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PROPOSED NEW VERSION OF THE BIBLE.

SIR,

TO THE PRINTER OF

It is now more than 170 years since the translation of our common English Bible. The language in that time is much changed, and the stile being obsolete, and thence less agreeable, is perhaps one reason why the reading of that excellent book is of late so much neglected. I have therefore thought it would be well to procure a new version, in which, preserving the sense, the turn of phrase and manner of expression should be modern. I do not pretend to have the necessary abilities for such a work myself; I throw out the hint for the consideration of the learned and only venture to send you a few verses of the first chapter of Job, which may serve as a sample of the kind of version I would recommend.

A. B.

PART OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF JOB MODERNISED.

OLD TEXT.

Verse 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them.

7. And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou! Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

NEW VERSION.
Verse 6. And it being levée
day in heaven, all God's nobility
came to court, to present them-
selves before him; and Satan
also appeared in the circle, as
one of the ministry.

7. And God said to Satan, You
have been some time absent;
where were you? And Satan an-
swered, I have been at my coun-
try-seat, and in different places
visiting my friends.

ནོ

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LION, king of a certain forest, had among his subjects a body of faithful dogs, in principle and affection strongly attached to his person and government, but through whose assistance he had extended his dominions, and had become the terror of his enemies.

Lion, however, influenced by evil counsellors, took an aversion to the dogs, condemned them.

' Written at the period of, and in allusion to, the claims of the American Royalists on the British Government.

unheard, and ordered his tigers, leopards, and panthers to attack and destroy them.

The dogs petitioned humbly, but their petitions were rejected haughtily; and they were forced to defend themselves, which they did with bravery.

A few among them, of a mongrel race, derived from a mixture with wolves and foxes, corrupted by royal promises of great rewards, deserted the honest dogs and joined their enemies.

The dogs were finally victorious: a treaty of peace was made, in which Lion acknowledged them to be free, and disclaimed all future authority over them.

The mongrels not being permitted to return among them, claimed of the royalists the reward that had been promised.

A council of the beasts was held to consider their demand.

The wolves and the foxes agreed unanimously that the demand was just, that royal promises ought to be kept, and that every loyal subject should contribute freely to enable his majesty to fulfil them.

The horse alone, with a boldness and freedom that became the nobleness of his nature, delivered a contrary opinion.

"The king," said he, "has been misled, by bad ministers, to war unjustly upon his faithful subjects. Royal promises, when made to encourage us to act for the public good, should indeed be honorably

acquitted; but if to encourage us to betray and destroy each other, they are wicked and void from the beginning. The advisers of such promises, and those who murdered in consequence of them, instead of being recompensed should be severely punished. Consider how greatly our common strength is already diminished by our loss of the dogs. If you enable the king to reward those fratricides, you will establish a precedent that may justify a future tyrant in making like promises, and every example of such an unnatural brute rewarded, will give them additional weight. Horses and bulls, as well as dogs, may thus be divided against their own kind, and civil wars produced at pleasure, till we are so weakened that neither liberty nor safety are any longer to be found in the forest, and nothing remains but abject submission to the will of a despot, who may devour us as he pleases." The council had sense enough to resolve,―That the demand be rejected.

TO MISS GEORGIANA SHIPLEY,'

On the loss of her American Squirrel, who, escaping from his cage, was killed by a shepherd's dog.

DEAR MISS,

London, Sept. 26, 1772. I LAMENT with you most sincerely, the unfortunate end of poor MUNGO. Few squirrels wère better accomplished; for he had had a good

A daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph.

education, had travelled far, and seen much of the world. As he had the honor of being, for his virtues, your favorite, he should not go, like common skuggs, without an elegy or an epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental style and measure, which, being neither prose nor verse, is perhaps the properest for grief; since to use common language would look as if we were not affected, and to make rhimes would seem trifling in sorrow.

EPITAPH.

Alas! poor MUNGO!

Happy wert thou hadst thou known
Thy own felicity.

Remote from the fierce bal'd eagle,
Tyrant of thy native woods;

Thou hadst naught to fear from his piercing talons,
Nor from the murdering gun
Of the thoughtless sportsman.
Safe in thy wir'd castle,

GRIMALKIN never could annoy thee.
Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands,
By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress;
But, discontented,

Thou wouldst have more freedom:

Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it;

And, wandering,

Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel RANGER!
Learn hence,

Ye who blindly seek more liberty,

Whether subjects, sons, squirrels, or daughters,
That apparent restraint may be real protection;
Yielding peace and plenty

With security.

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