CONTENTS
OF THE
THIRD VOLUME.
| Page | |
| LETTER LIV | |
| TheBible.—More mischievous when firsttranslated than it is at present: still hurtfulto a few, but beneficial to many.—Opinionthat the Domestic Use of theScriptures would not be injurious in Spain | [1] |
| LETTER LV | |
| Curiosity and Credulity of the English.—TheWild Indian Woman.—The LargeChild.—The Wandering Jew.—TheEthiopian Savage.—The Great HighGerman Highter-Flighter.—The Learned Pig | [14] |
| LETTER LVI | |
| Newspapers.—Their Mode of falsifying Intelligence.—Puffs.—Advertisements.—Reviews,and their mischievous Effects.—Magazines.—Novels | [23] |
| LETTER LVII | |
| Account of the Quakers | [43] |
| LETTER LVIII | |
| Winter Weather.—Snow.—Christmas.—OldCustoms gradually disused | [67] |
| LETTER LIX | |
| Cards.—Whist.—Treatises upon this Game.—PopeJoan.—Cards never used on theSabbath, and heavily taxed.—Ace ofSpades | [75] |
| LETTER LX | |
| Growth of the Commercial Interest.—FamilyPride almost extinct.—Effect ofheavy Taxation.—Titles indiscriminatelygranted.—Increase of the House ofPeers | [83] |
| LETTER LXI | |
| Despard's Conspiracy.—Conduct of thePopulace on that Occasion.—War.—TheQuestion examined whether England isin Danger of a Revolution.—Ireland | [95] |
| LETTER LXII | |
| Account of Swedenborgianism | [113] |
| LETTER LXIII | |
| Jews in England | [141] |
| LETTER LXIV | |
| Infidelity.—Its Growth in England andlittle Extent.—Pythagoreans.—ThomasTryon.—Ritson.—Pagans.—A Cock sacrificed.—ThomasTaylor | [155] |
| LETTER LXV | |
| Eagerness of the English to be at war withSpain | [168] |
| LETTER LXVI | |
| Excursion to Greenwich.—Watermen.—PatentShot Tower.—Albion Mills.—EssexMarshes | [176] |
| LETTER LXVII | |
| Spanish Gravity the Jest of the English.—SundayEvening described.—Societyfor the Suppression of Vice.—Want ofHolidays.—Bull-baiting.—Boxing | [185] |
| LETTER LXVIII | |
| The Abbé Barruel.—Journey of two Englishmento Avignon to join a Society ofProphets.—Extracts from their PropheticalBooks | [195] |
| LETTER LXIX | |
| Account of Richard Brothers | [223] |
| LETTER LXX | |
| Account of Joanna Southcott | [236] |
| LETTER LXXI | |
| The Coxcomb.—Fashionables.—Fops.—EgyptianFashions.—Dances.—Visiting.—Walkers.—TheFancy.—Agriculturists.—TheFat Ox.—The Royal Institution.—Metaphysics | [270] |
| LETTER LXII | |
| Westminster Abbey on Fire—Frequencyof Fires in England.—Means devised forpreventing and for extinguishing them;but not in use | [288] |
| LETTER LXIII | |
| Remarks on the English Language | [299] |
| LETTER LXXIV | |
| Departure from London.—West Kennet.—Useof the Words Horse and Dog.—Bath.—RalphAllen.—The Parades.—BeauNash.—Turnspits | [309] |
| LETTER LXXV | |
| Road from Bath to Bristol.—CornuAmmonis.—Bristol.—Exchange.—Market.—Cathedral.—TheBrazen Eagle.—Clifton.—Bristol-Wells.—Anecdoteof Kosciusko | [331] |
| LETTER LXXVI | |
| Journey from Bristol to Plymouth.—Advantageswhich the Army enjoys morethan the Navy.—Sailors.—Journey toFalmouth | [350] |
ESPRIELLA'S
LETTERS FROM ENGLAND.
LETTER LIV.
The Bible.—More mischievous when first translated than it is at present: still hurtful to a few, but beneficial to many.—Opinion that the domestic Use of the Scriptures would not be injurious in Spain.
The first person who translated the Bible into English was Wickliffe, the father in heresy of John Hus, Jerome of Prague, and the Bohemian rebels, and thus the author of all the troubles in Germany. His bones were, by sentence of the Council of Constance, dug up, and burnt, and the ashes thrown into a river, near Lutterworth, in the province of Leicestershire. The river has never from that time, it is said, flooded the adjoining meadows: this is capable of a double construction; and accordingly, while the heretics say that the virtue of his relics prevents the mischief, the catholics on the other hand affirm that it is owing to the merit of the execution.
It was translated a second time under Henry VIII. at the commencement of the schism, and most of the translators, for many were engaged, suffered in one place or another by fire. I would not be thought, even by implication, to favour punishments so cruel, which our age, when zeal is less exasperated and better informed, has disused; but that the workmen came to such unhappy end may be admitted as some presumption that the work was not good.[1] In fact, the translation of the scriptures produced at first nothing but mischief. Then was fully exemplified what St Jerome had said so many centuries ago. Sola scripturarum ars est, quam sibi omnes passim judicant. Hanc garrula anus, hanc delirus senex, hanc sophista verbosus, hanc universi præsumunt, lacerant, docent, ante quam discant. There seemed to be no end to the multiplication of heresies, and the divisions and subdivisions of schism. You remember Feyjoo's story of the English house which contained within itself three distinct churches, the whole family consisting of only father, mother, and son. Bellarmine relates one equally curious which he heard from a witness of the fact. The heretical priest was reading in his church, as is customary, a portion of the English Bible, and it happened to be the twenty-fifth chapter of Ecclesiasticus. "All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman. As the climbing up a sandy way is to the feet of the aged, so is a wife full of words to a quiet man.—Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.—Give the water no passage; neither a wicked woman liberty to gad abroad." One of his female auditors sate swelling with anger till she could bear no more. "Do you call this the word of God?" said she. "I think it is the word of the devil." And she knocked down the Bible and left the church.
But that the free use of a translation should do mischief at first, and more especially in those unhappy times, is no argument against it in the present day. You have asked me what is its effect at present. I reply to the question with diffidence, and you must remember that what I say is the result of enquiry, not of observation.