The Washington herald., 1916-01-17

Few would seek for color and romance
IN the volume open before US: but color
and romance are there. We have been
reading the curious early history of the
English Bible HE then resolved" so
the account quantity runs. TO open their
eyes to the serious corruptions and de-
cline of the church," and he thought TO
do this by translating the New Testa-
merit. then existing only In the Greek
and Latin. into the vernacular of his
own people,
The good man with this high resolve
was William Tyndale. To him, says the
narrator, ''it has been allowed more than
to any other man to give the English
Bible its Characteristic shape" The time
Is that of Henry VIII. before he had
begun his quarrels with the Pope; and
1t is an England that then numbered
scarce SO many souls as. for. example,
Massachusetts, or Missouri now.
"Wearied with controversies with the
surrounding clergy" TyndaIe takes leave
of Worcestershire, where he then lived,
and repairs to London in July or August
of 1873, to seek the aid of famous pro-
tector of scholars Bishop Tunstall. II Is
serious journey. this long trip from
Worcestershire to London, doubtless to
be taken on foot, for conveyances were
few, and there were then no stage lines
diOhS ms aTOule-sCaTCely any any"heIt
The London to which he goes is then
large town of no more than 10000 to
5000. not at all to be ranked among
even the larger cities of Europe then.
UoidIy Received by Bishop.
But the reception which the REFORM
ing scholar meets at the hands of the
good Bishop is cold. He is advised to
seek his livelihood ''in the town" That
1
now known as the City of London. and
then a good three-quarters Of an hours
walk through the fields and along the
Strand from the Bishops palace in
Westminster.
Tyndale was of strong heart and after
a year of anxious waiting 1t becomes
clear to him mot only that there was
no rowme in my lorde of londons palace
to translate the new testament, but also
that there was no place to do IL In ali
englonde." So in the following May he
betakes himself to Hamburg, his res
olution never tagging, and 1t was here
In this free city" and in Wittenberg.
where he may have known and been
encouraged by Luther, that his tnansla
ton was actually made. 1t was advanced
80 far as the tenth sheet" when his
work was discovered by an implacable
enemy of the Reformation, who not only
hibit the printing but also sent word
to King Henry and to Wollsey, warn
ingl them to stop the Importation of
the work at the English sea-ports.
But Tyndale and his assistant, man
aged 10 escape up the Rhine. to Worme.
carrying with them some or all of the
sheets which had been printed. There
they find another publisher. In the
following year the work is done, is
smuggled into England land eagerly
welcomed and bought" But strong
measures of suppression were at once
adopted against these perilous volumes.
and today, of the quarto only single
fragment remains, carefully preserved in
the British Museum.
Another Great Literary Work.
All this we have found in an account,
full of colorful detail and quaint quo
tations that watt to us as scarce any
thing else can do the flavor and spirit of
the time in another great work which, in
another field, has likewise become a
standard among English speaking peo-
pies throughout the world.
Now here is an extraordinary thing.
The authorized version was the work
of the highest scholarship and learning
in the England of that time. And yet
this was the most widely distributed book
ever published. A century and half
later English scholarship and learning
unites in the production of another
great work, The Encyclopedias Britain
MICA, and this in It's various editions
has been issued In a larger number of
volumes than any other work save the
English Bible. Upwards of half a mill
lion sets of a single edition, involving,
we suppose more than 15,O0O,0 900 volumes,
have been sold in the United states
alone. And following this, of the new
est edition (the eleventh) near 1900 sets
have been sold, with a total Of over
900 volumes, and amounting in the
gross to sales of S14.0o0,0oo.
OF The Encyclopaedia Britannica more
copies have been sold than of all other
encyclopedias in all the other languages
of the earth combined. For nearly a
century and a half it has been not only
the standard work of reference In the
English language. but 1t has actually
been a very widely read work. This
latter is In itself a very curious fact.
But the reason is not far to seek. Ger
tainly in no other encyclopaedia, prob
ably in any language, would we find an
article so full of picturesque incident and
told with such literary effect.
Newest of Eleven Editions.
And this is entirely in the Britannica
tradition that it's articles shall not be
merely authoritative, but full of charm
as we'll. This celebrated work. the new
issue of which. in its Handy Volume