April 29. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



391 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 1854. 



CURIOUS OLD PAMPHLET. 



Grubbing among old pamphlets, the following 

 has turned up : 



" A Fragment of an Essay towards the most ancient 

 Histories of the Old and New Worlds, connected. 

 Intended to be carried on in four Parts or iEras. That 

 is, from the Creation of all Things to the Time of the 

 Deluge : thence to the Birth of Abraham : from that 

 Period to the Descent of Jacob and his Family into 

 Egypt : and, lastly, to the Time of the Birth of Moses. 

 Attempted to be executed in Blank Verse, 8vo. pp. 59. 

 Printed in the year 1765." 



This Miltonic rhapsody supposes Adam, when 

 verging on his nine hundreth year, to have assem- 

 bled his descendants to a kind of jubilee, when sacri- 

 fices, and other antediluvian solemnities, being ob- 

 served, " Seth, the pious son of his comfort, gravely 

 arose, and, after due obedience to the first of men, 

 humbly beseeched the favour to have their memo- 

 ries refreshed by a short history of the marvellous 

 things in the beginning." Then Adam thus : — 

 Hereupon the anonymous author puts into the 

 mouth of the great progenitor of the human race 

 a history of the Creation, in blank verse, in ac- 

 cordance with the Mosaic and orthodox account. 

 Concluding his revelations without reference to 

 the Fall, Seth would interrogate their aged sire 

 upon what followed thence, when Adam excuses 

 himself from the painful recital by predicting the 

 special advent in after times of a mind equal to 

 that task : 



" But of this Fall, this heart-felt, deep-felt lapse, 

 This Paradise thus lost, no mortal man 

 Shall sing which lives on earth. 



Far distant hence 

 In farther distant times, fair Liberty 

 Shall reign, queen of the Seas, and lady of 

 The Isles ; nay, sovereign of the world's repose. 

 And Peace ! 



In her a mighty genius shall 

 Arise, of high ethereal mould, great in 

 Renown, sublime, superior far to praise 

 Of sublunary man — or Fame herself. 



Though blind to all things here on earth below, 

 The heav'ns of heav'ns themselves shall he explore, 

 And soar on high with strong, with outstretched 



wings ! 

 There sing of marvels not to be conceived, 

 Express'd, or thought by any but himself!" 



This curious production is avowedly from the 

 other side of the Tweed, and I would ask if its 

 paternity is known to any of your antiquarian 

 correspondents there or here. 



The Fragment is preceded by a very remarkable 

 Preface, containing "some reasons why this little 



piece has thus been thrown off in such a loose and 

 disorderly manner ;" among which figure the de- 

 sire "to disperse a parcel of them gratis, — because 

 they are, perhaps, worth nothing ; that nobody may 

 pay for his folly but himself ; that, if his Fragment 

 is damned, which it probably may be, he will 

 thenceforth drop any farther correspondence with 

 Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c. ; and, lastly, that he 

 may be benefited by the criticisms upon its faults 

 and failings, while he himself lurks cunningly be- 

 hind the curtain. But if, after all," says the facetious 

 author, " this little northern urchin shall chance to 

 spring forward under the influence of a more 

 southern and warmer sun, the author will then en- 

 deavour to bring his goods to market as plump, 

 fresh, and fair as the soil will admit." 



I presume, however, the public did not call for 

 any of the farther instalments promised in the 

 title. J. O. 



ERRATA IN PRINTED BIBLES. 



Mr. DTsraeli, in his Curiosities of Literature, 

 has an article entitled " The Pearl Bibles and Six 

 Thousand Errata," in which he gives some notable 

 specimens of the blunders perpetrated in the print- 

 ing of Bibles in earlier times. The great demand 

 for them prompted unscrupulous persons to supply 

 it without much regard to carefulness or accuracy ; 

 and, besides, printers were not so expert as at the 

 present day. 



"The learned Ussher," Mr. DTsraeli tells us, "one 

 day hastening to preach at Paul's Cross, entered the 

 shop of one of the stationers, as booksellers were then 

 called, and inquiring for a Bible of the London edition, 

 when he came to look for his text, to his astonishment 

 and his horror he discovered that the verse was omitted 

 in the Bible ! This gave the first occasion of complaint 

 to the king, of the insufferable negligence and in- 

 capacity of the London press ; and first bred that great 

 contest which followed between the University of Cam- 

 bridge and the London stationers, about the right of 

 printing Bibles." 



Even during the reign of Charles I., and in the 

 time of the Commonwealth, the manufacture of 

 spurious Bibles was carried on to an alarming ex- 

 tent. English Bibles were fabricated in Holland 

 for cheapness, without any regard to accuracy. 

 Twelve thousand of these (12mo.) Bibles, with 

 notes, were seized by the King's printers as being 

 contrary to the statute ; and a large impression of 

 these Dutch-English Bibles were burned, by order 

 of the Assembly of Divines, for certain errors. 

 The Pearl (24mo.) Bible, printed by Field, in 1653, 

 contains some scandalous blunders; — for instance, 

 Romans, vi. 13. : " Neither yield ye your members 

 as instruments of righteousness unto sin" — for un- 

 righteousness. 1 Cor. vi. 9. : " Know ye not that 



