The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-22

common people. The predominance OF
Saxon words in this version is very re-
markable. Compared with Latin
words, they constitute about 80 per
cent. In Shakespeare the proportion is
S5 per cent, in Swift nearly 90, in John
son 20, in GibbOn, 49, In the Lords
Prayer fifty-nine out of siXty-tive words
are Saxon.
Secondly, James reviSers had this
great advantage over their predecess
OrS- who as a rule worked under the
ban of the authOrities-that they fels
themselves occupied on a great ma
tional undertaking promoted by the
king himself, and supported by the full
sympathy and approval Of Church and
State.
Thirdly, they had Veady to hand the
rich results of nearly a century of dill
gent and unintermitted labor in the
field of Biblical study. 1t is beyond the
power of man to eliminate. by any ma
chinery which he can devise, the inher-
ent inequality of mental endowments.
The Authorized Version IS accordingly
not q perfectly even work throughout,
nor would any competent judge desire
to claim for the Epistes the same high
level of excellence as for the Penta-
teuch or the prophetical books. But
on the whole our Bible is characterized
by a wonderful unity of tone. and this
is unquestionaby due to the we'll
planned organization and rules for
which the King and his advisers were
responsible.
Throughout the reign Of Elizabeth
vast invisible forces had been at work
y. fl lShi
the minds of men. For a while, no
doubt the black cloud of national peril
overshadowed and shrOuded their ac-
| tivty. But none the less their influence
| continued operative. The intellectual
! force of the Renaissance, the moral
! and religious force of the Reformation,
| the social and political force of a new
| ly realized and ever-increasing sense
| Of national unity and greatness, the
| economic force of rapidly expanding
| wealth--all these vitaliZing powers had
| been silently transfiguring the old
| England of Catholicism and feudalism
! into the England that was to be. With
| the exception of Mary Stuart and the
| repulse of the Armada the darkness
| rolled away. A terrible danger, nerV-
| ing and braCing the whole community
| into strenuous effort, gave place TO an
| indescribable sense of relief. As II had
| been in Greece after Marathon, Plataea
| and Salamis, so was it in this land Of
Gus when the Spaniards spread his sails
and lied away. Suddenly almost as IT,
! by magic, a new world of literature
| burst into loVelest blossom. and tho
| national language clothed itself into
| strength, in richness and i'm power Not
| in one department Of mental activity
alone, but i'm every quarter there arose
| q consciousness of Quickened life and
| of boundless possibilities. The excite
/ ment, the hope, the buoyancy the as
| piration, the intensity of a nation re-
| newing its youth reused every faculty
into varied and many-sided altert-
| ness
| In some such air as this the transla-
tors of the Kings Bible lived and
moved and had their being And as
| they so lived the glory of the times
| semes to have pasesd into their souls
and the inspiration of their originals
! into their pens so that they We're en-
abled to build up for the generations
that We're to come after them an Eng
lish Bible which, with all the imperfcc-
| tions inseparable from the Incomplete
| ness Of the critical resources, which be-
| long indeed to every work of man, Will
ever he held i'm reverence as the most
splendid literary monument Of a splen-
did and heOric age.