lumes, that would make a manual, commodious for perusal, like the editions of our best English books.

"There still, however, appeared to me another obstacle to the Bible being generally read, with the same degree of facility and satisfaction as other English books; and that arose from the division of the matter into chapters, and more particularly into verses. This very often interrupts the current of the sense; it sometimes misleads with a false appearance, as if it presented for a complete sentence, or aphorism, what is only the fragment of a narrative, or the sentence of an argument, both of which suffer, by such mutilation.

"The manner of subdividing the matter of a book into small verses, is peculiar to the Bible; and it is the abuse of a contrivance, that was designed for another purpose, the history and progress of which is worth considering.

"The sacred books, whether Hebrew or Greek, came from the pen of their writers, and were in the hands of those, for whom they were originally composed, without any division of this sort. The first need of any thing like such a division, was after the Babylonish captivity: the Jews had then mostly forgotten the original Hebrew; and when it was read in the synagogue, it was found necessary to have an interpretation into Chaldee for the use of the common people. To make this interpretation intelligible, and useful, the reader of the Hebrew used to pause at short distances, while the interpreter pronounced the same passage in Chaldee; such pauses became established, and were marked in the manuscripts, forming a sort of verses, like those in our present Bibles.This division into verses, was confined to the Hebrew Scriptures, and to the people for whose use it was contrived; no such division was made in the translation of the SEVENTY nor in the Latin version; so that the Bible used in the Greek and the Western Churches, was without any such division, either in the Old or New Testament.

"It was, however, found necessary, in after times, to make a division and subdivision of the sacred books; but it was for a very different purpose; it was for the sake of referring to them with more ease and certainty. We are told that Cardinal Hugo, in ihe 13th century, made a concordance to the whole of the Latin Bible, and that for this purpose of reference, he divided both the Old and New Testament into chapters, being the same that we now have. These chapters he subdivided into smaller portions, distinguishing them by the letters of the alphabet; and, by those means, he was enabled to make references from his concordance to the text of the Bible. The utility of such a concordance brought it into high repute ; and the division into chapers, upon which it depended, was adopted along with it, by the divines of Europe.

“This division into chapters was afterwards, in the 15th century, adopted by a learned Jew, for the same purpose of reference, in making a concordance to the Hebrew Bible. This was Rabbi Mordecai Nathan, who carried the contrivance a step further; for instead of ad

hering to the subdivisions of Cardinal Hugo, hẹ made others, much smaller, and distinguished them, not by letters but by numbers. This invention was received into the Latin Bibles, and they make the present verses of the Old Testament. In doing this, he might possibly have proceeded upon the old subdivisions long before used for the interpretation into Chaldee. We see, therefore, that the present division of the Old Testament into chapter and verse, is an invention partly Christian and partly Jewish, and that it was for the sole purpose of reference, and not primarily with a view to any natural division of the several subjects contained in it.

"The New Testament still remained without any subdivision into verses, till one was at length made, for the very same purpose of a concordance, about the middle of the 16th century. The author of this was Robert Stephens, the celebrated printer at Paris. He followed the example of Rabbi Nathan, in subdividing the chapters into small verses, and numbering them; and he printed an edition of the Greek Testament so marked. This division soon came into general use, like the former one of the Old Testament, from the same recommendation of the concordance that depended upon it; and Latin Testaments, as well as Bibles, were ever after distinguished into chapters and verses.

"It remained for the translators of the English Bible to push this invention to an extremity. The beginning of every chapter had been made a fresh paragraph in all the printed bibles; but the verses were only marked by the number, either in the margin, or in the body of the matter; such minute subdivisions did not then seem fit to be made into distinct paragraphs. But the English translators, who had fled to Geneva, during the persecution of Queen Mary, and who published there a new translation, famous afterwards under the name of the Geneva Bible, separated every one of the verses, making each into a distinct paragraph. This new contrivance was soon received with as much approbation as the preceding; and all Bibles, in all languages, began to be printed in the same manner, with the verses distinguished into paragraphs; and so the practice has continued to the present time. A singular destiny, to which no other book has been subjected! For in all other works, the index, or concordance, or whatever may be the subsidiary matter, is fashioned so, as to be subordinate to the original work; but in the Bible alone, the text, and substance of the work is disfigured in order to be adapted to the concordance that belongs to it; and the notion of its being perused, is sacrificed to that of its being referred to. In consequence of this, the Bible is to the eye, upon the opening of it, rather a book of reference than a book for perusal and study; and it is much to be feared, that this circumstance makes it much more frequently used as such; it is referred to for verifying a quotation, and then returned to the shelf. What book can be fundamentally understood, if consulted only in such a desultory way! Those who extend their reading, but still regulate their efforts

by the chapters, are not more likely to see the scriptural writings in the true view.

"These observations upon the size and fashion of our Bibles, will, perhaps, be questioned by some; but the justness of them may be tried by putting a few questions. How many of us would be at the trouble of reading our best English authors in such an inconvenient volume as the Bible? Who would endure to read our best prose writers, if divided into verses like the Bible? We all know, what answers must be given to these questions. Why then should the Bible be thus rendered less acceptable than all other books? If it is entitled to any peculiarity, that might distinguish it above other books, surely it ought to be such as would attract, not such as would repel. The book should be printed in the most commodious size, and the text exhibited in the most intelligent form; it should be addressed to the eye, and to the understanding; to invite and to detain every one who opens it. These advantages are lavished upon poets and historians, but the Bible is sent into the world without them!

"There is another disadvantage which the Bible labours under, beyond other ancient books. Like other productions of high antiquity, the sacred writings stand in need of explanation. The ancient writings of Greece and Rome are constantly published with more or less of explanatory notes, in all sizes. But all our authorized Bibles, published by the King's printer, and the universities, are wholly without explanatory notes. These privileged persons have confined themselves to reprinting the bare text, in which they have an exclusive rignt; forbearing to publish it with notes, which, it is deemed, may be done by any of the King's subjects as well as themselves. However, there is no want of notes and commentaries to the Bible; they have been provided, in great abundance, by persons of sound learning, eminently qualified for the undertaking; but these labours are confined to volumes still larger, and more unwieldy than the common Bibles before spoken of; so that readers in general have no aid of this kind to assist them in perusing, and understanding the obscure parts of Holy Scripture.

“Under these disadvantages from the size, the form, and the want of explanation in our Common Bibles, I have long thought, that many serious persons, who are desirous of acquainting themselves with the contents of the Bible, are induced to seek them any where, rather than in the Bible itself; they go to Histories of the Bible, to Expositions, to Paraphrases, and the like substitutes; turning to the Bible only on par

* I mean such notes, as are bonâ fide intended for annotation; not the pretence of notes, which I have seen in some editions of the Bible and Common Prayer, placed there merely as a cover to the piracy of printing upon the patentees, as if fraud could make legal any thing that was in itself illegal. In some of these editions the notes are placed purposely so as to be cut off by the binder.

ticular occasions, as a book of reference, to verify passages, and to determine in the last resort. There are many such publications, which may be thought by most readers more favourable to study than the text of the Bible, as now printed. It cannot be denied, that such works are excellently contrived, and have their use; but still they are only substitutes; and if they prepare some minds for going on to a perusal of the Bible itself, it is to be feared they seduce others from reading it at all, in the way of study. Something, therefore, seems wanting, that shall bring studious persons to the very text of the Bible, as well as the contents of it; where the law of God may be read in the very words of the law itself, as commodiously, and with as much intelligence and satisfaction, as in books of the above description, that are substituted for it.

It was in an humble, but earnest endeavour to furnish such a book, that I have put myself to the trouble and expense of preparing and publishing this edition of the Bible. I have made it a book, that is free from all objection to the size, or to the type; it can tire neither the hand, nor the eye; it is in the fashion and taste of those books, which are most read, and read with pleasure. If these external circumstances should recommend it to perusal, I venture to hope, that the method in which the text is here exhibited, together with the aid of the notes, will fix the attention of the reader to a studious reading of the Holy Scriptures, because he will read with ease and with understanding also.

“The plan is, to give to the text of Scripture the appearance which the different characters of it claim. Thus the greater part of it is unquestionably prose; but a part of the Old Testament is judged by the best critics to be, what may be called metrical, for want of some other word to distinguish it from prose. These respective parts are distinguished in this edition. All the historical books of the Old Testament, and all the New, are of the former kind; the Psalms, the writings of Solomon, most of Job, some songs in the historical books, and the greater part of the prophecies, are of the latter kind. The prose parts are here printed as prose compositions are printed in all other books, without regard to the division of chapters, and verses; which, however, are preserved for their original purpose, that of reference, but concealed in a manner not to obstruct the progress of the reader. The metrical parts are printed in the old division of verses. This appeared to me sufficient to mark the distinction between metre and prose: and I judged it more prudent to retain a division already in use, than to hazard any new one that might be made into lines or versicles, according to some late theories of Hebrew poetry; for I wished merely to distinguish what is metrical, without presuming to decide, what is the metre. In this manner, I have been able to furnish novelty without innovation; and those who are inclined to criticise the metrical part of the work, should recollect, that the singularity is really not in that, but in the prose.

"In the historical books, the metrical parts are easily known, for they are distinguishable by the very subject of them; as the Song of VOL. XII.

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Moses, and the like. In the books that are wholly metrical, as the Psalms, there is no distinction to be made. The difficulty is in the prophetical books; where, it is acknowledged, there is a mixture of prose and metre, but where the subject all through is so similar, that some other criterion becomes necessary; this criterion can only be sought in the original itself. Metre, strictly speaking, is a syllabic measure; but none such is now discoverable in the Hebrew ; there is, however, often discernible a peculiarity in the language and stile, consisting of something rhetorical in the choice of words, and something rythmical in the collocation of them. Such artificial passages ought surely to be regarded, and distinguished. They continually recur in the prophets; and it appears from this view of their writings, that they often change from one tenor of composition to another, giving the whole an air of something rhapsodical, analogous to a transition from prose to verse, and from verse to prose.

"The prophets would not thus have varied their strain, unless it was to produce some different effect; and if this change can be represented, or even notified to the English reader, it helps to make a still closer resemblance of the prophetical writings. I found this to be a critical attempt of some nicety, and that there might be various opinions and feelings about it. I hope, the experiment which I have ventured upon, will at least be thought temperate, and accordingly be received with candour. In making up my mind on this part of the work, I have relied much on the judgment of a learned person, in whose knowledge of Scripture, and Scriptural Hebrew I have great confidence, and who is alluded to in my Collation of the Hebrew and Greek Texts of the Psalms.*

"It was only in the Hebrew Scriptures, that any such variance in the language and the stile could make a distinction between metre and prose. The Greek language has confessedly no metre, but such as is expressed in a syllabic measure; every other composition is prose, however, elevated the stile may be; and as there is no syllabic measure in the Greek Scriptures, they must therefore be treated as plain prose. But there are other considerations, which inclined me to give a metrical appearance to some parts even of these. The Hymns in Luke i. ii. which we are used to see divided into verses in our Common Prayer Book, under the titles of Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc Dimittis, I have for that reason, printed here in verses; I have done the same, for the same reason, with The Song of the Three Children; it seemed consistent to print the Song of Judith in the same manner. The books

"I mean Mr. Jacob, a learned and enlightened Jew; who besides his Biblical learning, is master of all the Talmudical and Rabbinical writings, without being a superstitious admirer of them. I am greatly obliged to this gen. tleman for his advice in matters that required knowledge and judgment; and likewise for his condescension in attending to the progress of the work, as it went through the press."