The Sun.
London, England, 1818-12-23 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

'1 1. c.

MR. Eo;Tost,—,Having heretofore premised to
you that I am unacquainted with Hehiew, my
observations can have no other weight than as
spewing what may be the impression on the
tuind of an uninitiated spectator, looking upon
the contest maiotained in that arena, in whicii
CANDIDUS has thrown, down his gauntlet. lie
himself seems a Knight prancing round the lists in
proud defiance, and, in his own opinion, armed
at all points (Hebrew points, I presume, not ex-
cepted), but to me, he really seems to have for-
gotten that one of the meanings of the word
" Candidus" is " courteous," and courtesy used
to be a sine qua non in chivalry. I must also pie-
some, that STACKHOUSE is thoroughly convers-
ant with Hebrew, for if those two competitors
in the controversy are not thus Furnished, every
one of us, who may only possess a plain Eng-
lish coat, may differ in opinion from them, with-
out being guilty of a bredch of decorum. I
know nothing of Mr. BELLAMY'S Translation,
but from those specimens which have been el.cit-
•ed pro and con in your Columns on the present
occasion ; and for myself, I 'mast say, that if
those be a sample of the whole, whatever the
Bible may gain in fidelity of Translation it still
more than lose in sublimity of expression, and
in the specimen selected by Mr. B. himself in
his prospectus, and pointed out by one of your
intelligent Correspondents in THE St N of Wed-
' nesday last, he has been peculiarly unfortunate,
that Correspondent having satisfactorily proved
it to be a mere change of tense and transposition
of words, inducing a complete dislocation of
sense. STACKHOUSE, if I mistake not, in one of
Isis lucubrations, asserts, that there are five hun-
dred errors in the Bible. I wonder that be did

not say an error in every verse, HS perhaps Air.
BELLA:srY's Translation may make every verse
different from the present one, and Mr. BELLAmi
must he right, tor STACKHOUSE intorms us, that

le has I know not how many great names head-

ing his Subscription•list. Now, Sir, I really
never befo►e knew that subsetibing to any pub-
lication was an act of subscription to• the doc-
trine, or whatever it h►ay be, of the work itselt ;
a test of merit on the one hand, and of unequi-
vocal approbation on the other ; or that a %vork
so headed becomes unamenable. to criticism.
STACKHOUSE, in another lettvr, seems not inclit►-
ed to treat the subject very reverently. when he
sneers at one of the means by which our Saviour
himself was pleased to induce men to leadsvirtn-
ous lives, the dread of eternal punishment—and
upon the whole, I am free to say, that I think
very many of the arguments of STACKHOUSB arc
built upon sandy foundations. We have been
accustomed to look upon the Bible as the word
of God—a numerous society are incessantly en-
gaged in circulating it, as such, without note or
comment ; another, in so doing, accompanied
with tracts and commentaries 5 and although dif-
ferent opinions may exist as to whiei of the-
modes of circulation adopted by these two mere
human institutions may be the preferable, yet it
is still the Bible which they both cbculate—the

Bible in its present form, not Mr. BELLsmv's ver-
sion of it ; it is this book of errors (as STACK-
HOUSE cal4s it) which they put into the hands of
the young, the innocent, the uninformed, the
sinner, and the penitent, as the well of living
waters from whence to draw instruction, admo-
nition, consolation, comfort, and support, in
every season, trial, and vicissitude of lite. la
that sacred volume we are told, that the ways of
God are past finding out, that he chooses the
weak things of the earth to confound the strong
—and that those who worship him must worship
him in purity and in troth. How &Greta would
he the contemplation of the Mystery of our Holy
Redemption in the thoughts of a Philosopher and
a Christian. The latter hears or reads " that a
Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son,"
without a blush passing over his countenance, or
one unhallowed thought approaching his mind.
The mere Philosopher might pursue the subject
far otherwise ; and whence this difference ? be-
cause the contemplation of the Christian is ac-
companied with and conlrouled by his devotional
feelings, and on such s subject be will not suffer his
thoughts to wander. Thus, at the altai., the hus-
band declares that he will worship his wife, in
other words, that he will never forget the ho-
nourable nature of that holy state. Might not
this controul of our thoughts be equally exercised
on other occasions ? May not some of those pas-
sages in Scripture which we call objectionable, be
inserted there for reasons to us inscrutable? As
to some, we know, that they have become 'objec-
tionable front the usages of society, which have
rendered some expressions coarse and common,
which formerly were not so; but divers passages
may have been originally intended for, and even
those others may have now become, tests of our
fidelity, like the tree of knowledge in the garden
of Eden, where our first parents walked naked,
and were not ashamed, until they had transgress-
ed the commandment which forbade them to taste
of the fruit of that tree ; after which transgres-
sion, the miserable state of fallen man required a
longer code of laws, one of which enjoins us to
be pure in heart.—''out's respectfully,
Dec. 19, 1818. H.

About six o'clock last night, as a L and ,
Gentleman were crossing the mall from the Strand
to Catherine-street, the Gentleman .was pushed
down by alio! her person who was running violently
across, and, before be could get up, the horses of
a coal-waggon trampled on him severely. Fortu-
nately the driver heard his cries and stopped the
horses, or the consequences might have proved
fatal. The Lady escaped unhurt.
A Gentleman, in proceeding through the Piazza
in Covent-garden, was robbed in the most dat ink
manner, by three or four young thieves, of his
silk handkerchief. He pursued them, but Coe
thickness of the fog enabled them to escapu'.
A young woman with a child, crossing tbe.road
from Great Russell-street to Drury-lane Theatre,
came in contact with a Gentleman's carriage, and
being confused in attempting to get hack, by the
shouting of a driver• of a cat t, which came be-
tween her and the coach, dropped the child, when
the wheel of the cart passed over its arm, ail
slightly grazed its face. It was taken to a sur-
geon's in (.Meat Russell-fait:et.