passed summer after summer among the German peasants, have been in the habit 6f visiting their houses, and, as far as my intercourse has extended, I have found them copiously supplied with Bibles. I have been therefore much surprised that Mr. Stein kopff,. the foreign secretary, who cer- tainly ought to know the state of his own country in respect to Bibles, should ever have spoken, in general terms, of Germany as wanting Bible3 *6. However, he has since corrected his accounts of Germany; and in the last edition of the Cambridge

26 According to the Cambridge Chronicle of December 13, 1811, in which the speeches made at Bedford were inserted by order of the Bedford Committee, Mr. Steinkopff dwelt on “ the great dearth of Bibles in foreign countries, which had “ long laboured under the’ want of them, a want which the “ liberality of the British and Foreign Bible Society was now “ daily supplying. — He then reverted to the labours of the “ parent institution, which during tile short period of its “ establishment had translated the Word of God into the Ger- “ man, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, the Portuguese, “ and the ancient and modern Greek languages." Now to say nothing of the ancient Greek language, even the most learned among his hearers might conclude, that at least the Germain were indebted to this Society for the Scriptur'es in their own language. At Ipswich, “ He should not love his own country, “ he said, could he forget to mention, that a German Testa- “ ment had been printed, and that a German Bible was now “ printing.” Of course therefore his hearers, who probably knew nothing of the state of Bibles in Gtrmany, must con- clude, that the Germans were destitute of the Scriptures in their own language, till his Society had provided them. See the Suffolk Chronicle, J4 December, 1811.

24

Translations of 'the Scriptures into

Speeches, made at the Meeting for the Auxiliary Society, he is represented as having said, “ And “ here let me distinctly state, that though there “ are provinces, districts, towns, and villages in “ Germany [among which Saxony stands promi- “ nent] where the Bible is cheap and plentiful, still “ there are others in that extensive empire, in “ which it is greatly wanted, chiefly among the “ Protestants in Austria and Alsace, many of whom “ have applied in a most pressing manlier for a “ supply.” Here then we see from Mr. Stein- kopff's own acknowledgment, that the chief want of German Bibles is in Austria and Alsace. That there is a want of German Bibles in Alsace, and <• that application has been consequently made for them, I can readily believe, as it is more than an hundred and thirty years since Alsace was detached from Germany, and was converted into a province of France. But for this very reason, it is not quite consistent with historical accuracy to reckon it at present as a part of Germany. The want of Bibles therefore in Germany, by the foreign secretary’s own account, is reduced at last to the circle of Austria, in which it cannot be supposed that the Bible is so common as in the Protestant circles of Germany. But even in Austria they, who choose it, may obtain German Bibles to any amount, though on account of the carriage, they will be somewhat dearer than in Saxony : and I have now before me the catalogue of Trattner, a Vienna bookseller, printed in 1793, in which Luther’s Ger- man version has a place, as a common article of sale.

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 25

I have proved therefore, as I hope, by satisfac- tory evidence, that in the Protestant part of the European continent there was an abundant store of Bibles in the four principal languages, the Ger- man, the Dutch, the Danish, and the Swedish, before the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It has been further shewn, that, before this period, even Lapland and Finland Bibles were “ currently printed” at Stockholm, and either distributed gratis, orsold at reduced prices; and that though the Scriptures a few years ago were become very scarce in Iceland, for want of new editions, the inhabitants of that country were .indebted for their late supply, in the first instance, to the Danish So- ciety for promoting the Gospel. Lastly, it appears that among the European languages, in which the British and Foreign Bible Society has printed, or assisted in printing, the Scriptures, there is not one into which the Scriptures had not been already translated.

But though they have only reprinted existing European translations, I would not be understood as if I thought there was no merit in printing a translation of the Scriptures because it had been printed before. I have no desire to deprive the Society of the credit which is really due to it; but when I perceive that credit is assumed for things which do not belong to it, and that great injustice is done to foreign nations and other societies, l think that an explanation is due to the public. Whatever sums they choose to remit to the Evangelical Society at Stockholm, to assist in reprinting the Scriptures, (for in all countries new editions are wanted to

26 Translations of the Scriptures Into

supply the waste of old ones,) that Society is cer- tainly indebted to them, and the number of copies is in all probability thereby increased. The money likewise which was remitted to Copenhagen to pro- cure an additional supply of Icelandic Testaments, as also to aid a fund whichwas raising in Denmark to promote a re-impression of the Old Testament, has been well applied 17. Nor will any one speak but in terms of approbation either of the sums remitted to Germany, to assist in reprinting the Bible in the Polish, Bohemian, and Lithuanian languages, or of the sum which has been voted toward a new edition of the Livonian and Esthonian Bible lS. The

17 It has been already observed, that th e first edition of the Icelandic Bible was printed in 1584; but a more correct edition of the Icelandic Bible was printed in 1644. See Walch Bibl. Theol. T. iv. p. 97. What other editions had been printed be- fore the Danish Society commenced the late edition I do not know. I have an edition published at Stockholm in 1671, but it contains only the four Gospels. In a Letter printed in the Appendix to the third Report, No. vii. it is said, that in Iceland itself four editions of the whole Bible, and three of the New Testament, have been printed. In Baumgarten’s account of a library in Halle, vol. vi. p. 283, mention is made of an Icelandic Bible printed in 1747.

*3 The public however must not suppose, that no attention had been previously paid to the dispersion of the Scriptures in these languages. We have already seen, that a translation of the Bible in the Bohemian language was printed at Prague so early as the year 1488. Of this translation nine editions were printed before the year 1579, when the Bohemian Brethren began to publish a new translation, which has likewise gone through various editions. See Walch. Bibl. Theol. Tom. iv. p. 130. This translation has been several times printed at the Can- stein Institution, as well the whole Bible as the New Testament

1

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. 27

money likewise . remitted to Basle in Switzerland, which borders on Alsace, to assist the Bible Society

alone: and only one year before the new edition was undertaken at Berlin, there was still a considerable store of Bohemian Tes- taments remaining in the Repository at Halle. For Dr. Knapp, in a letter dated March 19, 1805, [First Report. App. No. IX.] says, “ There are at present in our Bible Institution about four “ thousand copies of the Bohemian New, Testament, which have “ been hitherto sold for about a sliil/ing each.” And here I must not neglect to mention,- as an instance “ of zeal for the “ dispersion of the Scriptures,” that three thousand of them were purchased by a Prussian Major, and sent to Bohemia for gratuitous distribution. [Third Report. App. No. IV.] This was a very seasonable supply, for it was sent before the new edition at Berlin was put to press. Ib. And the supply was as ample as the whole of the Berlin edition, which consisted also of 3000 copies. It is also to be observed, that the Bohemian Protestants bear but a very small proportion to the Catholics in that country. Of the Polish Bible, which has been likewise re- printed at Berlin, and of which more than half of the expence was defrayed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, there was a greater want; for the stock of Polish Bibles in the Repository of the Canstein Institution was exhausted. But the number of editions, with which the Poles had been previ- ously supplied, was very considerably greater than is repre- sented in the Society’s Fifth Report, App. No. III. which Mr. Dealtry quotes [p. 40.] with an exclamation, “ What a supply M for Poland!” But instead of only four editions as there stated, it appears from Le Long’s Bibliotheca Sacra, T. 1, p, 439, 440, that more than four translations have been made of the Bible into the Polish language. And if we compare Le Long’s account with the still later account which has been given by Walcb, [T. IV, p. 131.] we shall find, that beside i'our edi- tions of the whole Bible, and two editions of the New Testa- ment published by the Catholics, beside two-editions of the whole Bible, and four editions of the New Testament, published by the Socinians , not less than nine editions of the whole Bible and

28

Trai\slations of the Scriptures into

of that city in printing new editions of the Ger- man, French, and Romanese Scriptures, has af-

eight editions of the New Testament hare been published by the Polish Calvinists. When we consider therefore, that the great body of the Polish nation consists of Catholics, and that of the remainder the majority consists of Jews, we must admit that the Polish Protestants have not been left destitute of the Scriptures in their native language. Lithuania, which is now almost entirely a Russian province, and contains a mixture of Lutherans, Calvinists, Socinians, Catholics, Greeks, Jews, and Mahometans, has been certainly ill provided with editions of the Scriptures in its native language, nor am I able to say what editions of the Lithuanian Bible have been printed since the Koenigsberg editions of 1735 and 1755, described in Baumgar- ten’s Account of remarkable Books, vol. ix. p. 377 — 380. But the Lithuanians themselves have not given much encourage- ment to new editions, as it appears from a letter written by Dr. Wald, of Koenigsberg, that they are “ very loth to lay out “ their money on books.” See Third Report, App. No. V. In the Russian provinces of Livonia and Esthonia the Scrip- tures, though scarce, are less so than in Lithuania. An Estho- nian Clergyman, in a letter dated 13 March, 1806, (Second Report, App. No. XIV.) sa)-s, “ The Bible in the Esthonian “ language lias been repeatedly printed in RevaJ, but it cannot “ be obtained at a cheap rate.” With respect to the main body of the Prussian empire, where the Russian language is spoken, and the Greek Church is established, there is undoubt- edly a great scarcity of Bibles. No attempt, as far as I know, has been hitherto made by the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety to supply the deficiency; and indeed an attempt at present would be almost useless. The old Sclavonian or old Russian version, which was made in the ninth, century, and is the autho- rized version of the Russian Church, is no longer intelligible to the common people, though for the service of the Church not less than five editions were printed at Moscow only be- tween 1751 and 1766. See Michaelis, Introduction, vol. ii. p. 151. And if the modern Russian translation, which was first

the Languages and Dialects of Europe. £29

forded a seasonable supply to an exhausted country. Their endeavours likewise to introduce copies of the Scriptures from this country, when circum- stances permit, into France, Italy, Spain, and Por- tugal, (see however the difficulties stated in note £21,) display a zeal which is worthy of true Pro- testants.

But after the preceding statement of the exer- tions which have been made, either before or in- dependently of the Bible Society, to translate and disseminate the Scriptures, I leave the reader to determine whether the Continent of Europe is un- der such immense obligations to the Societv as its advocates pretend ; whether the Continent was previously in a “ state of deplorable degradation “ with respect to religious knowledge;” whether “a " famine of the Sacred Word prevailed on every “ side.” Let us now turn our attention to Asia, where we shall likewise discover, that the obliga- tions, which are due to this Society, are much less than is generally imagined.

printed in 1698, were reprinted and circulated in Russia, it would still be of no use to the inferior classes, who can neither write nor read. “ According to all human probability, gene- u rations may pass before the Russia!} peasant will be placed “ in a situation, which renders it necessa/y for his children to “ learn to read.” See the Third Report, App. No, VI.

SECTION II.

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages and Dialects of Asia.t

THE most ancient Asiatic translation of the Scriptures is the Chaldee, into which the Hebrew Bible was gradually translated, after the Babylo- nish captivity. We have three translations, or paraphrases, of the Pentptcuch, or book of the Law, one translation of the prophets, another of the books of Job, Psalms, and the Proverbs, another of what the Jews call the five Megilloth, (Iiuth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song, and the La- mentations of Jeremiah), a second translation of the book of Esther, and lastly, a translation of tho Chronicles. Of the other historical books, no Chaldee version is now extant. The translations (or Targums, as called by the Jews) of the Law and the Prophets, made by Onkelos and Jonathan, are the most ancient and the most valuable. They were both printed in Romberg’s Rabbinical Bible, published at Venice in 1518*. In the Samaritan language there is a version of the Pentateuch, quite distinct from the Samaritan Pentateuch itself, which is Hebrew in Samaritan characters. Whether this

‘ For an account of the Chaldee Versions, see Le Long Bibl. sacra ed. Masch, Fart ii. voL i. p, 23 — 49,

Translations of the Scriptures, §c. 31

Samaritan version was made before, or after the birth of Christ, is uncertain. It was first printed in the Paris Polyglot1. In the Syrian language* we have two versions of the Old Testament, and two of the New. The old version of the Old Tes- tament, was made from the Hebrew ; the old ver- sion of the New Testament, from the Greek. Whether the former was made at the same time with the latter, or, as some suppose, even before the birth of Christ, they both existed at an early- period of the Syrian Church ; and they make toge- ther the established Syrian version, which is used to this very day by the Syrian Christians, wherever dispersed. The Old Testament was first printed in the Paris Polyglot in l64o : but the New Testa- ment was printed at Vienna so early as 1555, at the expence of the Emperor Ferdinand I, and un- der the direction of Chancellor W7idmanstadt, assisted by Moses, a Syrian Priest, from Merdin in Mesopotamia. The other Syrian version of the Old Testament was made from the Septuagint, by Mar Abba, in the sixth century: but it has never been printed. The later version of the New Tes- tament, called the Philoxenian, which was likewise made in the sixth century, was first printed by De. White, at Oxford, in 1 77 8, & c. The next in point of antiquity to the Syrian, among the Asiatic ver- sions, is the Armenian, which was first printed at

* Ibid. p. 50—53.

3 Ibid. p. 51— 102.

32 Translations of the Scriptures into

Amsterdam, under the direction of Uscan, an Ar- menian Bishop ; the Old Testament in 1666; the New Testament in 1688*. At the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh century, the Scrip- tures were translated into the Georgian language. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the whole of the New Testament, with a part of the Old, consisting of the Psalms and the Prophets, were printed at Tefiis, in Georgia, by orddr of Prince Vaktangh. Butin 1743 the whole Geor- gian Bible was, printed at Moscow, under the in- spection of the Georgian Princes, Arcil and Bac- char y. When Arabic, from the conquest of the Saracens, was become the vernacular language of a considerable portion of the East, it was necessary to translate the Scriptures into that language. Iih deed we have various Arabic translations, both of

n

the Old and of the New Testament, made chiefly in the interval, which elapsed from the beginning of the eighth to the end of the tenth centurv. The four Gospels were printed in 1591, at Rome: and the New Testament was printed in l6l6, at Leyden. But the first edition of the whole Arabic Bible ap- peared in the Paris Polyglot in 1645 ; and the se- cond in the London Polyglot, in 1657. In the year 1720, the Society for promoting Christian Know-

* Ibid. p. 169—181.

5 This account of the Georgian version is taken from a Let- ter, written by a learned Georgian, in the possession of Profes- sor Adler, who communicated it to Eichhorn. 8eu his Intro- duction, vpl. i. p. 579,

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. $3

ledge undertook, at an expence of nearly three thousand pounds, (of which five hundred were sub- scribed by the King) to print ten thousand copies of the Arabic New Testament, and six thousand copies of the Arabic Psalter, according to the Po- lyglot text* under the inspection of a native Ara- bian, Salomon Negri. An edition of the whole Arabic Bible, was undertaken by the late Professor Carlyle, under the patronage of the Bishop of Dur- ham. T his edition, to which the Society for pro- moting Christian Knowledge contributed five hun- dred pounds, and the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety two hundred and fifty, is now completed, and the copies are ready for distribution, as occasion ofifers6. In the Persian language we have a much greater portion of the Scriptures in manuscript than f in print7. But probably none of those manuscripts contain any part of that ancient Persic version, of which Chrysostom speaks in his first Homily on St. John. The London Polyglot contains thb Penta- teuch and the four Gospels in the Persian language. The latter were printed from a manuscript, written in 1341 : the former is the translation of a Jew, from the city of Tup (hence called Tusius and Tazo- osus) which was first printed at Constantinople in 1531, accompanied with the Hebrew, the Chaldefi,

6 See the last accounts of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, p. 215 ; and the Seventh Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, at the end.

7 See an account of them in the folio edition of Le Long^fi Bib. sacra, tom. i. p. 132-^-134.

D

34 Translations of the Scriptures into

and the Arabic 8. A second Persian translation of the four Gospels, which is supposed to be some- what older than the former, was published by YVhe- - Joe and Pierson, in the same year with the London Polyglot.

. Let us now proceed to the Asiatic translations, which have been undertaken, or promoted, in mo- dern times by Europeans. The commencement was made by the Dutch , who very soon after the establishment of their East-Indfa Company in 16'02, turned their attention tow-ard the translation of the Scriptures into the Malay language, which is spoken not only in Malacca, but in Java, and many other islands of the Indian Archipelago. In 1012, Albert Cornelius Ruyl began a translation of the New Testament, but lived only to finish the Gospels of St. Matthew' and St. Mark, which were sent to Holland, w'here they were printed, first at Enkhuy- son, in 1629, and secondly, at Amsterdam, in 16389. In 1640, the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John, translated by Van Hasel, one of the East- India Directors, was printed at Amsterdam, where the four Gospels were again printed in 1651, accom- panied with the Acts of the Apostles: and in 1668 the whole New Testament, in the Malay language, wras printed at Amsterdam. The Gospels and Acts w ere reprinted from this edition at Oxford in 1677,

3 Waltoni Prol. xvi. 7, 9.

9 An account of the editions in the Malay, and the other lan- guages, mentioned in this and the following paragraph, is giveis in Le Long Bib. Sacra, ed Masch. P. ii. vol, i. sect. xi.

the Lartgiutges and Dialects of Asia. 35

and again in 1704. Of the Old Testament in the Malay language, some portions were printed in the seventeenth century : but the first edition of the whole Malay liible was printed at Amsterdam, in 1731 and 1733. Another edition of the whole Ma- lay Bible was printed in the Arabic character at Batavia, in 1758. The Dutch began also a trans- lation into the language of the island of Formosa , in which language the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John were printed at Amsterdam in 1661. But in the following year the Dutch were expelled from that island by the Chinese, and the Formosan trans- lation was discontinued. Another Asiatic transla- tion, made by the Dutch, is in the language of Cey- lon, or the Cingalese, in which the four Gospels were printed at Columbo in 1739, and the Acts of the Apostles in 1771 ; the Psalms were printed at the same place in 1755, and again in 1768 io.

But much more important than the labours of the Dutch, w7ere the labours of those German Mis- sionaries, who were educated at Halle, and were employed in the last century conjointly by the Da- nish government, and the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. The first in order was Bar- tholomew Ziegenbalg, who arrived at Tranquebar in 1706'; and after a close application to the Tamul

10 These are the only editions quoted by Masch. But accord-* ing to the Sixth Report of the Bible Society, Appendix, p. 86, the fortr Gospels in the Cingalese was again printed at Columbo in 1780; and the whole New Testament, with the books of Ge- nesis, Exodus, and a part of Leviticus, were printed at Columbo in 1783.

3(y Translation of the Scriptures into

(or as we should write it, the Tainool) language, which is spoken in the south-eastern part of India, from Madras to Cape Comorin, began in 1708 to translate the New Testament into that language, and finished it in 1711. A printing-press and paper having been provided at Tranquebar by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge the Tamulic translation, after having been revised by Griindler, another Missionary, who arrived after Ziegenbalg, was put to press in 1714, and finished in the following year. This Tamulic New Testa- ment was reprinted at Tranquebar in 172^, and again in 1758. It was also reprinted in 1743 at Columbo. In the year 1717, Ziegenbalg, who after he had finished the New Testament, visited both England and Germany, began, on his return to Tranquebar, a Tamulic translation of the Old Tes- tament; but he died in 17iy, having finished only

11 See the Accourit of the Society, p. 8. “ The Mission

“ Press at Tranquebar,” says Dr. Buchanan, in his Christian Researches, p. 70, “ may be said to have been the fountain of 1 “ all the good that was done in India during the last century.” In another place, alluding to the exertions of the same Soeiety, aided by the support of the King, and the letters sent to the Missionaries by Archbishop Wake, Dr. Buchanan says: “ The “ episcopal charges infused spirit into the mission abroad; and “ the countenance of majesty cherished a zeal in the Society at “ home , 1 vhichhas not abated to this day. From the commeuce- ** rnent of the mission in 1705, to the present year 1805, it is “ computed that eighty thousand natives of all casts, in one dis- u trict alone, forsaking their idols and their vicc>s, have been “ added to the Christian Church.” 8ce his Ecclesiastical Esta- blishment for British India, p, 80.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 37

the Pentateuch, with the books of Joshua and Judges. The translation was continued and com- pleted by that distinguished Missionary, Benjamin Scbultze, who arrived at Tranquebar in the same year in which Ziegenbalg died. The Tamulic Old Testament was printed at Tranquebar in four vo- lumes, in the years 1 723, 1726, 1727, nod 1728. In this year, by the desire and at the expence of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, Schultze removed to Madras, for the purpose of converting the Heathen in that neighbourhood *\ In 1732, he finished his translation of the Bible into the Telugian, a dialect of the Tamul, which is used in the neighbourhood of Madras and Cuddalore. But whether the Tamul Bible already printed, being likewise understood in those districts, made the ex- pence of an edition in the Telugian dialect less ne- cessary, or any other cause intervened, this Telu- gian translation has never been printed ,J. In

11 See the Account of the Society, p. 8. In addition to the Tamul Bible, made by Ziegenbalg and Schultze, Fabricius, another German Missionary, who came to Madras after Schultze, made a second Tamul translation of the New Testa- ment, which was printed at Madras in 1777.

13 In Bauragarten’s Account of Remarkably Books, val, ix. p. 29 5, is printed Catalogue scriptorum B. Sc/uilzii, of which No- 20 is “ Biblia Telugica ex hebraico et graeco textu, adhi- “ bitis multis aliis versionibus, in linguam Telugicam translata. “ Msc. M. d. Aug, 22, 1732.” As Schultze returned to Halle in 1744, and died there in 1760, it is probable that the manus- cript is still preserved there. "Whether the Telinga, which is sunken on the north side of the Kri&tna, and into which the Baptist Missionaries have translated the New Testament, has any relation to the Telugian, I have not been able to learoN

/

58 Translations of the Scriptures into

1739, this indefatigable Missionary began to trans- late the New Testament into the Hindostanee lan- guage, which he finished in 1741. He began like- wise the Old Testament, but translated only a part of it, being obliged, on account of his health, to re- turn to Europe, in 1744. His Hindostanee trans- lation of the New Testament, and the portions which he had translated of the Old Testament, wrere all printed at Halle, in the Oriental, or Jewish and Mahometan Institution in that University, be- tween 1745 and 1758, and have been gradually transmitted to India,

We now come to a period, which is distinguished, not only for English patronage, but for English translators in the East. On the 4th of May, 1800, was founded, under the auspices of Marquis Wel- lesley, th£ College of Fort William, in Bengal ‘4. It is true, that the immediate object of this institu- tion was to provide for the civil service of the East-India Company : but if we examine the “ ca- “ talogue of works in the Oriental languages and “ literature, printed in the College of Fort William, “ or published by its learned members since the “ commencement of the institution,” to the last date in the catalogue, which is September £0, 1804, (the year in which the Bible Society was founded) we shall find, that translations of the Scriptures were not neglected. 15 For instance, “ The Gospels

14 See p. 65, of the “ College of Fort William, in Bengal,” printed in London in 1805, and containing the proceedings of the College during its four first years.

15 Ibid. p. 219—231.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 3<J

“ translated into Hindostanee, by learned natives, “ revised and collated with the original Greek by “ William Hunter, Esq.” “ The Gospels translated “ into Persian by Lieutenant-Colonel Colebrooke.'’ “ The Gospels in the Malay language by Thomas “ Jarrett, Esq.”16 In the same catalogue we find also a translation of the Bible into the Bengalee language, and translations of the New Testament into the Mahratta and Orissa languages, for which we are indebted to Mr. [now Dr.] Carey, Pro- fessor of the Sanscrit, Bengalee, and Mahratta languages in the College of Fort William. But as Dr. Carey is also the principal Baptist Missionary at Serampore (a town on the Ganges, about fifteen miles from Calcutta,) and his translation of the Bible into Bengalee, as also of the New Testament into the Orissa and Mahratta languages, have been printed, not in the College of Fort William, but at the missionary press of Serampore, these three translations must be referred to the account of the Baptist Mission, to which we will now proceed.

In the same year in which the College of Fort William was founded, some Baptist Missionaries, of whom the principal were Dr. Carey, Mr. Marsh- man, and Mr. Ward, established a missionary set-

16 It has been already stated, that the Dutch translated the whole Bible into the Malay language, and that the last edition of it was printed at Batavia, in Arabic characters, in 1753. But Mr. Jarrett’s translation was in another dialect of the Malay, which is spoken in Sumatra, and is different from the dialect of Java. See Dr. Buchanan’s Christian Researches, p. 98, 4th edition.

40 Translations of the Scriptures into

tlement at Serampore. Dr. Carey, who had pre- viously spent six years in Bengal, haying nearly “ finished the translation of the Old and New Testa? fi ment into Bengalee, havjng also obtained a press, “ and agreed with a letter-founder at Calcutta for “ types, all things were now in readiness for printing. “ Accordingly the press being set up, under the u direction of Mr. Ward, they proceeded to ad- “ vertise for subscribers to the Bengalee Bible ,7.'? The commencement was made with the New Testa? ment, of which the first sheet was printed at Se- rampore 16 May, 1800. They printed two thour sand copies, beside five hundred of the Gospel of St. Matthew fpr immediate distribution ,a. At the beginning of 1801 the printing of the Bengalee New Testament was finished, of which a copy was presented to Marquis Wellesley, who soon after- wards requested Dr. Carey to accept a professor- ship in the College of Calcutta ’9. In the course of 1802 the first volume of the Old Testament, containing the Pentateuch, was printed; and be- fore the end of January, 1803, the Psalms and part

17 See p. 23, of a “ Brief Narrative of the Baptist Mission in “ fijidia, including an Account of the Translations of the Sacred “ Scriptures into the various Languages of the East.” The Baptist Mission Society was founded in 1792, and has been supported by ample contributions, £*s appears from the Periodi- cal Accounts, which have been published since its foundation The “ Brief Narrative” goes no further than the year 1808.

13 Brief Narrative, p. 24*.

’9 lb. p. 30, 31. The whole profits of the Profess orship were given by Dr, Carey to the Missionary Fund.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 41

of Isaiah were finifhed *°. In the month of August of the same year, another, and much more ample, as well as improved, edition of the Bengalee NewTes- ment was put to press M. The expences attending the printing of the Bengalee version were defrayed by the subscriptions of their Society at home; and as paper is expensive in India, it was sent from England for that purpose **.

In the course of the year 1S03, Dr. Carey, with the other Baptist Missionaries, Mr. Marshman and Mr. Ward, commenced a translation of the New Testament into the Hindostanee, Mahratta, and Persian ; and before the end of that year, Dr. Carey formed the vast design of promoting translations of the Scriptures into all the languages pf the East, In a letter to Dr. Ryland, dated 14 December, 1803, he says, We have it in our “ power, if our means wmuld do for it, in the “ space of about fifteen years, to have the Word “ pf God translated and printed in all the lan - “ guagesof the East. Our situation is such as to furnish us with the best assistance from natives “ of the different countries. We can have types “ of all the different characters cast here; and

50 Brief Narrative, p. 41. a‘ lb. p. 44.

w Periodical Accounts, No. V. p. 416. It appears from the accounts stated in No. VI. VII. IX. XI. that, beside the sub- scriptions raised for general purposes, the subscriptions raised for the sole purpose of translations amounted before the end of 1802 to more than £2500. 1

? IB, No. XIII. p. 4d6.

42 Translations of the Scriptures into

about seven hundred rupees per month**, part “ of which I hope we shall be able to furnish, “ would complete the work. The languages are the “ Hindostanee, Maharastia, Oreea, Telingua, Bho- “ tan, Burmah, Chinese, Gorki n-Chinese, Ton* “ quinese, and Malay15.” On the 23d of May, 1804, the Committee of the Baptist Society held a meeting at Kettering, and unanimously passed the following resolution : “ That if our brethren should “ be able, fully or in part, to execute the plan *l which they have conceived, of translating the “ Scriptures into the Eastern languages, we will

cordially co-operate with them, and are per- “ suaded the religious public vviil not suffer the “ work to stop for want of pecuniary aid l6.” The Baptist Society accordingly opened a subscription for the express purpose of promoting the intended

That is about a thousand pounds per annum. A similar statement was made by the Missionaries to the Baptist Society in a letter dated Serampore, April, 1804, [No. XIV. p. 539. ^ But we shall presently see that the Baptist Society did not wait for a second application.

15 Periodical Accounts, No. XIII. p. 457. It is to be ob» served, that there is a great variation in the mode of writing the names of several languages in the East. What is here written Maharastia is generally written Mahratta; Oreea is the same with Orissa ; and Corkin-Chinesc is probably the same with Cochin-Chinese. Telingua is the same as Telinga; and the ancient and sacred language of the Hindoos, which used to be written Sanscrit and Shanscrit , is now written by the Bap«- tist Missionaries Sungskrit, which, it is said, comes nearer to the sound of the word used hy the Bramins themselves*.

16 lb. p. 460. . ' V

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 43

translations, in addition to the subscription for ge- neral purposes. And it appears from the subse- quent Periodical Accounts, that the subscriptions to the funds of the Baptist Society, for the sole and express purpose of defraying the expencesof trans- lating and printing the Scriptures in the Eastern languages, have amounted, on an average during the seven years which have elapsed from that pe- riod, to considerably more than the annual thou- sand required by the Missionaries17.

%1 The subscriptions paid to the Baptist Missionary Fund between Oct. 1, 1804, and Oct. 1, 1811, for the sole purpose of translating and printing the Scriptures in the Eastern lan- guages, amounted to £8639 6s. 5d. which gives an annual ave- rage of £1234 3s. 9a7. In the very last year, ending Oct. 1811, the subscriptions greatly exceeded the average; for they amounted to £1915 7s. Id. The subscriptions to the general purposes of the Baptist Missionary Fund has amounted during jhe same seven years to £18,489 14s, 1 Or/, which, added to the former sum of £8639 6s. Sd. makes a total of £27,129 Is. 3d. subscribed to the Baptist Missionary Fund during the last seven years. This sum, which gives an annual average of £3875 11s. 7d, includes nothing from the British and Foreign Bible Society. See the Appendixes to the Periodical Accounts from No. XV. to No. XXII. where statements are made of the subscriptions for each year. The great amount of the subscriptions in this last j^ear arose from the contributions in Scotland. The Edin- burgh Bible Society subscribed £200, and three Missionary Societies, the Edinburgh, the Glasgow, and the Northern, £100 each. At the meeting therefore at Northampton, on Oct. 1, 1811, the Committee made the following Report: “ The Com- a mittee feel the weight of the undertaking to be every year increasing, and that from the very circumstance of its in- “ creasing success. They are obliged to the religious public of

44 Translations of the Scriptures into

Another letter, addressed by the Missionaries to the Baptist Society in April 1 804 on the same subject, though unnecessary in one respect, as the desired effect was produced on the Baptist Society by Dr. Carey’s letter of Dec. 14th, 1803, is yet worthy of particular notice, as it shews the state of things at Serampore before the existence of the Bible Society could have been known in India. In this letter the Missionaries say, “ With respect “ to the work of translating the Bible, there are, “ at least, seven languages spoken in India, viz. “ Bengalee, Hindostanee, Ootkul or Oreea, Maha- “ rastra or Mahratta, Telinga, Ivurnata, and Ta- “ mul ; besides the languages of several surround-- “ ing nations, such as the Burinah, Malay, Bhote, “ and Chinese, with several others. The Bible “ has been long translated into and printed in the- M Tanaul by the Missionaries on the coast; and a “ part of the Bengalee Bible has been published “ by us. The Gospels are in Malay, but being in “ the Roman character, can be qf no use to the

“ different denominations for the credit and support that they " have given them. They are obliged to the Ministers and *\ Churches of their oton denomination for the kind interest « that they have taken jn the work, especially for the Auxiliary « Societies formed of late in so many of their congregations. “ As liberal collections have been lately made in Scotland and “ the North of England, and which cannot at present be re- “ peated, they apprehend there will be occasion for consider* •* able exertions in the East, South , and West off England in w the year 1812.” See No. XXII. p, 293.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 45

“ heathen natives of those countries l8. Though “ almost all the other nations of the East have the H art of writing amongst them, yet they have no “ Bible, nor any friendly person near to give them “ that inestimable treasure. It is not easy to say “ through what extent of country the languages “ above-mentioned are spoken, the geographical “ boundaries of them not having been ascertained; “ but we think the following will not exceed the “ iruth, viz. the Bengalee through an extent of “ country equal to Great Britain; Hindostanee, “ equal to France and Italy; Maharastra, equal to “ Great Britain; Ootkul, equal to Ireland; Te- “ linga, equal to England; Kurnata, about the “ same ; and Tainul, equal to Spain. The popu- “ lation of India may be reckoned equal to that *’ of England on equal areas ; but we may be mis- “ taken in this. A map will shew the other coun- “ tries. We have frequently reflected on, and “ discoursed about, the possibility of effecting a f‘ translation of the Bible, or some part of it at “ least, into seme, if not all, these languages; “ and after considering the matter in all its forms, “ we have reason to think it practicable to us. The “ following are some of the circumstances which “ encourage us thus to hope. First, we, having “ been for a considerable time employed in trans- “ fating, are in some degree formed to those habits

The Missionaries at Serampore must have been unac- quainted with the edition of the Malay Bible, which was printed at Batavia in 1758; lor that edition is printed in the Arabic character.

46 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ which are necessary to such a work. Secondly, we are in a situation where we can, at a mode- “ rate ex pence, progure learned natives of all “ these countries, who understand either the Ben- “ galee or Hindostanee, and some can read the “ Arabic Bible, besides having a critical know- “ ledge of their own languages. Thirdly, we have, “ perhaps, one of the best libraries of critical t£ works on the Scriptures, and different versions “ of them that will be found in any one place in “ India; and this may still be increased. Fourthly, “ we have a printing-press to publish them, and a 4< letter-foundry to cast types of the different cha-* “ racters. Fifthly, God has placed us in such cir- cumstances as, with what you may be able to send “ from time to time , will enable us to go through “ with it. Sixthly, our situation will enable us to “ spread them abroad, if we should live to see “ the work, or any part of it, completed* Im- “ pressed with these considerations, we last year “ engaged in a translation of the New Testament “ into Hindostanee and Persian. The Hindostanee “ is nearly finished, but the Persian has hitherto “ advanced slowly. The late successes of the “ British arms in India have put the country of “ Kuttak, (where the Ootkul language is spoken,) “ and a large part of the Mahratta dominions, into “ the possession of the English. We thought this ee an opportunity not to be neglected, and have “ therefore begun a translation into both these “ languages, which goes on regularly, and will, •c we trust, in a reasonable time, be accomplished. “ Thus far we have been enabled to sustain the 8

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 47

11 expence of this undertaking, but are not at pre- “ sent able to do more. It was our intention to “ have sent you at least one book of the Scriptures “ in these languages before we informed you of our “ design; but upon a survey of our circumstances,

“ we find that we cannot accomplish the printing “ of them without your assistance, especially as “ several other heavy expences will press upon us.

4‘ We must expend a large sum this year in re- “ pairing the mission-house; our plan of extend- “ ing the mission by subordinate stations will re- “ quire a-large sum; our little interest at Calcutta “ is a heavy expence ; we must have a new fount “ of types for the Ootkul language, and another for the Persian. On all these accounts, and “ viewing the pressing necessity of the work, and “ the certainty that all the friends of vital religion “ will contribute to the extent of their ability,

“ when made known, that we think it necessary to i “ solicit your liberal assistance therein, at least to “ the amount of .£1000 per annum in dollars. “ Though we intend to print but small editions, “ yet, reckoning new types, paper, binding, print- “ ing, &c. we have calculated that the printing of “ 1000 copies of the New Testament in each lan- “ guage will cost 5000 rupees, and may be com- “ pleted in about a year each, if nothing should “ interrupt its progress. We have now engaged “ in five languages, (including the Bengalee,) “ which, besides the expences of translating and “ circulating, will amount to the sum of 25,000 “ rupees. As this plan maybe enlarged to any ex- “ tent, and the printing carried on gradually as

48 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ soon as one or two books are prepared for th6 “ press, we trust that we shall have your prayers “ for its success, and your assistance in it by ad- “ vice, criticisms, and money *9.”

Aided by the annual subscriptions from the Baptist Society, which have continued to average, from that time to the present, a sum exceeding by more than two hundred pounds the annual thou- sand required by the Missionaries, they proceeded to execute the vast design which they had formed. It must be observed, however, that the Mis- sionaries, though they required only a thousand a year from England , for the purpose of translating and printing the Scriptures in the languages of the East, had considerable resources derived from India itself. Dr. Carey’s salary as Professor in the College of Calcutta, which is only a few miles from Serampore, together with the profits arising from the printing-press and school in the latter place, were all added to the missionary fund. In short, the earnings arising from the literary labours of Dr. Carey, Mr. Marshman, and Mr. Ward, of whatever description they might be, w'ere all thrown into the common stock; and these earnings amount to more than three thousand a year. Such facts deserve to be recorded J0.

See No. XIV. p. 536—539.

30 The Secretary to the Baptist Mission lately declared to Mr. Scott (see his Sermon, p. 56,) “ We now expend between “ i£6000 and a£7000 annually on the missions and translations, 44 one half which sum is furnished by three individuals , the men « who do the work. The Missionaries, Carey, Marshman,

the Languages and Dialect 6 of Asia. 4g

In their letter of September 24, 1304, the Mis- sionaries say, “ The second edition of the New “ Testament in Bengalee is hastening to a close. “ The edition of Luke, .Acts, and Romans in Ben - “ galee, 10,000 copies, is begun. We have also “ begun to print a part of the New Testament in “ the Mahratta language, with the Nagree types, “ of which we have a complete fount. These types “ will also do for the Hindostanee Bible. MTe are “ also beginning to cut a. fount of Orissa types, “ in order to print all or part of the Testa- “ ment in Orissa31.” They add, that “ the trans- “ lations are going on in Persian and Hindos - “ tanec 3V’ On August 14, 1805, the Missionaries again write, “ We are forwarding the translating “ and printing of the Scriptures as fast as pos- “ siblcv\ ” On the 14th of March, 1806, Mr. Marshman writes to Dr. Ryland u, “ I have begun “ the Chinese language, and nearly committed to “ memory four hundred sentences. Mr. Lassar is “ an excellent teacher, and a man of ability }s. I

“ and Ward, earn considerably more than ^1000 a year each “ by their literary labours, and they throw the ■whole into the “ common fund of the mission.”

31 Periodical Account, No. XV. p. 23.

31 lb. p. 24.

33 lb. p. 115.

3+ No. XVI. p. 224.

35 Mr. Lassar is a native of China, but is an Armenian Chris- tian, and uses the Armenian version for the translation of the Scriptures into Chinese. Dr. Buchanan, in his Christian Re- searches, p. 11, 12, relates, that Mr. Lassar resided at Macao, as- commercial agent to the Portuguese; that he was engaged

E

50

Translations of the Scriptures into

“ have begun writing the language. John Marsh- “ man and Jabez Carey are my companions. I “ can only Say now that I find it perfectly attain- “able.” '

After the progress, which had been thus far made in learning, translating, and printing, says Dr. Carey, in his letter to Mr. Fuller, of May 15, 1 806, “ Proposals for translating the Scriptures into all the eastern languages have been widely circu- lated, and considerable subscriptions have been al- ready made 36. Indeed these subscriptions in In- dia, for the purpose of promoting the translations, amounted at that time, as appears from the Brief Narrative of the Baptist Mission, p. 55. to 14000 rupees, or 1750 1. In the course of the same sum- mer, 1806, the Missionaries received from the Baptist Society a thousand guineas from the sum which had been subscribed in the preceding year for the purpose of promoting translations57. At

for the College at Fort William, which he exchanged for Seram- pore, in consequence of the expected, and afterwards exe- cuted, order of the Court of Directors, to reduce the College within narrower limits.

36 No. XVI. p. 230. It appears also from p. 228, that Mr. Fernandez had previously appropriated the interest of 10,000 rupees to the general purposes of the mission.

37 No. XVII. p. 281. It appears from the Appendix to No. XV. that the exact sum subscribed to the Baptist Fund for the sole purpose of translations in 1805, was 12981. 9s. lOd. On this subject the Missionaries say in their letter, dated Seram- pore, 29th of September, 180G, “The liberal supplies which “ we have lately received, to assist us in the work of translating 4‘ and publishing the Holy Scriptures in the different languages

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 51

the beginning of 1807, Dr. Carey’s salary, as Pro- fessor in the College of Fort William, was doubled, which again increased the Missionary fund 5*. Nor were the labours of the Missionaries disproportion- ed to the state of their receipts. In February, 1807, says Dr. Carey, “ Brethren Marshman, Ward, my- “ self, and son Felix, are as fully employed as we *c can be in translating and printing the Scrip -• “ tures. The Scriptures are translating into eleven languages, sir of which are in the press 39.” In the course of the year they began a translation in a twelfth language, the Burmah ; and at the end of the year 1807, Dr. Carey again writes word, “The “ work of printing the Scriptures is now going on “ in sir languages, and that of translating them in “ sir more. The Bengalee is all printed, except “ from Judges vii. to the end of Esther ; the Sung- “ skrit New Testament to Acts xxvii ; the Orissa , “ to John xxi; the Mahratta , second edition, to “ the end of Matthew ; the Hindostanee, (new “ version) to Mark v. ; and Matthew is printing in

** of Asia , furnish us with additional cause of gratitude to God.” See No. XVII. p. 281.

?8 lb. p. 333.

39 lb. p. 333, 384. Indeed so early as September, 1806, the Missionaries at Serampore were engaged in translating the Scrip- tures into ten languages, and in printing them in four. See the Letter of the Rev. D. Brown, late Provost at the College at Calcutta, dated 13th of September, 1806, and printed No. VIII. of the Appendix to the third Report of the Bible So- ciety,

52 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ Guzeratce. — The translation is carried on near- “ ly to the end of John, in Chinese, Telinga, Kur- “ nata, and the language of the Seeks. It is also “ carried on to a pretty large extent in Persian 4°, “ and began in Burniali. — In addition to the trans- “ lations carrying on at Serampore, the Mission- aries received manuscript copies of the Gospels, “ translated into Malayala, the language spoken “ in Travancore and the adjoining countries. They “ were translated from the Syriac, under the direc- “ tion of the Bishop of the Syrian Churches in those “parts, and sent to Serampore to be printed41”. To this account given by Dr. Carey of the progress

In the Persian translation they were assisted by Sabat , who arrived at Serampore in May, 1807. Dr. Carey, in a Let- ter to Mr. Sutcliff, dated Serampore, 2d ef June, 1807, says, “ Last week an Arabian came hither from Madras, recommend- “ ed from a respectable quarter. He has embraced the Chris- “ tian religion, and I hope will feel its power. He was some “ time with the brethren Cram and Des Granges at Vizagapa- “ tan. This man, whose family name is Sabat, was first brought “ to think by reading the Koran, in which he found something “ that appeared to him contradictory. He wrote to a gentle- “ man at Madras on the subject, who sent him an Arabic New “ Testament, which he carefully read s : and the more he read “ the more light sprung up in his mind. He has resided seve- “ ral years in Persia, and is a very accomplished scholar in Per- “ sian and Arabic. He is noiv assisting us in the Persian trans- “ lation.”

41 Brief Narrative, p. 66-

♦This Arabic New Testament was ore of the 10,000 copies which had been printed by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. See Dr. Unchanan’s Christian Researches, p. 203.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 55

made in translating and printing before the end of 1807, must be added, that in the course of the same year two new founts of types were com- pleted, namely, in the Orissa and Mahratta , and that two other founts were begun for the Burmah

and the Chinese , as also a new and improved fount of Nagree types41. Nor must it be forgotten, that Mr. William Grant, of Munoharee, who died in the October of this year [l 807], bequeathed 20,000 rupees, or 2500 1. to the Missionary fund, one half of which, or 12501. was appropriated to the sole purpose of the translations 4J.

We have already seen the state of these transla- tions as given by Dr. Carey at the end of the year 1807 : and the state of them at the end of 1808, or the beginning of 1 809, is thus represented in gene- ral terms, at the end of the Brief Narrative44.

“ The translations, about which the Mission- ° aries at Seraxnpore are engaged, are twelve in i( number.

Languages. Present Progress.

Bengalee

Sungskrit

Orissa

Hindostanee

Mahratta

Guzeratee

Bible printed New Testament printed New Testament printed New Testament printing New Testament printing New Testament printing

41 lb. p. 68.

43 lb. p. 67, 68.

♦♦ The account is given at the end of Section VI. which is en- titled, “ Progress of the Mission continued to January, 1809.”

54 Translations of the Scriptures into Chinese Telinga Carnatic Siku or Seeks Persian Burman

“ The New Testament in the Malayala is also “ printing at Serampore for the use of the inhabi- “ tants of Travancore.”

It is worthy of remark, that the progress hitherto made in the execution of the vast design originally conceived by Dr. Carey in the year 1803, and thus conducted to the beginning of 1809, was made •without the assistance of the British and Foreign Bible Society. I have carefully examined the Pe- riodical Accounts, which have been published by the Baptist Missionary Society, but find no account of any sum received from the Bible Society, except in the memoir of the Missionaries, dated November, 1 809, and printed in No. XX. p. 52 — 63. Here they give an account at p. 58, 59, of what they had expended for the translations in 1 807, 1 808, 1809, and also what they had received during these three years, in aid of the translations. Now un- der 1807 and 1808, no sum appears from the Bible Society; but under 1809 is the following entry: “ Messrs. Alexander and Co. on account of the Bri- V tish and Foreign Bible Society, 1000 1,” which in the following page is said to be “out of a donation of 2000 1. voted for translations by the British and Foreign Bible Society.” This statement of the Missionaries agrees both in time and in amount

}New Testament trans- lating for the press.

55

theLanguages and Dialects of Asia.

with a similar entry in the disbursements of the Bi- ble Society for the year ending the 31st of March, 1809, namely, “To the Corresponding Committee “ in India, to be applied at their discretion to the “ translation of the Scriptures into the native lan- guages of oriental India £0001 45.” This is the first entry in the Society’s disbursements of money actually paid on account of the Corresponding Committee in India, though this 20001. consisted of two separate sums of 1000 1. each, which had been previously voted. Since therefore the 20001. entered as paid among the Society’s disbursements for the year ending the 31st of March, 1809, was the first 20001. paid by the Society on account of the Corresponding Committee in India, it was the first 20001. out of which this Committee had the means of paying 10001. to the Baptist Missionaries. What other sum the Missionaries at Serampore have received from the Corresponding Committee, with which alone they have intercourse, and to which alone the remittances are made by the Bible Society, I am unable to say : But if the Mission- aries had received any further sums, one should suppose, that some acknowledgement of it would appear in their statements to the Baptist Society, Butin the twenty-second number of the Periodical Accounts, which is just published, there is a state- ment from the Missionaries of the progress made in the translations up to March, 1811; but neither in this number, nor in number XXI. which com-

41 See the end of the Appendix to the Fifth Report.

56 Translations of the Scriptures into

tains the proceedings of 1810, do I find any men- tion made of money received from the British and Foreign Bible SocietyI * * 4 *-6. Be this however as it may, it is certain, that the great progress which the Missionaries at Serampore had made in the trans- lating and printing of the Scriptures in six lan- guages, and in the translating of them into six more , from the year 1800, when they began to print the Bengalee New Testament, to the begin- ning of 1809, was made without any assistance from the British and Foreign Bible Society.

I have been the more diffuse on this subject, be- cause there are very few among the subscribers to the Bible Society, who have even heard of the Missionaries at Serampore; and the few, who have any knowledge of their exertions, ascribe those exertions to the aid of a Society, to which the obli- gations of the Missionaries are both late and com- paratively small. I will quote- only two examples, which shall be taken from Mr Dealtry’s Vindica- tion. In the note at p. 46, is the following passage:

I do not mean merely that the name of this Society does

not appear in the list of subscribers , (in the same manner as the

Edinburgh Bible Society, with a benefaction of 2001.) which

is not to be expected, as all the suras which they remit to India,

are sent to their Corresponding Committee, to be employed

at their discretion ; I mean, that no acknowledgement of any further sum than the 1000 1. received in 1809, appears in the communications of the Missionaries to the Baptist Society. It is true, that many individuals, who are friends of the Bible So- ciety, as Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Whitbread, &c. &c. are sub- scribers to the Baptist Fund ; but this is different from a sub- scription of the Society in its corporate capacity.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 57

“ Mr. Carey asks only 10001. per annum, for some “ years, to complete and print all the versions ne- “ cessary. JVranghani s Sermon before the Uni - “ versify of Cambridge , 1807- Mr. Wrangham “ thus proceeds : the British and Foreign Bible So- “ ciety, with honourable liberality, have already “ granted two separate sums of 10001. each, for “ this noble object.” Now it is true, that Air. Wrangham has written to this effect in his Sermon, note 35. It is likewise true, that in the interval, between the two sentences, quoted by Mr. Dealtry, Air. Wrangham has in a parenthesis, “ (Extract of “ a Letter, dated Calcutta, Feb. 27, 1 804,)” which parenthesis Air. Dealtry has omitted. Now this very Extract of a Letter of Air. Carey, dated Cal- cutta, Feb. 27, 1804, is printed in the Appendix to the First Report of the Bible Society, No. XVIII. and is as follows : “ We have engaged in a trausla- “ tion of the sacred Scriptures into the Hindos- “ tanee, Persian, Mahratta, and Oottul languages; “ and intend to engage in more. Perhaps so many “ advantages for translating the Bible into all the “ languages of the East, will never meet in any one “ situation again, viz. a possibility of obtaining “ learned natives of all these countries'; a suffici- “ ency of worldly good things (with a moderate “ degree of annual assistance from England) to “ carry us through it; a printing office; a good “ library of critical writings; a habit of translating; “ and a disposition to do it. We shall, however,

“ need about a 10001. per annum, for some years, “ to enable us to print them ; and with this it may “ be done in about fifteen years, if the Lord pre-

o8 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ serves our lives and health.” Now as Mr. Deal- try is well acquainted with the records of his own Society, why did he not appeal to the Letter, to which Mr. Wrangham referred, instead of omitting that reference, and resting on Mr. Wrangham for authority? From the representation made by the latter, and repeated on his authority by the former, every reader will conclude, that the application for the 10001. a year, was made to the Bible Society, especially when the reference to the Letter is omit- ted., as in Mr. Dealtry's note. Another conclusion, which necessarily follows from this statement, is, that for the annual thousand required by Mr. (now Dr.) Carey, the Missionaries are wholly indebted to the Bible Society : for not a syllable is there said about the Baptist Society. But Dr. Carey’s Letter of Feb. 27, 1804, though printed among the records of the Bible Society, was addressed to the Secretary of the Baptist Society. Nor could Dr. Carey have the Bible Society even in contemplation ; for when he wrote that Letter at Calcutta, the Bible Society was hardly brought into existence in England. It is one of those Letters, which the Missionaries wrote about that time to the members of their own Society. 1 have already quoted the Letter, which Dr. Carey wrote on this subject so early as Decem- ber 14, 1S03. I have already noticed the Resolu- tion of the Baptist Society on the 23d of May, 1804, to open a subscription on this account : I have al- ready shewn, that the subscriptions to the Baptist Fund for the purpose of translations, have produced an annual average to this very day, of two hundred pounds more, than the thousand required. I have

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 59

further shewn, that the two sums of 1000 1. each, though certainly voted by the Bible Society before Mr. Wrangham printed his Sermon, are not entered as paid before the year ending March 31, 1809; and that of the £0001. then paid, only one half came into the hands of Dr. Carey and the other Mis- sionaries at Serampore. To be silent therefore on the exertions of the Bapiist Society, and ascribe to the assistance of the Bible Society the translations, which have been executed by Dr. Carey and his associates, is an act of great injustice to the former Society, which has contributed largely to the trans- lation of the Scriptures, and began their contribu- tions before the latter existed.

The other passage is in Mr. Dealtry’s Vindica- tion, p. 73, where we find an Extract from a Letter, written by a Clergyman at Calcutta; which Extract, after mention made of the labours of Mr. Marty n with his coadjutors, and lastly, of the exertions of the Missionaries at Serampore, concludes with the following observation. “ This happy beginning “ could not have advanced beyond the threshold, “ without the fostering care of the British and “ Foreign Bible Society.” Now this Letter was written at Calcutta on April 28, 1808, as appears from the Fifth Report, Appendix, No. VII. where it is printed. But in order to determine, whether the Missionaries at Serampore had not advanced in their translations beyond the threshold before the fostering care of the Bible Society had reached them, we need only have recourse to Dr. Carey’s statement at the end of 1807, that is four months before this Letter was written. For Dr. Carey

60

Translations of the Scriptures into

there says: “ The work of printing the Scriptures “ is now going on in six languages, and that of “ translating them in six more 47. Even at the “ beginning of that year, six translations were in “ the press, and five more were making4®.” And if I)r. Carey’s evidence is insufficient, I can appeal to the evidence of the letter-writer himself, the Rev. D. Brown, late Provost of the College at Cal- cutta, and now Secretary to the Corresponding Committee there. For in a Letter, which he him- self wrote so early as Sept. 13, 1 806', and which is printed in the Third Report, Appendix, No. VIII. he says : “ On coining down this morning from Se- “ rampore, I requested the Missionaries to send “ me a few specimens of their labours, whether in “ the press, or in manuscript, to be forwarded to “ you by the packet, which closes this day. They “ have sent me the following:

“ 1. Shanscrit. Two first Gospels will be ready “ by the end of this. year.

“ 2. Bengalee. This is a new and most admi- “ rable translation of the whole Scriptures.

“ 3. Mahratta. The four Gospels are printed

“ off.

4. “ Orissa. A sheet from the press, not cor- “ rected. This work is in great forwardness.

“ In manuscript.

“ 5. Telinga.

Further particulars of this statement have been already quoted from the Brief Narrative of the Baptist Mission, p. 66.

43 See Dr. Carey’s account, dated February 18, 1807, in the Periodical Accounts, No. XVII. p. 333, 334.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. Cl

“ C. Shanscrit Hindoostanee.

“ 7. Delhi Hindoostanee.

“ 8. Guzerattee.

“ 9. Persian. (Book of Psalms is finished.)

“ 10 Chinese.”

Now on the 13th of September, 1806, when Mr. Brown wrote this letter from Calcutta, the very first 20001. which was sent to India by the Bible Society had not been even voted ; for it consisted of two separate sums, of which the second thousand was voted on the 13th of April, 1807, that is seven months afier Mr. Brown wrote this Letter i9. Nor must it be forgotten, that Dr. Carey’s “ most admi- “ rable translation of the whole Scriptures” into Bengalee, was begun not less than ten years, and even the printing of it not less than four years be- fore the Bible Society existed. At the beginning of 1800, his Bengalee version of the New Testament was put to press at Serampore, and finished at the beginning of the following year. In 1802, the first volume of the Old Testament was printed, and a second edition of the New Testament was put to press. In 1803, was formed the grand design of translating the Scriptures into all the languages of the East: and the Missionaries proceeded immedi- ately (as appears from Dr. Carey’s Letter of Feb. 27, 1804-) to the Hindostanee, the Persian, the Mahratta, and the Oottul, or Orissa. It appears from the same letter, that the Missionaries had al- ready every advantage for translating the Pibleinto

•*9 See the end of the Appendix to the Third Report.

62 Translations of the Scriptures into

the languages of the East; that they had the means of obtaining learned natives from all those coun- tries; that they had. a printing office; a good li- brary of critical books ; a habit of translating; and a disposition to do it. All these advantages had been obtained before the Bible Society existed. They wanted nothing from England to enable them to execute their grand design, but an annual sup- ply of 10001. for that purpose: and this supply they have uninterruptedly received to this very day, out of the subscriptions raised by their own Society. Can it b« true then, that the translations, which have been made by the Missionaries at Serampore, “ could not have advanced beyond the threshold ** without the fostering care of the British and “ Foreign Bible Society r” They received indeed from this Society a gratuity of 10001. in 1809, that is nine years after they had begun the business of printing , and fifteen years after they had begun the business of translating. And what is one thousand in comparison of the many thousands contributed from other sources, for the sole purpose of pro- moting the translations at Serampore. More than 25001. were subscribed to the Baptist fund, in aid of the Bengalee version, before the Bible Society had existence50: and more than 8600 1. have been subscribed within the last seven years, to cover the annual thousand required for their more extended operations51. If to these sums be added the 17501.

5° See the Appendix to the Periodical Accounts, No. VI—

xnr.

51 Ibid. No. XV— XXII.

s

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 63

subscribed in India for the translations in 1806, and Mr. Grant’s legacy of 12501. to the same purpose in 180751, the amount will exceed 14,0001. All this is quite independent of the subscriptions to the general purposes of the mission, which, during the last seven yeais, have amounted to more than 18,0001. Lastly, it appears from various passages in the Letters of the Missionaries, that they them- selves contributed, as well money as labour to the business of translating and printing the Scriptures. How much they have contributed to this purpose, does not appear. But as they contribute upon the whole not less than 30001. a year”, we may be assured, that their contributions to the translations are not inconsiderable. Under all these circum- stances, it is impossible that the Missionaries at Serampore should have been dependent on the Bible Society, for the progress which they have made in the translation of the Scriptures. And as their merits are so little noticed in the Reports of that Society, it is a question, whether the money, which they have received from it, is a compensation for the neglect, to which they have been thereby exposed, and for the loss of the credit, which has been taken from them by the Bible Society for its own use.

Having thus explained the various sources of in- come possessed by the Missionaries at Serampore, having shewn the advantages, which they derived

Brief Narrative, p. 55, 67. See note 30.

£4 Translations of the Scriptures into

from their intercourse with learned natives, from their well supplied printing office54, and their own acquirements in the languages of Asia55, I will con- clude the account with the last statement, which has been received from the Missionaries, and is dated March, 181 1.

“ The progress of the translations is as fol- “ lows 56 :

54 With a fount of Bengalee types they were provided so early as May, 1800, for in that month they began to print the Bengalee New Testament. In 1803, a new fount of Nagree t3Tpes, consisting of eight hundred letters, and combinations of letters, was completed, (Brief Account, p. 41, and Per. Acc. XV. p. 23.) In 1804, they prepared a fount of Orissa types, (Ibid.) and other types were soon prepared, as they were want- ed. A fount of Persian types was sent them by their own So- ciety, from England. (Ibid. XX. 56.) In 1809, the Mission- aries say, “ the printing office belonging to the Mission, con- “ tains Sungskrit, Ilindoosthanee, Arabic, Persian, Bengalee,

Orissa, Telinga, Sihk, Mahratta, Greek, Hebrew, and Eng- “ lish types, beside presses, and every other article necessary “ for printing the sacred volume.” Per. Acc. XXI. 113, 114. “ This happy degree of success, (add the Missionaries) which “ surprises even us, who are upon the spot, has been granted “ within the space of nine years.” These nine years date from 1800. In this list are not included the Nagree types above mentioned, nor the Chinese blocks, which were begun in 1808, but will be described hereafter. In 1809, they prepared likewise Burman types. (Per. Acc. XX. 56.)

ss In addition to the knowledge which they themselves have acquired in the languages of the East, they have greatly contri- buted to the learning of them by others. Dr. Carey has pub- lished Grammars in the Sanscrit, Bengalee, and Mahratta lan- guages ; and Mr. Marshman has published a dissertation on the Chinese.

56 Periodical Accounts, No. XXII. p. 244.

65

the Languages and Dialects of Asia.

“ 1. Bengalee. The whole Old and Nett Tes- u tament translated and printed. A second edition “ of the Pentateuch in the press, and printed to “ about the middle of Leviticus S7.

“ 2. Sungskrit. An edition of one thousand five “ hundred copies of the New Testament translated “ and printed. The Old Testament translated to “ Ruth, and printed to the end of the Pentateuch.

“ 3. Hindoo , or Hindoosfhannee. The New “ Testament translated and printed. The Old Tes-- <{ tament translated, except the Pentateuch.

“ 4. The Mahratta. The New Testament trans- <f lated and printed. The Hagiogfaphia nearly “ translated.

“ 5. The Orissa. The New Testament, the poe- “ tic and prophetic books, translated and printed.

“ 6. The Punjabee , or the language of the Seths. “ The New. Testament translated, and the printing “ of it begun. The Old Testament translated to <c Numbers.

“ 7. The Chinese. Matthew and Mark trans- “ lated and printed.

“ 8. The Telinga. The New Testament trans- “ lated; and the Old Testament to Numbers.

“ N. B. A fount of Telinga types about finished.

“ p. The Kurnata or Carnata. The New Tes- u tament translated, and the Old Testament to “ Numbers.

57 We have already seen, that two editions of the Bengalee New Testament had been previously printed. The whole Ben- galee Bible left the press at the beginning of 1809.

F

66

Translations of the Scriptures into

“ 10. The Gujurattee. The New Testament “ translated.

“ 11. The Cashmeera. The translation of the “ New Testament begun, and a fount of types “ about completed 5*'.

“ 12. The Bunnan. A pamphlet, containing im- “ portant Scripture extracts, translated and printed “ for immediate circulation.”

Let us now take a geographical survey of the several Asiatic translations, which have been de- scribed in this section ; and as we have been lately occupied with the peninsula of India, let us com- mence our survey with this portion of Asia.

In the peninsula of India, which is bounded by the Indus on the west, by the eastern branch of the Ganges on the east, and extends from Lahore in the north to Cape Comorin in the south, eleven languages are used ; the Sanscrit, the Iiindostanee, the Bengalee, the Orissa, the Telinga, the Tamul, the Maylayalim, the Carnata, the Mahratta, the

58 In a preceding statement of the translations, as they stood at the beginning of 1809, the 11th place was occupied by the. Persian, which is here exchanged for the Cashmeera. The fact is, that the Missionaries at Serampore, after having made a con- siderable progress with the Persian translation, and after having begun even to print it, (No. XVII. p. 334.) desisted, when Mr. -iSabat, who had been at Serampore assisting the Missionaries, (see note 40,) was removed to another quarter, to conduct a Persian translation under the superintendance of Mr. Martyn.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 67

Guzerattee, and the Seek ; to which may be added the Cingalese, spoken in the Island of Ceylon. The Sanscrit, or (as the Baptist Missionaries now write it) Sungskrit, is read all over India; the Ilin- dostanee is more or less spoken all ov£r India. The Sanscrit is not only the language of the sacred writings among the Hindoos, and is an object therefore of particular study among the Bramins, but is the parent of almoft every dialect of India; consequently a translation of the New Testament into the Sanscrit was a matter of the highest impor- tance, and this translation was both made and printed by the Missionaries at Serampore before the expiration of ISOS. They have likewise both translated and printed the Pentateuch. The Hin- doftanee is a compound of old Hindoo, Arabic, and Persian, which are mixed in different propor- tions, in different places, and by different speakers, yet so as to be intelligible to each other. This language therefore being likewise so general in India, a translation of the Scriptures into Hin- dostanee was again of great importance. Hence the celebrated German Missionary, Benjamin Schultze, more than seventy years ago, translated the New Testament and a part of the Old Testa- ment into llindostanee, which translations were printed at Halle, and transmitted to India. A second Hindostanee version, but comprising only the four Gospels, was made by learned natives, under the inspection of Mr. Hunter, and printed in 1804 at the College of Fort William. A third Hindostanee version, comprising the whole New Testament, has been made and printed at Scram-

6'3 'Translations of the Scriptures into

pore. Ihe translation of the Old Testament is likewise finished by the Missionaries, with the ex- ception of the Pentateuch.

Of the provincial languages of India, the Ben- galee is in some respects of the greatest impor- tance, as being not only the language of a very extensive country, but of a country which contains the capital of our Indian territories. Now the whole Bible has been translated into this language by Dr. Carey. He devoted fifteeh years to this translation, and its excellence is generally admitted. The Bengalee New Teftament was printed at Se- rampore so early as 1800, and the translating and printing of the Old Testament was finished at the beginning of 1809. If we go southward along the bay of Bengal, we enter the province of Orissa, which is now a part of British India, and is likewise of great importance in a religious view, as being a chief theatre of Hindoo superstition, the seat of those idolatrous and horrid practices, which are exhibited annually at Juggernaut. A translation therefore of the Scriptures into the Orissa language was again of peculiar importance. Now the Mis- sionaries at Serampore had both translated and printed the New Testament in Orissa at the be- ginning of 1809; and since that period have both translated and printed the prophetic and poetic books of the Old Testament. And, as it is their usual practice, when they have translated the Scrip- tures into any language, to establish a Mission in the country where that language is spoken, they have done the same in Orissa; and hence their efforts will be more effectual, in gradually weaken-

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. Gf)

ing the superstition of the Hindoos, and drawing them over to Christianity, than the united exertions of the Bible Society. For mere translations of the Bible, unaided by Missionaries, (which the Bible Society can never employ,) though in single in- stances those translations may operate on men of learning, can have no effect on the mass of idola- trous nations. On the south of Orissa, to the banks of the Kristna, and extending from the sea on the East to beyond Golconda on the west, lie the Northern Circars, in which is spoken the lan- guage called Telinga. Into this language likewise the Missionaries of Serampore have translated the New Testament, with a part of the Old ; and have provided themselves with a fount of Telinga types for the purpose of printing their translation. From the Kristna southward, along the coast of Coro- mandel to Cape Comorin, is spoken the Tamil l language. Into this language the whole Bible was translated' by the German Missionaries, Ziegen- balg and Schultze ; and their translation had gone through various editions before the year 180-k Another translation of the New Testament into the Tamul was made by Fabricius, and printed at Madras in 1777. The Missionary Schultze trans- lated also the Bible into a particular dialect of the Tamul, the Telugian or Warugian, though his translation has never been printed. In the ad- jacent country of Travancore on the coast of Ma- labar, and extending northward to Tellicherry, is spoken the language called Malayaiim Into this language the New Testament has been translated from the Syriac, under the direction of a Syrian

70 Translations of the Scriptures into

Bishop in Travancore; so early as 1807 the four Gospels in the Malay alim were sent to Serampore to be printed; and at the beginning of 1S09 it appears, that the whole of the New Testament in Malayalim was printing there at the Missionary press S9. In the country extending northward from Teliichery to Goa, and eastward from the coast of Malabar to the country where the Tamul is spoken, including the whole of the Mysore, is used the language called Kurnata , or Carnata. Into this language the Missionaries of Serampore have trans- lated the New Testament, with a part of the Old. From Goa northwards to Surat, and from Bombay eastwards to Bengal, is spoken the Mahrulta lan- guage, which, both from the extensiveness of the country in which it is used, and the power of the people who speak it, is of material consequence. In this language also the Missionaries of Seram- pore have both translated and printed the New Testament. From Surat along the coast to tho Indus and to Persia, and northwards as far as Agi- mere, is spoken the Gazer a tic, or, as sometimes written, the Gujerattec. Into this language also the Missionaries have translated the New Testa- ment, and in 1808 had begun to print it. Further northwards, between the Indus and Bengal, lies the country of the Sfceks, into whose language also the Missionaries have translated the New Testa- ment, with a part of the Old; and the printing of the New Testament is begun. The vast peninsula

4

39 Brief Narrative, p. 67, 83,

the Languages ami Dialects of Asia. 71

of India therefore, taken in its utmost extent, has been thus provided with translations of the Scrip- tures, and chiefly by the Missionaries of Seratn- pore 6o.

If we cross from the peninsula to the island of Ceylon, we find the Tamul language spoken in the northern part, into which the whole Bible has been already translated. In the southern part of the island is spoken the Cingalese, in which language the Dutch printed at ColumUo the Gospels in 1 739, the Acts in 1771, as also the Psalms iu 1753 and 1768. In 1780 they printed at Colombo another edition of the Cingalese Gospels; and in 1783 the whole of the New Testament in the Cingalese, with a part of the Pentateuch 6t.

On the north of Hindostan lies the country of Cashmire, which abounds with native Jews; and hence Dr. Buchanan 62 considers a translation of the Scriptures into Cashmirian as peculiarly important. Now the Missionaries at Seram pore have not only begun to translate the New Testament into this language, but have provided a fount of Cashmirian types for the purpose of printing it. Eastward of Cashmire, and on th£ north of Bengal, lies the extensive country of Tibet or Bootan. Whether the language spoken in this country is the same as the Cashmirian (or Cashmeera), or whether it is

60 A map, representing the extent of country in which the languages abovementioned are spoken, is prefixed to the Brief Narrative of the Baptist Mission.

6‘ Bee the Sixth Report of the Bible Society, App. p, 86<

** Christian Researches, p. 217.

72 Translations of the Scriptures into

different, I do not know; but the Missionaries have learnt the language which is spoken in Bootan, and are translating the Scriptures into that lan- guage. For in their Report, dated January, 1810, they say, “ Access to the people of Hindostan, “ Bengal, Bootan , Orissa, Burmah, and China, is “ obtained by a knowledge of their languages. “ The Holy Scriptures are distributing, or are soon “ to be distributed, among all these and among other “ nations in their own tongues * 6V’ Eastward of Bengal lies the Burman empire; and though the Missionaries of Seram pore have hitherto printed only extracts from the Scriptures in the Burman language °4, yet from the proficiency which has been made in it, particularly by Mr. Cbater and Dr. Carey’s eldest son, and from the Missionary con- nexions at Rangoon, they are furnished with every facility to proceed. Where the Burman language ceases to be spoken, the Chinese language begins; a language spoken by the largest associated popur lation in the world. In this language, Mr. Marsh- man, with his two sons, and a son of Dr. Carey, have made an extraordinary proficiency 65 . In-

Periodical Accounts, No. XXI. p. 113.

6* Mr. Chater, who made the translat ion at Rangoon, gives an account of these extracts in a letter, dated 14 Nov. 1809, and assigns the reasons why he had made a selection from the Scriptures for the use of the Burmans, instead of making 3 continued translation.

^ See the Account of the Examination of the Students in

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 73

deed they had made some progress in this language so early as March, 1806‘, as appears from a letter to Dr. Ryland, above quoted. They soon began to translate the New Testament into Chinese; and before November, 1809, they had translated the four Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles of St. Paul as far as that to the Ephesians 66. Nor was the difficulty of learning the Chinese language the only difficulty which they overcame. At the be- ginning of 1808 they made preparations for the printing of it. “ More than eighteen months ago “ (say the Missionaries in November, 1809 67,) “ we began to employ, under Chinese superinten- ‘f dance, certain natives of Bengal, for many years tf accustomed to cut the patterns of flowers used “ in printing cottons, and have found them suc- “ ceed beyond our expectation. The delicate tl workmanship required in their former employ “ fits them for cutting the stronger lines of the “ Chinese characters, when they are written, and “ the work is superintended by a Chinese artist. “ Some months ago we began printing a newly-

the Chinese Language, held at the Mission-Seminary of Seram- pore, 26 Sept. 1808, printed in the Per. Acc. No. XIX. p. 537.

66 lb. No. XX. p. 56.

67 lb. p. 54, 55. The Account from which the passage here quoted is taken is superscribed November, 1809. The editor observes in a note, that it was' drawn up in August, 1809; but jt is not very material whether the eighteen months are counted back from August or November, 1809. In either case their preparations for Chinese printing began early in 1808,

74 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ revised copy of the Gospel by Matthew, to the “ middle of which we are nearly advanced. The “ difficulty of afterwards correcting the blocks “ causes us to advance with slow and fearful cir- “ cumspection. The whole New Testament will “ be printed in octavo, on a size resembling that “ af Confucius 6S, so common and so highly vene- “ rated among the Chinese. Two pages are cut w on one block. When printed off, the page is c< folded so as to have the two blank sides inward, •* in the manner of the Chinese. The blocks are e‘ made of the wood of the tamarind-tree.” Of the extreme care and pains bestowed by these Missionaries, both on the translating and on the printing of it, we may form some judgement from what they further say in the same account of the year lSOf). “ We have retained another learned “ Chinese at <£4 per month, beside his board, <( &c. to superintend the cutting of the characters, “ and to examine the translation with brother “ Marshman. After brother Marshman has gone “ through it in various ways with Mr. Lassar, he <£ carefully examines it again with this learned “ Chinese alone, causing him to read it, and give “ his idea of the meaning of every sentence and “ character. As he has not the least previous ac- “ quaintance with the sense of the passage, not

6i This refers to their edition of Confucius, with an English translation and commentary, which had just then left the press at Serampore, where many other works have been printed ir\ Oriental languages, beside the translations of the Scriptures. Sec Periodical Accounts, No. XXI. p. 112, 113.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 7$

tl understanding English, brother Marshman has “ an opportunity of marking the least deviation “ from the original, and of canvassing such pas- “ sages anew with Mr. Lassar, which is done pre- “ viously to their being written for engraving CV’ Such are the exertions of those extraordinary men, the Missionaries of Serampore, who, in the course of eleven years from the commencement of 1800 to the latest accounts, have contributed so much to the translation and dispersion of the Scriptures in the Oriental languages, that the united elforts of no Society whatever can be compared with them. These are the men, who, before the Bible Society existed , formed the grand design of trans- lating the Scriptures into all the languages of the East; these are the men who have been the grand instruments in the execution of this stupendous work; these are the men who are best qualified to complete the design so nobly begun, and hitherto so successfully performed; who in the knowledge of languages, which they themselves have acquired; M ho in the seminary at Serampore designed for the education of future translators ; who in their exten- sive connexions with men of learning throughout the East; who in the Missionary printing-office, so well supplied with types of almost every descrip- tion ; and who in the extensive supplies afforded by the Baptist Society, augmented by their own

69 Similar collations take place in respect to the other lan- guages, in all of which the Missionaries are assisted by Pun- dits, or men of learning in those languages, who take care that the idioms of the respective languages are preserved.

76’ Translations of the Scriptures into

noble contributions, are in possession of the means, which are required for that important purpose. These are the men therefore, who are entitled to the thanks of the British Public, though their labours are ap- plied, to swell the pomp of an institution, in which they did not originate, and with which they are only partially connected.

But let us return to our geographical survey. If we go westward from India to Persia, we find that here also the Missionaries of Serampore had made provision for a translation of the Scriptures. They not only applied themselves to the study of the Persian, but introduced it in their Missionary school, or Oriental seminary, at Serampore. Mr. Marshman, in his letter of January 14, 1807, says, “ With Persian two or three persons in our family “ are acquainted, and it is conjlantlij taught in “ our schofll 7°.” In May, 1807, Sabat, an Ara- bian, settled at Serampore, and assisted the Mis- sionaries in their Persian translation 7\ Before the end of that year the Persian translation had been “ carried on to a pretty large extent’1:” a fount of Persian types was sent them from Eng- land by their own Society 75 ; and the printing of the Persian translation had actually commenced 7+. But the removal of Sabat from Serampore put an

76 Periodical Accounts, No. XVII. p. 328.

71 lb. p. 350, 351.

71 These are the words used in the Brief Narrative, p. G7, n See note 54.

7+ Periodical Accounts, No. XVII. p. 334.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 77

end to their labours in the Persian translation 7J. The Scriptures had been partly translated into Per- sian some centuries ago. We have seen that the Pentateuch and the four Gospels were printed in the London Polyglot, and that another Persian translation of the four Gospels was published by Wheloc and Pierson in the same year. These are in fact translations into the present Persian lan- guage, for they were made many centuries after the conquest of Persia by the Saracens; they were made long since the extinction of the ancient Per- sian, and the formation of the present Persian by an admixture of xWabic. But the style and the orthography of the Polyglot version is said to be now antiquated at Ispahan '6, though probably not more than the style and orthography of Henry the VUIt.h is now antiquated in England. A later version of the four Gospels was made in 1740 by command of Nadir Shah, though it is not held in very high estimation 77 . But Colonel Cole- brooke’s translation of the four Gospels into Per- sian, which was printed at Calcutta in 1804, is, I believe, very generally esteemed. Westward of Persia lies that immense territory, in which the Arabic language is spoken, and which is cultivated as widely as the Mahometan religion extends. In this language the whole Bible is printed in the Paris

75 In their statement of November, 1809, they say of the Persian translation, it “ is removed from under our care.’* Ib, $o. XX. p. 62.

76 Buchanan’s Researches, p. 181.

77 Ib. p. 184.

7 8 Translations of the Scriptures into

mid London Polyglots; an edition of the New Testament was printed for circulation in the East by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; and with the same view a new edition of the whole

t

Bible from the Polyglot text was undertaken by the late Professor Carlyle, and is now ready for deli- very. The turns of expression in commom con- versation may have changed since the period when this translation was made. But the language of this translation is precisely the language of the Koran, which is read and understood wherever Arabic is now spoken, as our oxen Bible is every Avhere understood in England, though its style is very different from that of modern writing. In fact, the Koran has contributed to preserve the Arabic from the changes to which it might have been otherwise exposed ; and as all our Arabic translations were made long after the time when the Koran was written, they cannot be antiquated where the Koran is understood. Another Arabic version, containing also the whole Bible, was pub- lished at Rome in 16/1 by the Gongregatio de pro- paganda fide , and expressly for the use of the Arabian Christians. It w'as conducted by Ser- gius llisius, Maronite Archbishop of Damascus, whose native language w as Arabic, and who would have hardly undertaken to superintend a transla- tion, which w-as not intelligible to the persons for whose use it was designed 7S. The Patriarch of An « tioch printed also the Arabic Bible at Bucharest in

75 Le Long Bibliotheca Sacra, eil. Masch. P. II. vol. i. p. 114,

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 79

Wallachia in the year 1700 79 ; and in 1752 Ra- phael Tuki, Bishop of Arzan el Rum, (commonly called Erzerum,) again undertook an edition of the Arabian Bible, under the patronage of the Con- gregatio tie propaganda fide 8o.

Another language of Asia, read though not spoken over as great an extent of country as Ara- bic, is the Armenian , into which the Bible was translated in the fifth century, and of which there are various editions already described. The Ar- menians are not confined to the country from which they take their name; they are dispersed from the western to the eastern extremity of Asia ; they have establishments in the principal towns of Asiatic Turkey, of Persia, and of India; and in many of these towns form a considerable part of their po- pulation. A translation therefore of the Scriptures into the Armenian language has made provision for an immense population ; for though, like the Jews, the Armenians learn the language of the country where their families are settled, they learn also, like the Jews, the language of their sacred writings, in which also they perform the service of their Church 8l. The Christians of Georgia have like-

79 Le Long Bibliotheca Sacra, ed. Masch. P. II. vol. i. p. 117.

80 This edition is described in the Repertorium for biblical and Oriental Literature, vol. x. p. 154*. N. B. This work, which contains a treasure of Oriental literature, was published at Leipzig in eighteen volumes, between the years 1777 and 1736.

81 The Armenians have not less than six Patriarchs. Their chief Patriarch resides in the monastery of Etsluniadzin, a few

80 Translations of the Scriptures into

wise the Bible in their own language, which was printed at Moscow in 1743. But the language, which I am now going to mention, is of very great importance in respect to the means which it affords for the circulation of the Scriptures. “ Perhaps “ there is not a more extensive language in the “ world than the Turkish. , It is spoken through “ the whole of the Turkish empire, and a great “ part, if not the greater part, of Persia. It is “ the written language throughout all the Tartar “ tribes, which are still numerous; beside that, “ the various dialects of the Tartar differ from it “ more in pronunciation than any thing else 8\” Now a translation of the New Testament into this language, so important not only in itself, but af- fording the means of making other translations in the various Tartar dialects, w-as printed at Oxford in 1666; and part of it was reprinted at Halle about the middle of the last century. Of this Turkish translation says Helladius, in reference to

miles from Erivan, which the Armenians call Waharshabat. The second resides at Sis, in the Turkish province of Adana ; the third at Gandsasar, in the Persian province of Shirvan ; the fourth in the island of Aghtamar; the fifth at Jerusalem; and the sixth at Constantinople. There is also an Armenian Pa- triarch resident on Mount Lebanon, but he is nominated by the Pope, and is acknowledged only by those Armenian Christians who have submitted to the Church of Rome. This account is taken from Busching’s Geography, Part V. p. 56, printed at Hamburg in 1781.

81 This account is given by one of the Missionaries at Karas?, and is printed in the Seventh Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Appendix, p. 14.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 81

those Christians of the East, who speak only Tuik- ish, “ Summas Anglis refer unt gratias, quod No - “ vum Testamentum tarn nitidc lingua Turned “ edtndum cu rarer in This Turkish translation was promoted by the celebrated Robert Boyle, and printed conjointly at his expence, and the expence of the Turkey Company.

Having thus described the translations, which have been made for the continent of Asia, I have only to notice the provision, which has been made for the islands. In the great Asiatic Archipelago, the language by far the most extensively spoken is the Malay: and this language “is daiiv increasing “ in its importance to the British nation SV’ It has a great affinity with the Arabic, and is written with Arabic letters. Now a translation of the whole Bible into the Malay language, was printed, as we have already seen, in the Arabic character at Bata- via, in 17.58 Ss. And as the dialect of the Malay, which is spoken in Sumatra, differs from the East- ern Malay, Mr. Jarrett undertook a translation of the New Testament into this dialect, of which he was preparing the four Gospels for the press in 1804 86. — Of the translation made by the Dutch

13 Status praesens Ecclesiae Graecae, p. 289.

84 Buchanan’s Christian Researches, p. 99.

8 5 Even the marks which the Malays have in addition to the Arabic letters, were used in this edition. See Dr. Leyden’s Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chi- nese, in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. X. p. 188. It was printed in 5 vols. 8vo. under the direction of the Dutch Governor-Ge- neral of the Indies.

83 College of Fort William, p. 230. Mr. Jarrett has been

G

32 Translations of the Scriptures into

into the Cingalese, I have already spoken. Nor did they neglect even the distant island of For- mosa.

Let us now consider what additions the Bible So- ciety has made to the stock of Asiatic translations described in this section, which embraces all the principal languages of Asia, extending from the western to the eastern frontier. On this subject, the following statement is made in the seventh and last Report, p. 6. “ It may be generally observed,

“ that the various translations are all proceeding “ with great spirit and energy; and that the accu- “ racy of these versions is considered by the Cal- “ cutta Committee a point of the first importance ; “ that a spirit of harmony prevails among the “ translators; and that in the course of a few years “ there will be editions of the Scriptures in various “ Oriental languages. Among these, the Tamul , “ Malay, Sanscrit, Bengalee , Orissa, Seek, Hin- “ doostanee, Mahratta, are already printed, or in “ the press. The Arabic, Persian , Telinga, Ma~ “ layalim , Barman, Carnatica , and several other ° dialects, to be hereafter enumerated, together “ with the Chinese, are preparing, and the printing

also engaged some time in preparing a Dictionary of the West* ern Malay. A Grammar and Dictionary of the Eastern Malay has been written by Mr. Shaw, Ibid, p. 231,

83

the Languages and Dialects of Asia.

“ of some of them is begun.” The other dialects, to which reference is here made, are enumerated at p. 11, and are “ the Siamese , Macassar , Bugis,

Afghan, Rahfce?ig, Maldivian, and Jagataif * Now as these various translations are represented as “ all proceeding with great spirit and energy I will divide them into six classes, which will shew more precisely the extent of the services, which have been rendered by the Bible Society in respect to these tzventy-two Asiatic languages or dialects.

Class I. Arabic.

Class II. Persian.

Class III. Malay and Tamul.

Class IV. Sanscrit, Hindostanee, Bengalee, Orissa, Mahratta , Seek, Telinga , Carnatica , Burman, and Chinese.

Class V. Malay alim.

Class VI. Afghan, Maldivian, Bugis, Macassar , Siamese, Rahkeng, and Jagatai.

1. With respect to the Arabic, the translation making by the Society has hitherto been conducted by Sabat, under the inspection of Mr. Martyn, who, in his account, dated Cawnpore, December,

1 809, says : “In the Arabic only the Epistle to the “ Romans, and first Epistle to the Corinthians , “ are done, with a few chapters of St. Matthew’s- “ Gospel.” He expresses however a hope, that the New Testament will be finished in the course of two years ®7. The latest account of this trans- lation, which has been laid before the public, is

11 Seventh Report, Appendix, p. 24, - g 2

84

Translations of the Scriptures into

dated Calcutta, Oct. 19, 1810, in which Mr. Brown, the Secretary to the Corresponding Committee, says: “ The Arabic is now under consideration** but what progress had been made in the translation of the New Testament is not stated. How far a new Arabic translation was necessary, I am not competent to decide. But we have already seen, that the whole Arabic Bible has been repeatedly printed, and that three of these editions were con- ducted by Christian Bishops, whose native language was Arabic, and expressly for the use of the Ara- bian Christians.

2. The new Persian translation has been likewise conducted by Sabat, under the superintendance of Mr. Martyn, who, in his Letter, dated Cavvnpore, Dec. 1809, says, that Sabat “ has advanced to the “ end of the first Epistle of the Corinthians nearly/ Now we have already seen, that Sabat settled with the Missionaries at Serampore in May, 1807, and assisted them in the Persian translation ; we have seen that a considerable progress was made in it at Serampore, that types were prepared, and the print- in" begun, before Sabat was removed from the Mis- sionaries, to be placed under the direction of Mr. Martyn. Sabat therefore must have taken with him from Serampore a considerable part of this Persian translation ; and, though he is at present in the pay of the Bible Society, there is no reason to suppose, that the Persian translation would not have been finished, if Sabat had been permitted to remain with

8* Seventh Report, Appendix, p. 116.

85

the Languages and Dialects of Asia.

the Missionaries. At any rate the publication of it has been retarded ; for it does not appear from the latest accounts, that the Corresponding Com- mittee have sent it to the press89, though the Mis- sionaries while it remained in their hands, had ac- tually begun the printing of it. ' ,

3. The Malay and the Tamul, which I have placed in the third class, are translations , in which the Bible Society can claim no share: for both the Old and the New Testament had been translated and repeatedly printed in these languages long be- fore the Society existed. It is true, that on one ac- count the Tamul Bible may "be placed upon their list, as they have sent to Tanjore a printing press, a fount of Tamul types, and a supply of paper, for a new edition of it. But the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge might with equal and indeed with more reason, put the Tamul Bible on the list of hooks which they distribute: for this Society supplied the printing office at Tranquebar with the presses, the types, and the paper, which were used for the frst edition of it, and without which it might never have been printed. This Society has pro- vided also paper for subsequent editions: and Dr. John,- a Missionary at Tranquebar, speaking of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, says :

The last account, hitherto published, is Mr. Brown’s Let- ter, dated Calcutta, Oct, 19, 1810, where he says: “ A new “ Persian version has been produced, but has riot yet been “ brought to the test, as all future versions will be, before steps “ are taken for publication by the Committee.” Seventh Re- port, Appendix, p. 116.

9

86 Translations of the Scriptures into

“ To whom we are greatly indebted for their ge- “ nerous benefits in sending us annually stores of “ printing and writing paper, stationary, and other “ valuable presents, &c9°.” With respect to the Malay Bible, of which the last edition was printed at Batavia, in 1758, I cannot discover any claim 'whatever which the Bible Society can make to it ; for among the records, which they have hitherto published, on which alone they could ground their last statement, I can find no account even of pre- parations for a new edition of it. If they mean that particular dialect of the Malay, which is spoken in Sumatra, into which Mr. Jarrett translated the four Gospels, it must be observed, that his transla- tion of the four Gospels was made before the Bible Society had any intercourse with India. Lastly, if the word Malay be used as a generic term, includ- ing the Bugis and Macassar as dialects of the Ma- lay, the generic name ought not to be used in addi- tion to the specific names, which converts two lan- guages into three.

4. The translations which I have referred to the fourth class, are the Sanscrit , Hindostanee, Bengalee , Orissa , Mahratta, Seek, Telinga, Car - vatica, Chinese , and Burman . Now for these ten

9® See his Letter to Mr. Brown, dated Tranquebar, Nov. IS, 1 809, printed in the Appendix to the Seventh Report of the Bible Society, p. 19. See also the last Account of the So- ciety for promoting Christian Knowledge, p. 198. And from page 215, it appears, that the “ salaries, gratuities, books, and “ other stores to the Missionaries in the East-Indies,” amounted last year to jC1179,

2

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 87

translations, though they are placed on the list of the Bible Society, we are indebted to the. Mission- aries of Serampore. It is true, that in the year I8O9, after they had been engaged nine years in printing, and fifteen years in translating, supplied by their own very extensive contributions, supplied by subscriptions in India, supplied annually by their own Society with more than the thousand which they themselves had required, they received at last one thousand pounds from the Bible Society91. But is the work of translating and printing which the Missionaries had executed before this period, is all the knowledge which they had previously acquired, is the preparation which they had made in their well-supplied printing-office, for the completion of a plan, which they themselves had conceived, is all this to be ascribed to the Bible Society? The assistance which it afforded may have contributed to forward the printing of those translations, of which the printing was not previously completed. But to the Bengalee Bible, the grand work of Dr. Carey, which cost /him fifteen years labour, and to the Sanscrit and Orissa New Testaments, they can have no claim whatever : for both the transla- ting and printing of them was finished at the begin -

91 What assistance they have further received, or whether they have received any further aid from this Society, I do not know. But in the very latest Baptist Missionary accounts, which have just been published, no sum is mentioned as received by them from the Bible Society, since the j£1000, which they received in the course of 1809.

88 Translations of the Scriptures into

ning of 18099i. Nor can they have any claim, either to the Ilindostanee or to the Telinga translations which have been made by the Missionaries, though they have provided for another Ilindostanee, and another Telinga translation, neither of which, how- ever, according to the last printed accounts, had been put to press ; and of the latter, the transla- tion was left by the author of it unfinished 93. Nor has the Bible Society any claim to the translation of the New Testament, either in the Mahratta , or

91 See the state of the translations printed at the end of the Brief Narrative.

9! One Bindostanee version was made by the German Mis- sionary Schultze ; another Bindostanee version, but containing only the four Gospels, was made in 1804, under the inspection of Mr. Hunter; the third Bindostanee version was made by the Missionaries at Serampore, who have translated and pripted the New Testament, and translated the Old, except the Penta- teuch. The fourth version of the New •Testament has been made by Mr. Martyn, but not yet printed. — The Telinga ver- sion, made at the expence of the Bible Society, was conducted by Mr. Des Granges, a Missionary at Vizagapatam. How far he had proceeded will appear from the following passage of Mr Brown’s Letter, dated Calcutta, 19th Oct. 1810. “The Com “ mitteehuve in contemplation the printing of the Telinga Gos- “ pels of St. Matthew, Mark, and Luke completed. by that labe- “ rious and judicious translator, the Rev. Mr. Des Granges, of « Vizagapatam, a few days before his death.” Seventh Re- port, App. p. 116. At that very time the Telinga translation of the New Testament made byr the Serumpore Missionaries was finished, and a fount of types prepared for the printing of it. Whether they will desist for the sake of the other Telinga trans- lation, which must likewise be printed at Serampore, I do not know.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. 89

in the Carnata , or in the Seek ; for the Mission- aries at berampore had translated the New Testa- ment into these three languages before they received pecuniary aid from the Bible Society 9+. The printing likewise both of the Mahratta, and of the Seek New Testament, was begun : and in the Mahratta the four Gospels were nearly printed off95. And though the Carnata New Testament had not been put to press, the Missionaries were already provided with types for that purpose96. Of the Chinese New Testament, they had finished the translation as far as the epistle to the Ephesians; they were provided with the necessary apparatus for printing ; and had actually commenced97. The Missionaries had likewise prepared for the last of these ten versions, the Barman. They had not only begun to translate, but had provided them- selves with Burman types 9*. — Under such circum- stances, the translations made and printed by the Missionaries at Seram pore (to which may be added the Guzeratic New Testament not mentioned in the Seventh Report) should be placed in a separate catalogue, and the honour ascribed to those to whom the honour is due". Nor should the Bap-

54 See the Second Memoir of the State of the Translations in the Periodical Accounts, No. XX. p. 52, which shews the state of them before the Missionaries had received pecuniary aid from the Bible Society.

9J Ibid. 96 Ibid. 97 Ibid. 93 Ibid.

99 In the Summary Account published by the Committee for 1810, only seven translations are mentioned (p. 14.) asprepar- ing in India, namely, Hindostanee, Bengalee, Persian, Mah-

go Translations of the Scriptures into

tist Society, which during the last seven years has supplied them annually, for the sole purpose of translating, with a sum exceeding by two hundred' pounds the annual thousand required by the Mis- sionaries, and in the very last year contributed to that end not less than nineteen hundred pounds, be passed over in silence, that the whole credit may be assumed by the Bible Society, whose interposi- tion commenced, when the grand difficulties were overcome, and whose contribution has been trifling in comparison with the whole.

S. The fifth class contains the Malayalim trans- lation of the New Testament, which was made, neither by the Bible Society, nor by the Mission- aries at Serampore : but they have both been con- cerned with the printing of it. The translation, as already stated, was made under the inspection of a Syrian Bishop in Travancore, where the Malay- alim is spoken. One copy of this translation was sent to Serampore in 1807, to be printed there at

ratta, Malayalim, Sanscrit, and Chinese. “ Of these versions “ (is added) some had previously issued from the Missionary “ Press at Serampore on the Banks of the Ganges, independ- “ ently of the aid of the Society.” But this acknowledgement, though very indeterminate, is entirely omitted in the Summary Account for 1811, where we find at p. 13, a very considerably augmented list, including Class IV. which we have just exa- mined. But not a syllable is there said, either of the Baptist Society, or of the Missionaries at Serampore. And what is the inevitable consequence of this omission ? That every man, who forms his judgement of the merits due to the Bible Society, from that Summary Account, will ascribe to their sole exertions the long catalogue of translations, which are there produced.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. <j 1

the Missionary Press : another copy was sent to be printed at Bombay, and for this edition the Bible Society has supplied paper ,0°. What pro- gress has been made in the Seranipore edition I cannot say : it appears, however, that the Mis- sionaries were engaged with the printing of it in the same year in w hich they received it ,0\ But the Bombay edition of it, according to the last accounts which have been printed by the Society, had ad- vanced no further than the two first Gospels

6. The sixth class contains the Afghan. Maldi- vian, Bugis, Macassar , Sia??iese, 11 a h ken g, and Jagatai. Here it must be admitted, that no part of the Scriptures had ever been translated into any of these seven languages, till the attempt was made by Dr. Leyden, Professor in the College of Fort William; who having in his employ several learned natives from all parts of the East, in preparing vo- cabularies and grammars in the languages and dia- lects of Asia, offered to contribute his aid toward a version of the four Gospels in these seven lan- guages ,05. The progress which has been made in these translations, according to the latest accounts which have been published by the Society, is stated by Dr. Leyden himself in a Letter dated July £0, 1810; whence it appears that only four out of the seven were begun, namely, the Afghan, or Pushto, the Maldivian, the Bugis, and the Macassar. Into the

,co Seventh Report, p. 11.

101 Brief Narrative, p. 67, 83.

* 1 Seventh Report, Appendix p. 25.

153 Seventh Report, Appendix p. 76, 77.

9<2 Translations of the Scriptures into

two latter the Gospel of St. Mark had been trans- lated : into the two former, the greater part, but not the whole, of the Gospel of St. Matthew I*+. The three languages in which the translation was not begun , were the Siamese, the Rahkeng, and the Jagatai, though they parade with the others in the Society's list. Such was the state of these intended translations of the Gospels, according to the latest accounts which the Society has published. "Whe- ther the design of translating the four Gospels into these seven languages has been since carried into effect, can be known only from the next Report; but there is reason to doubt it, as Dr. Leyden, in the following year, accompanied Lord Minto to Batavia, where he died.

7. To the six classes above described, contain- ing the translations conducted in India , may be added a seventh, containing the 'Turkish transla- tion of the New Testament making by the Edin- burgh Missionaries at Karass, and the Cahnnck translation of St. Matthew's Gospel, making by the Moravian Missionaries at Sarepta ,os, which will complete the list of Asiatic translations, in which the Bible Society has borne a share. According to the latest accounts from Karass, the four Gospels

,c4 See Dr. Leyden’s Letter printed in the Seventh Report, App. 115.

jcs « {-arepta near cZarizin on the Wolga, in Russian Asia, was built chiefly with a view to bring the Gospel to the Calmuck Tartars.” See the Concise Account of the Missions of the Unitas Fratrum, p. 14. The Moravians formed their settlement of Sarepta so early as the year 1765.

the Languages and Dialects of Asia. o 3

with the Acts of the Apostles were then printed : but we have seen that the whole New Testament in Turkish was long since printed at Oxford. Of the Calmuck version it does not appear from the latest accounts’06, that even the Gospel of St. Matthew has been finished though some portions of it had been translated forty years ago ’°7.

106 See the Summary Account for 1811, p. 11. ,07 Fourth Report, App. p. 187.

SECTION III.

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages of Jfrica.

AT a very early age of Christianity the Scrip- tures were translated into the Egyptian language, including the dialects both of the upper and of the lower Egypt; the former called Sahidic, the latter Coptic. The Coptic 1 New Testament was pub- lished by Wilkins at Oxford in 171b. Wilkins pub- lished also the Coptic Pentateuch in 1731. The Psalms were published at Rome in Coptic and Arabic in 1744, and again in 1749, by the Con- gregatio de propaganda fide, for the use of the Egyptian Christians; for though in churches the Scriptures are still read in Coptic, the vernacular language of the present Copts is Arabic. On this account the Arabic version may be reckoned among the African, as well as among the Asiatic, transla- tions; for Arabic is spoken in the northermost part of Africa from Egypt to Morocco. Of the Sahidic version only fragments of the New Testament have been hitherto printed. But in the upper as well as in the lower Egypt, Arabic is now the vernacular language, and consequently the Arabic version is

1 See Le Long Bib. Sacra ed. Mascb. JP. II. vol. i. sect. 1(X

Translations of the Scriptures , fyc. 95

there also the version which alone is useful to the people at large. And though the Scriptures are still read in the Egyptian churches in the former language of the country, it is usual to read them afterwards in Arabic. Into the Ethiopic language the Scriptures were likewise translated at a very early age of Christianity; but, as is the case with the Coptic we have only the New Testament, with parts of the Old Testament, in print \ The Psalms, with the Song of Solomon, were printed at Ptome so early as 1513. The Psalms were re- printed in 1515 at Cologne; and again, with the Song of Solomon, in the London Polyglot. The celebrated Ethiopic scholar Ludolph published two editions at Francfort in 1701. The one was ac- companied with a Latin translation for the benefit of Europeans ; the other was solely Ethiopic, be- ing destined for the use of the natives, and w'as sent by the Dutch for that purpose to Abyssinia. Of the historical bogks of the Old Testament we have nothing in print but the four first chapters of Genesis and the book of Ruth : of the Prophets we have only Joel, Jonah, Zephaniah, and Ma- lachi J. The Ethiopic New Testament was printed at Rome in 1548, under the direction of several

a See Le Long Bib. Sacra, ed. Masch. P. II. vol. i. sect. 6.

3 But in manuscript we have the Old Testament entire as well as the New; for Mr. Bruce brought from Abyssinia a copy of the Old Testament, which he deposited in the British Museum. See his Travels, Vol. i. p. 489. And a considerable portion of the Old Testament, including the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Kuth, Samuel, Kings, and the Prophet Isaiah, is preserved in the Vatican. Le Long Bib. Sacra, Tom. i. p. 129.

$6 Translations of the Scriptures into

native Ethiopians, whose names are mentioned at the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew. This edi- tion was reprinted in the London Polyglot, and was again published in London in 1698. The Epistles of St. James, St. John, and St. Jude were printed at Leyden in 1654, accompanied with an Arabic translation. In that part of northern Africa which was first subject to the Carthaginians, and afterwards to the dominion of the Romans, the Latin version was used till the Saracens, by their conquests in the seventh century, extinguished there both the Latin language and the Christian religion. These are all the translations which were made in ancient times into the languages of Africa; but they comprehended the countries, which were con- verted to Christianity.

In modern tipies I do not know that any new translation has been made of the Scriptures into an African language. The British and Foreign Bible Society “ have concluded to print an Ethio- “ pic version of the book of Psalms for the use

of the natives of Abyssinia; and they are en- “ deavouring to procure a version of one of the “ Gospels in that language, with a view to the “ same object4.” But the Ethiopic Psalms, which they are preparing to print, can be nothing more than a new edition of those very Psalms which have been repeatedly printed already; and one of those editions was printed for the express purpose of sending them to Abyssinia. And the Gospel

4 Seventh Report, p. 15.

the Languages of Africa. 97

which they “ are endeavouring to procure,” they will find, together with the other books of the New Testament, not only in the Roman edition, but also in the London Polyglot, which is accessible to every one.

Should any attempt be made to translate the New Testament into any modern language or dia- lect of Africa, no men can be better qualified for the task than the Missionaries who are now em- ployed by the London Missionary Society. Like the Missionaries at Serampore, they must learn the languages before they can preach to the natives; and in so doing they qualify themselves for trans- lators of the Scriptures. If therefore the London Missionary Society would follow the example of the Baptist Missionary Society, and open a sub- scription for the sole purpose of promoting trans- lations in Africa , and as the latter Society has done for the languages of Asia , men of every religious persuasion might consistently and conscientiously subscribe to these respective funds, and thus pro- mote the translations of the Scriptures into the languages of Asia and Africa, without having anv thing to fear from operations at home. The same observation will apply to the German Missionaries employed by the Unitas Fratrum in America.

H

SECTION IV,

Translations of the Scriptures into the Languages oj America.

THERE are only txco American languages, into which the whole Bible has been translated, the Brasilian and the Virginian. The former, how- ever, has never been printed; the latter was printed at Cambridge in New England, the New Testament in 1661, the Old Testament in 1663. The whole Bible was reprinted at the same place in lf>85 Le Long mentions a New Testament in the Indian language, printed in London in 16'46, but in what Indian language he does not say \

In the last, and in the present century, no men have contributed so much to promote a knowledge of the Scriptures among the savage nations of Ame- rica, as the German Missionaries belonging to the Society of United Brethren, or the Unitas Fratrum. Their first mission was undertaken in 1734, under the patronage of the celebrated Count Zinzendorf, of Herfnhut in Lusatia, whence the brethren have taken in Germany the name of Ilerrnhuter. From

1 Le Long Bibliotheca Sacra. Tom. i. p. 448. t. Ib. The title is, Novum Testamentum, Lingua Indica, / Londini, 1646, 12mo.

8

(

Translates of the Scriptures, 8$c. 99

the Delaware Indians, among whom they first settled, they gradually extended their labours through the country of the Mohawks, and other Indian tribes, as far as the Esquimaux. So early as the year 1754, Fabricius, one of the Missionaries, translated a part of the Scriptures into the Dela- xvare language } ; another Missionary, Schmick, translated a portion of the Gospels into the Mahi« han language* * * 4 *. These labours were performed amidst the severest trials, and without the aid of either grammar or vocabulary, with which trans’- lators are usually furnished s. It is true that these translations could be made only for the purpose of reading them to the Indian tribes, who have no know* ledge of letters , though they use a kind of hierogly* phics, which they paint on trees to designate im* portant events 6. In the Esquimaux language they have translated, and also printed, the Harmony of the four Gospels, u'hich is used by the Unitas Fra - trum 7; and it is from this Harmony that the Mis- sionary Kohlmeister extracted the Gospel of St.

* See Part II. p. 154, of Loskiel’s History of the Mission of

the United Brethren, translated from the German by Mr. La

Trobe.

4 lb. ib.

s David Zeitsberger, however, composed afterwards a gram- mar of the Delaware language, which was printed at Philadel- phia in 1776. Ib. P. I. p. 22. In the Esquimaux language the Missionaries have since composed a dictionary for their owo use.

6 Ib. P. I. p. 23.

7 Concise Account of the Missions of the Unitas Fratrura, p. 23.

IT 2

100 Translations of the Scriptures into

John, which has been since printed by the Bible Society 8. The same Harmony they have trans- lated and printed in the language of Greenland 9. where they have likewise established a mission; but whether they had any concern in the translation of the New Testament into this language, which was printed at Copenhagen in 1 799, I do not know ,0. Nor do I know whether they had any concern with the Creole New Testament, which was printed at Copenhagen in 1781; though it appears that they have printed hymn books, as well in the Creole as in the Esquimaux and Greenland languages But in addition to the Esquimaux Harmony of the Gos- pels, which has been long in use among the Mis- sionaries of Labrador, another Missionary, Burk- hardt, has been some time engaged with a transla- tion into the Esquimaux of the Acts and the Epistles. In the Mohawk language, though great proficiency had been made in it by the German •Missionaries so early as the year 1748, it does not

8 See Mr. La Trobe’s Letter, printed in the Sixth Report, App. No. XIX.

9 Concise Account, p. 23. It is there added, that “ other “ parts of the Scriptures, translated into different heathen “ tongues, but yet only in manuscript, are in constant use.”

10 The Greenlanders were converted to Christianity by the Danish Bishop, John Egede. He went to Greenland in 1721 with his son, Paul Egede, who composed both a grammar and a dictionary in the Greenlandish language, printed at Copen- hagen, the one in 1750, the other in 1760. In the preface to the Dictionary, Paul Egede describes the extreme hardships to which he and his father were exposed during their residence in that country. Paul Egede passed fourteen years there.

11 Concise Account, p. 23.

101

the Languages of America.

appear, that they translated the Scriptures into that language; for the "Mohawk version of St. Mark's Gospel, which was printed jn 1787, is accompanied with a Mohawk version of the English Liturgy, which must have been made therefore by a Mis- sionary of the Church of England “. Lastly, a Mohawk version of St. John's Gospel was made by Captain Norton, who resided many years among the Mohawks, and assumed even a Mohawk name. This translation has been printed at the expence of the Bible Society.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which employs at present not less than eighty-four Mis- sionaries, Catechists, and Schoolmasters, was by its charter in- tended to supply the British Plantations, which were unpro- vided with a maintenance for Ministers. But in the circuit of their establishment at Kingston, in Upper Canada, they have a chapel, in which divine service is performed for the Mohawks in their own language. The Mohawk translation, therefore, of our English Liturgy, accompanied with the Gospel of St. Mark, was probably made for the use of this or some similar chapel. See the Proceedings of the Society for 1810, p. 42.

SECTION V.

Result of the four preceding Sections, in respect to- the Extent of the Services, which have been ren- dered by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

IN the four preceding sections I have given an account of all the translations, which have been made of the Scriptures, as well in ancient as in modern times, throughout every part of the world; and have examined what additions have been made to the previously existing stock by the British and Foreign Bible Society. I will now therefore propose the following question :

Has the British and Foreign Bible Society trans- lated the four Gospels into any one language, into which they had not been previously translated t If this question can be answered in the negative, what will become of all those splendid descriptions, which have lately formed the grand attraction of this Society 1 ? I do not here ask whether they

1 The languages which appear in the Society’s list consist. First, of languages in which the Scriptures had been already printed, and of which the Society has published or promoted new editions in Great Britain. Of this description there are twelve, namely, English, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Manks, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, and Greek; in all of which they have printed the New Testament, and in the six

Result of the four preceding Sections. 103

have translated the whole Bible into any language into which it had not been previously translated ; for it may be said, that they have not yet had suffi- cient time for that purpose. Hut as translators of the Scriptures generally begin with the New Testa- ment, and make their commencement with the jour Gospels , this portion of Scripture affords the fairest specimen fora comparison of what this Society has performed, with what other Societies and indivi- duals had previously performed. Besides, when we are informed in general terms, that the Society has translated the Scriptures into such and such languages, into which they had never been trans- lated before, we may naturally conclude, that at least the four Gospels are comprehended in the general assertion. To bring the question, which I

first also the Old Testament, As this is exactly what was done by one man, Elias Hutter, two hundred years ago, it cannot be reckoned among the performances exceeding every thing which has been done since the apostolic age.

Secondly, of languages in which also the Scriptures had been previously printed, but of which new editions have been lately published abroad, namely, at Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, &c.and towhich theBible Society has largely contributed, by affording a considerable portion of the necessary supplies. But, however beneficial the services thus rendered may have been, yet the sending of money abroad out of ample subscrip- tions provided at home, can again be hardly reckoned among the instances of very extraordinary exertion.

Thirdly, of languages into which the Scriptures have been lately translated for the first time. The claims therefore of the Society to editions of the Scriptures in languages of this de- scription can alone constitute its title to that wonderful energy wjhich reminds its advocates of the Apostolic Pentecost.

104 Result of the four preceding Sections.

have above proposed, to such a decision, as will admit of no doubt, I v\ ill take the long catalogue of languages, which Mr. Vansittart has produced at p. 36, 37, of his second Letter to me. This cata- logue has a kind of official authority, as given by a Vice-President of the Society; and may therefore be supposed to contain every translation, to which the Society can lay claim. Twenty-Jive languages in this catalogue are marked with an asterisk, which Mr. Vansittart explains by saying: “ The lan- “ guages, marked with an asteri.sk, are those, into “ which the Scriptures are not known to have been “ before translated." These twenty-five languages therefore I will examine in the order in which Mr. Vansittart has placed them, with reference to the question now under consideration. But I must previously observe, that, as I cannot know what is doing in India, while I am now writing in England, every assertion in respect to the quantity of trans- lation made in any language, can be founded only on the documents, to which I have now’ access. I appeal to the last printed accounts, both of this and other Societies, which I bring into the estimate. And, as both speakers and writers, who have given such splendid descriptions of what the Bible Society has done in respect to the translation of the Scrip- tures, must have founded them on the same docu- ments, those documents must be the rule to decide between us.

The languages, into which the Scriptures, accord- ing to Mr. Vansittart, are not known to have been before translated, are, “ Mohawk, (in part new),

" Esquimaux, Calmuck, Malayalim, Chinese, Cin* 5

Result of the four preceding Sections. 1 05

“ galese, Bugis, Maldivian, Orissa, Persian, Persic, “ or pure Persian, Burman, Siamese, Afghan, Ja-

gatai, Sanscrit, Seek, Telinga, Carnatica, Macas- “ sar, liahkeng, Mahratta, Sinhala Pali, Baloch, “ and Pushtu1.” "I will go through these several languages in the order here placed, and add such remarks as are necessary to determine, whether the question above proposed can be answered in the affirmative of any one of them1.

1. Mohawk, (in part new). — Owe Gospel, name- ly, that of St. John, printed by the Society, which, moreover, was not made at their suggestion : and this was nearly twenty years after the Gospel of St. Mark had been printed in the same language.

2. Esquimaux. — One Gospel printed by the So- ciety, extracted from a Harmony of the Gospels, made long before the Society existed.

3. Calmuck. — The Gospel of St. Matthew be- gun, but not finished, though parts of it were trans- lated forty years ago.

1 These twenty-five languages are contained in a catalogue, (consisting altogether of fifty-eight) which is superscribed, “ Languages or Dialects, in which the British and Foreign Bi- “ ble Sociey has been instrumental in diffusing the holy Scrip- “ tures.” Mr. Vansittart had said in his first Letter, that the Society had been the means of preaching the Gospel in fifty-four languages. He has added therefore to the list, but varied the expression.

* As most of the remarks, which will be made in the follow- ing catalogue have been already supported by quoted authority, and the most minute references, it will be unnecessary to repeat these quotations and references. But authority vfill be quoted tor every assertion cot already proved.

10(5 Result of the four preceding Sections .

4. Malayalim . — The New Testament was trans- lated into this language by a Syrian Bishop in Tra- vancore, who was certainly not in the pay of the Bible Society. They can lay no claim therefore to the honour of the Malayalim translation. Nor have they an exclusive claim to the honour of print- ing it. We have already seen, that a copy of the four Gospels, in the Malayalim translation, was sent to Serampore to be printed, in 1 807. Another copy was sent about the same time to be printed at Bombay : and to this edition the Bible Society has contributed by sending a supply of paper. How far the Bombay edition, which is only an edition of the four Gospels \ is nozo advanced, I cannot say: but, according to the last printed accounts, only the two first Gospels were then finished.

5. Chinese. — From Dr. Carey’s Report of the state of the translations at the end of 1807, the Mis- sionaries of Serampore were even then advanced very nearly to the end of St. John's Gospel : and this was more than a year before the Missionaries received any aid from the Bible Society. Conse- quently to their Chinese translation of the four Gospels, this Society can lay no claim. And even if it could, there is still a prior translation, which would prevent the claim of originality : for there is a Chinese manuscript of the Gospels preserved in the British Museum * * 5.

* This appears from several passages of a Letter, printed it*

the Appendix to the Seventh Report, p. 25.

5 Mr. Morrison, a Missionary in the service of the London Missionary Society, made a copy of this manuscript, and took it

Result of the four preceding Sections. 107

6. Cingalese. — An edition of the New Testament in the Cingalese language is now printing in the island of Ceylon, and the Bible Society has sent paper for a thousand copies* * * * * 6. But this is so far from being a translation now made for the first time , that the very library belonging to the Bible Society contains an edition of the Cingalese New Testament, printed at Colunibo in 17S37. And

with him to Canton. “ It has proved of great advantage to “ him, that he copied and carried with him the Chinese trans- “ lation of the Gospels, & c. preserved in the British Museum, “ which he now finds from his own increasing acquaintance

with the language and the opinion of the Chinese assistants, ft to be exceedingly valuable, and which must, from the excel- “ lency of the style, have been produced by Chinese natives.”

See p. xxi. of the “ Report of the Directors to the Missionary “ Society,” 1810. Another Chinese manuscript, containing the Epistles and Gospels for the whole year, according to the

Roman Missal, together with the Psalms, translated by one of

the Jesuit Missionaries, is mentioned by Le Long. Bibl. sacra, tom. I. p. 14-5.

6 Seventh Report, p. 13.

7 See the Appendix to the Sixth Report, p. 86, where the two following editions are mentioned as having been presented to the Society by Sir Alexander Johnstone, Chief Justice of the Island of Ceylon. ‘ The four Gospels in Cingalese, Colombo ‘ 1780.’ — ‘ The books of Genesis, Exodus, and a part of Levi- * ticus, with the whole of the New Testament, Columbo, 1783.* The latter edition is mentioned also in the Sixth Report itself, where it is said (p. 8) on the authority of Sir Alexander John- stone, that “ nearly the first three books of the Old Testament, “ and the whole of the New, have been translated into the Cin- “ galese, and printed at Columbo.” Sir Alexander adds, “ at ** the expence of government Whether this last expression applies to the edition of 1783, or to a re-impression of it, made

108 Result of the four preceding Sections.

the four Gospels, with which we are concerned at present , were printed at Colombo so early as 1759-

7- Bugis. — The patronage of this translation, which was undertaken by Dr. leyden, belongs ex- clusively to the Bible Society. But, according to the last printed accounts, only the Gospel of St. Mark had been translated.

8. Maldivian. — This is likewise a translation, of which the patronage belongs exclusively to the Bi- ble Society: but, according to the last printed ac- counts, nothing more had been translated than twenty-six chapters of St. Matthew’s Gospel.

9. Orissa. — Not only the four Gospels, but the whole New Testament, had been translated, and even printed in this language, by the Missionaries at Serampore, before they received any aid from the Bible Society.

10. Persian. — Two Persian translations of the four Gospels were printed in 1657 : and another Persian translation of the four Gospels was made by Colonel Colebrooke, before the Bible Society existed* *.

at the expence of our own government, since the island has been in ouf possession, I do not know.

* In addition to the printed translations, may be mentioned a version of almost the whole New Testament into the Persian lan- guage, which was made by Sebastiani, late Missionary in Persia. See Mr. Martyn’s Sermon, called “ Christian India,” p. 22. Mr. Martyn says in the same place, that Antonio, another Ro- man Catholic Missionary, at Boglipoor, on the Ganges, has translated the Gospels and the Acts into the dialect of that dis- trict. I take the present opportunity of mentioning this trans-

Result of the four preceding Sections. 109

11. Persic, or pure Persian^ — There is no lan- guage now spoken in Persia by the name of pure Persian, and distinct from the common Persian lan- guage, any more than there is a pure English lan- guage distinct from the common English ; though in Persia, as well as in England and every other country, the same language is spoken with greater or less purity, by different persons, and in different places. Now Sabat (who is at present in the pay of the Bible Society) being a native Arabian, intro- duced, as might have been expected, into his Per- sian translation, an admixture of Arabic words, and Arabic idiom. He is desired therefore, and ac- cordingly “ promises, to revise his Persian transla- “ tion, and to produce one more simple and purely “ Persic.” These are the words used in Mr. Brown’s Letter, dated Calcutta, March 15, 1810, and printed in the Appendix to the Seventh Re- port, p. 74. It is probably a misconception of this passage, which led Mr. Vansittart into the error of supposing, that Sabat was going to make a transla- tion into another Persian language. At any rate, as this translation was only promised by Sabat, it can have no right to a place among the languages, in which the Society, according to Mr. Vansittart’s own expression, “ has been instrumental in diffusing “ the holy Scriptures.”

12. Burman. — Into this language nothing has been translated but some Scripture Extracts. Re-

lation, as I did not know of it when I described the other Indian translations.

I

J 10 Result of the four preceding Sections.

sides, it is quite inconsistent with the rules of the Society, to admit Scripture Extracts upon their list, though the Burman translation appears in their offi- cial catalogue9.

13. Siamese. — This is one of the languages, of which the Bible Society has the exclusive patron- age: but, according to the last printed accounts, the translation was not begun.

14. Afghan. — Another language, of which the Society has the exclusive patronage: but, accord- ing to the last printed accounts, nothing more had been translated than eighteen chapters of St. Mat- thew’s Gospel *°.

9 Seventh Report, p. 6, and Summary Account for 1811, p. 13.

As this assertion does not agree with what is asserted of the Afghan translation in the Seventh Report of the Society, and hence I might be suspected of inaccuracy, it is necessary that I should give some explanation. In the Seventh Report, p. 7, it is said, that the Gospel of St. Matthew has “ been completed in “ the Pushto or Afghan dialect, and the Maldivian, excepting “ the two last chapters.” Now Dr. Leyden’s Letter, printed in the Appendix, p. 115, is the official document on which these assertions must have been founded ; and there we find the fol- lowing statement: “ Read Report of Translations into the “ Pushto, Maldivian, Bugis, and Macassar Languages, by Dr. “ John Leyden.” Then follows Dr. Leyden’s Letter, which begins thus : “ I beg you will do me the favour to submit to the “ Committee the accompanying papers, which I forward by way “ of reporting progress in the translation of the Gospels, which “ I undertook to superintend. The}r consist, of the Gospel of St. Matthew, from the beginning to the end of the 18th chap- “ ter, in the Maldivian languages. Th e first of these I regard “ as very correct, and superior in point of style to any prose

/

Result of the four preceding Sections. 1 1 1

15. Jagatai, or original Turcoman. — Again, a language exclusively in the patronage of the So- ciety; but in which, according to the last printed accounts, the translation was not begun.

16. Sanscrit. — In this language, not only the four Gospels, but the whole New- Testament, had been printed, as well as translated, by the Mission- aries at Serampore, before they received any aid from the Bible Society.

17. Seek. — Into this language also the Mission- aries of Serampore had translated the whole New Testament, before they received any aid from the Bible Society.

18. Telinga. — One translation into this language was certainly undertaken at the expeuce of the Bible Society : but it was not the first translation into that language. It was made by the late Air. Des Granges, who resided at Vizagapatam, and was in the service of the London Missionary So- ciety. But Mr. Des Granges, who died in the

“ composition in the Afghan language. The second, or the “ Maldivian, has been corrected and collated with the Greek “ up to the two last chapters.” Dr. Leyden then mentions the third and fourth languages, namely, the Bugis and Macas- sar, into which the Gospel of St. Mark was translated : but he says not a word more of the Afghan or Pushto. Since there- fore the term Maldivian is used both for the Jirst and for the second language, it must have been written or printed by mis- take in one instance. And since in the Seventh Report, it is said of the Maldivian , that the Gospel of St. Matthew had been completed “ excepting the two last chapters,” only eighteen chapters, as stated of the first mentioned language, should have been claimed for the Afghan or Pushto.

1 1 2 Result of the four preceding Sections.

summer of 1810, had only just finished before his death the three first Gospels; whereas the Mission- aries of Serampore, not less than a year before that period, had finished the translation of the whole New Testament into the Telinga”.

19- Carnatica. — Into this language the Mission- aries of Serampore had translated not only the four Gospels, but the whole New Testament, before they received any aid from the Bible Society.

20. Macassar. — This is another of the languages exclusively patronized by the Bible Society: but, according to the last printed accounts, nothing more had been translated than the Gospel of St. Mark.

21. Rahkeng. — This is the seventh and last, among the Asiatic languages, to which the Bible Society, according to the last printed accounts, could lay an exclusive claim. But, according to

11 See the Account given of the Telinga, in the second Sec* tion, under Class IV. Mr. Des Granges himself, in his Journal, dated November 20, 1805, says: “ We continue to get a little “ more acquainted with the Telinga, and with a little assistance “ can understand the leading ideas of the stories which the Bra- “ min write for us.” See the Transactions of the Missionary Society, Vol. II. p. 446. In the following October, 1806, Mr. Des Granges paid a visit to Serampore, and on that occasion the Missionaries there say : “ Brother Des Granges has consulted “ us about the meaning of several Telinga words, which were « perfectly familiar with us, either as Bengalee or Sangscrit.” Per. Acc. No. XVII. p. 328. Now the Serampore Missionaries commenced their translation into the Telinga so early as 1804, (Brief Account, p. 49) and consequently before the translator, who was patronized by the Bible Society, had even learnt the language.

Result of the four preceding Sections. 1 1 3

those very accounts, the translation into the Rah- keng was not begun.

22. ' Mahratta . — Into this language the Mission-

aries of Serampore, before any aid was received by them from the Bible Societv, had translated not only the four Gofpels, but the whole New Testa- ment. . ,

23, 24. Sinhala Pali, and Ralocli. — These two names do not appear in the last printed official list of the Society, and therefore must be the result of later intelligence from India, to which Mr. Van- sittart, as a Vice-President, has, of course, access. Consequently, they have no right to a place in a calculation, founded on official documents already laid by the Society before the public : for on those documents alone, all the splendid descriptions which have been hitherto made, and which it is the object of the present calculation to confute, have been founded. When I consider, however, that of the seven languages or dialects, introduced into the last Report, and placed on the Society’s list, there were only two, into which a complete Gospel had been translated, and that there were three , into which not a single chapter had been translated, it is not very probable, that the same intelligence, which brings the first account of the Sinhala Pali and of the Baloch, should bring also the account that all four Gospels have been translated into these two languages 11 .

11 The Pali or Bali (for the Word is written both ways) “ is an ancient dialect of Sanscrit , which sometimes approaches

I

1 14 Result of the four preceding Sections.

£5. Pushtu. — Pushtu and Pushto are only dif- ferent ways of writing the same word ; and Pushto, as appears from the very words of the Seventh Re- port quoted in Note 10, is only another name for the Afghan, which Mr. Vansittart had reckoned be- fore.

I have thus examined the twenty- fire languages, of which Mr. Vansittart affirms in the first place, that “the British and Foreign Bible Society has been instrumental in diffusing the Holy Scriptures” in them ; and in the second place, that they are lan- guages “ into which the Scriptures are not known to have been before translated.” From a compa- rison of the latter with the former affirmation, every man will conclude, that these twenty -fixe languages are languages, into which the Scriptures* have been translated by the instrumentality of the Bible So- ciety. And since the general term “the Scrip- tures" will be supposed to include at least the four (rospcls , with which translators of the Scriptures almost always begin, every reader of Mr. Vansit- tart's second Letter will conclude, that at least the four Gospels had been translated by the Bible So- ciciv into twenty-free languages, into which they

very near the original.” Asiatic Researches, Vol. X. p. 281. Now in the Sanscrit we have at realty, a translation of the New Testament. Sin /tala Pali means nothing more than Pali written in the Sinhala (that is the Cingalese) character. Ibid. Whether there is any relation between Bali and Baloch I do not know, as ■Or. Leyden, in his Dissertation, printed in the above-quoted volume of the Asiatic Researches, has not mentioned the latter term.

Result of the four preceding Section. 1 Uti

had never been before translated. And what is the result of the preceding examination? It is as fol- lows :

First; Of these twenty-five languages, the Pure Persian and the Pushto were inserted in Mr. Van- sittart’s list through mere mistake ; and the Sinhala Pali, and the Baloch, have no place in an estimate founded on documents already published ,J.

Secondly ; the translations into the Siamese, the Rahkeng, and the Jagatai, were, according to the last-printed accounts, not begun.

Thirdly ; Into the Calmuck, the Afghan, and the Maldivian, the Gospel of St. Matthew only had been undertaken, but according to the last-printed accounts not completed in any of them.

Fourthly; Into the Bugis and the Macassar, owe entire Gospel, viz. that of St. Mark, had been translated.

Fifthly; In the Mohawk and Esquimaux, one Gospel, namely, that of St. John, has been printed by the Society. But the Society had no share in the translation of either ; and moreover the Mohawk Gospel of St. John was not the first Gospel which had been printed in that language.

Sixthly; Into the Telinga language three Gos- pels were translated by Mr. Des Granges at the espence of the Society; but the whole New Testa-

13 If it shall appear however from the next Report of the So- ciety, that the four Gospels have been already translated into the Sinhala Pali, and the Baloch, I will allow an exception in favour of these two languages.

I 3

Result of the Jour preceding Sections.

ment had been previously translated into this lan- guage by the Missionaries of Serampore M.

Seventhly ; Into the Burman language, only Scripture Extracts have been translated.

Eighthly; The remaining nine languages are,

(a) Persian and Cingalese, of which we had translations of the four Gospels before the Bible Societ}7’ existed.

(b) Malayalim, translated by a Syrian Bishop in Travancore, who was certainly not in the pay of the Bible Society.

(c) Sanscrit, Orissa, Mahratta, Carnatica, Seek, and Chinese, into which the Missionaries at Se- rampore had translated the four Gospels long be- fore they received any aid from the Bible Society.

I will repeat therefore the question —

Has the British and Foreign Bible Society trans- lated even the four Gospels into any one language , into which they had not been previously trans- lated?

The answer to this question is evidently, No !

14 The translation of the Baptist Missionaries preceded also the translation made by Anunderayer from the Tamul version. Even therefore if the Bible Society should claim Anunderayer’s translation as their own, it is still not the first translation made into the Telinga. Indeed the Missionaries at Serampore had translated the four Gospels into Telinga in 1807, whereas Anun- derayer did not join the Mission at Yizagapatain, till hlay 1808. See the Report of the Directors to the Missionary Society for 1810. Appendix, p. xli. And if Telinga means the same thing as Telugian (as I have been informed since I wrote note 13 to Sect. II.) the •whole Bible was translated into this language by the German Missionary Schultze, so long ago as 1782.

Result of the four preceding Sections, 1 17

I will propose a second question —

Has the British and Foreign Bible Society, ac- cording to the last printed accounts, translated even two Gospels into any language, into which they had not been previously translated ?

The answer to this question is likewise, No ! The proof is contained in the examination of the first question.

I will propose a third question —

Into how many languages into which no parts of Scripture had been previously translated, has even, one entire Gospel according to the last printed ac- counts been translated by this Society ?

The answer to this question is two, and two only, namely, the Bugis and the Macassar, into which the Society has translated the shortest of the four Gospels.

Lastly, as it is necessary that the Scriptures should be printed, before we can speak of their dispersion or diffusion , I will ask,

Has the British and Foreign Bible Society, ac- cording tG the last accounts , printed any one entire Gospel, in a language, into which the Scriptures, or portions of the. Scriptures, had not been trans- lated, either before this Society existed, or inde- pendently of this Society's assistance ?

The answer to this question is, No! For the Bu- gis and Macassar translations, according to the last printed accounts, had not been sent to press, nor does it appear, that even types were prepared for them. In the Afghan, the Maldivian, and the Calmuck, even the translation of the first Gospel vyas not completed ; and in the Siamese, Rahkeng,

4

1 1 8 Result of the four preceding Sections.

and Jagatai, not a chapter. The Mohawk and Esquimaux translations of St. John’s Gospel, had indeed been printed by the Society. But the latter was extracted from a Harmony of the Gospels trans- lated into Esquimaux before the Society existed ; and the former was so far from being the first trans- lation in the Mohawk, that the Gospel of St. Mark had been printed in that language nearly twenty years before. To the printing of one edition of the Malayalim Gospels the Society has largely contri- buted : but the translation had been made inde- pendently of its assistance. The Cingalese version is not now printing for the first time. In the Bur man only extracts had been printed. In the Per- sian and in the Telinga, the printing was not be- gun; nor can it be said of either, that portions of the Scriptures had not been preciously translated into those languages. Likewise in the Carnatica, the printing was not begun : and though it was be- gun in the Seek, yet the translations into both these languages were made by the Missionaries of Se- rampore without the aid of the Bible Society. Two Gospels in the Chinese language have been printed atSerampore: but the translation of all four Gos- pels into the Chinese was again made by the Mission- aries without the aid of the Bible Society. In the Sanscrit, and the Orissa, the whole New Testa- ment had been printed ; but before any aid was re- ceived from the Bible Society, The same is true also of the Gospels in the Mahratta language. The Bible Society therefore, according to the last accounts, has not printed so much as one entire Gospel in any one language, into which the Scrip-

Result of the four preceding Sections. 1 19

tures, or portions of the Scriptures, had not been translated, either before the existence of the So- ciety, or independently of its assistance1*.

Having thus redeemed the pledge which I had given in the “ Inquiry” respecting the exaggerated statements of the Society's translations, I will now- close the account, and reserve for a separate publication whatever observations it may be ne- cessary to make in reply to the arguments, which have been advanced against my former pamphlet. For, as the avowed object of the present work is the examination of the foreign department, it would be quite inconsistent to enter at present into a se- cond examination of the Society's operations a t home. But as an answer to the arguments which have been brought against me on this subject will

75 In the Inquiry, p. 66, I promised to prove in a future Ap- pendix to that pamphlet, “ that the editions of the Scriptures “ already printed, or caused to be printed, by this Society, in “ languages, into which they had not been translated before, so “ far from amounting to FIFTY-FOUR, which the ambiguity “ of Mr. Yansittart’s expression, aided by the splendour of his “ description might induce men to suppose amount to a very “ few more than a tenth of that number.” Let any one compare this position with that which I have last proved in the present section, and determine whether I have not fulfilled my engage- ment. As the position in the passage just quoted relates not to translating, but to printing, I might have reduced the num- ber, not a few more, but a few less than a tenth of fifty-four. Rut 1 thought it necessary at that time to express myself with caution, lest a more minute examination should bring printed translations to light, with which I was then unacquainted. This minute examination, however, has shewn, that I conceded much more than was necessary.

120 Result of the four preceding Sections.

be attended with much less trouble than the writ- ing of the present work, I hope that, if my health permits, it will be ready in the course of a few weeks.

THE ENTD.

Law and Gilbert, Printers, St. JohnVSiiuare, London.

f