try it, good reader, in a leisure hour!) allowing not so much as a syllable to be missed or misplaced; while every sentence was required to be said over and over again till she was satisfied with the accent of it. I recollect a struggle between us of about three weeks, concerning the accent of the 'of' in the lines

Shall any following spring revive

The ashes of the urn?

I insisting, partly in childish obstinacy, and partly in true instinct for rhythm, (being wholly careless on the subject both of urns and their contents,) on reciting it with an accented of. It was not, I say, till after three weeks' labor, that my mother got the accent lightened on the 'of' and laid on the ashes, to her mind. But had it taken three years, she would have done it, having once undertaken to do it. And, assuredly, had she not done it, — well, there's no knowing what would have happened; but I'm very thankful she did.

I have just opened my oldest (in use) Bible, a small, closely, and very neatly printed volume it is, printed in Edinburgh by Sir D. Hunter Blair and J. Bruce, Printers to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, in 1816. Yellow, now, with age, and flexible, but not unclean, with much use, except that the lower corners of the pages at 8th of 1st Kings, and 32d Deuteronomy, are worn somewhat thin and dark, the learning of these two chapters having cost me much pains. My mother's list of the chapters with which, thus learned, she established my soul in life, has just fallen out of it.

I will take what indulgence the incurious reader can give me, for printing the list thus accidentally occurrent :

And truly, though I have picked up the elements of a little further knowledge-in mathematics, meteorology, and the like, in after life, and owe not a little to the teaching of many people, this maternal installation of my mind in that property of chapters, I count very confidently the most precious, and, on the whole, the one essential part of all my education.

[MATTHEW ARNOLD, Isaiah of Jerusalem, pp. 4-5.]

I rate the value of the operation of poetry and literature upon men's minds extremely high; and from no poetry and literature, not even from our own Shakespeare and Milton, great as they are and our own as they are, have I, for my own part, received so much delight and stimulus as from Homer and Isaiah. To know, in addition to one's native literature, a great poetry and literature not of home growth, is an influence of the highest value; it very greatly widens one's range. The Bible has thus been an influence of the highest value for the nations of Christendom. And the effect of Hebrew poetry can be preserved and transferred in a foreign language, as the effect of other great poetry cannot. The effect of Homer, the effect of Dante, is and must be in great measure lost in a translation, because their poetry is a poetry of metre, or of rime, or both; and the effect of these is not really transferable. A man may make a good English poem with the matter and thoughts of Homer or Dante, may even try to reproduce their metre, or to reproduce their rime; but the metre and rime will be in truth his own, and the effect will be his, not the effect of Homer or Dante. Isaiah's, on the other hand, is a poetry, as is well known, of parallelism; it depends not on metre and rime, but on a balance of thought, conveyed by a correspond

ing balance of sentence; and the effect of this can be transferred to another language. Hebrew poetry has in addition the effect of assonance and other effects which cannot perhaps be transferred; but its main effect, its effect of parallelism of thought and sentence, can.

[BOWEN, A Layman's Study of the English Bible, Chap. 1.]

Leaving these general considerations, let us now come to particulars, and consider that aspect of the study of the English Bible which makes it interesting to the mere lover of literature. Look first at the diction, and weigh its merits regarded simply as a specimen of English prose. The opinion of scholars is unanimous that its excellence in this respect is unmatched; English literature has nothing equal to it, and is indeed largely indebted to conscious or unconscious imitation of it for many of its best and most characteristic qualities. The diction is remarkable for clearness, simplicity, and strength. It is as simple and natural as the prattle of children at play, yet never lacking in grace or dignity, or in variety and expressive force. Till our attention is called to it, we seldom notice what I may call the homeliness of the style, the selection of short and pithy Saxon turns of expression, and the wealth and strength of idiomatic phrase. One who should attempt to imitate it would easily lapse into vulgar and colloquial language, or, in striving to avoid this fault, into a certain primness and stiffness of speech, which is even worse. In truth, it cannot be imitated; to write such prose as that of our Common Version is now one of the lost arts. And I have not yet mentioned what is to many persons the peculiar and most striking charm of the style; that is, its musical quality, the silvery ring of the sentences, and the rich and varied melody of its cadences whenever the sense comes to a close. . . .

Now the century beginning about 1520, during which our English Bible thus gradually obtained its present beauty and finish, was precisely that in which our noble mother tongue completed its process of development and attained its highest stage of perfec

tion. Since this period, there has been indeed an enlargement of its stores, in order to keep pace with the progress of science, invention, and art; but we witness no further process of organic growth. We see change, but no further amendment; rather a deterioration. This was the age of Hooker, Shakespeare, and Bacon; of Spenser, Latimer, and Raleigh; and it prepared the way for Hobbes and Dryden. It was the golden age of the English drama. These are great names, and many passages in their writings show a complete mastery of the English language, and form a grand display of its versatility, its sweetness, and its strength. But beside them all, and above them all, is the prose of our Common Version. It is more sustained than any of them, more uniformly strong and melodious in its flow, reminding one of the famous couplet of Denham on the Thames : —

Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull,
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.

And it has largely contributed to the fixation of the language at this its best estate, since the number of words in it the meaning of which has become obsolete in the course of nearly three subsequent centuries is so small that they may almost be counted on the fingers. True, the diction seems often to have a slightly archaic tinge; but this is an advantage rather than a fault, as it tends to preserve the dignity and impressiveness of the style. . . .

I ought to cite specimens in justification of the high praise here awarded to the English style of the Bible. But one is at a loss what to choose out of the wealth of material at hand; and then, so much of the charm of passages from the Scriptures is due to associations going back to one's childhood, and to the intrinsic power and sweetness of the thought, the precept, or the sentiment, that it is hard to fasten our attention on the mere diction. in what follows, let me ask the reader to divest his mind, if he can, from all thought of the doctrine conveyed, or of the tenderness and pathos of the sentiment, and to consider the felicity and the music of the words alone.

But

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11. 28-30.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. - Matthew 23. 37-39.

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. - Job 14. 7-12.

Lastly:

I will take no bullock out of thy house,
Nor he goats out of thy folds.

For every beast of the forest is mine,
And the oattle upon a thousand hills.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls,

Or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving;

And pay thy vows unto the Most High:
And call upon me in the day of trouble:

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Psalm 50. 9-15.

I may seem to have labored this point too much. But what is here said is particularly addressed to young students, since it may be supposed that one leading purpose of their education is the formation of a good prose style, at once clear and flowing, strong and pure. I hope to show that the proper study of the Bible may be,