X PUEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIOX. 



Ill this way many words are transferred for which there arc good 

 vernacular names, and a native has in his word a barbarous word that 

 conveys no idea, while, it may be, the original word designates a flower that 

 is wafting its fragrance within the lattice where he sits reading. This is 

 no fancy sketch. The caniphirc of the English Bible, the exquisitely 

 fragrant Lairsoiiia iner)ni8 or henna, is rendered in one Indian version by 

 camphor, and iu another the name is transferred, while the shrub itseK is 

 growing by the doors of myriads of native houses in both ludias, and for 

 which there arc established vernacular names in every Indian language to 

 which I can refer. 



Such transfers always cast a deep shadow over the signification of the 

 passage in which they occur, and sometimes wrap it in impenetrable darkness. 

 For instance, Christ says to the Scribes and Tharisees, " Te pay tithe of mint 

 and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, 

 judgment, mercy and faith." Here the antithesis can only be seen by a 

 knowledge of the trifling character of mint, anise and cummin, yet in two 

 Indian versions every one of these names is transferred, which renders the 

 clause, without a paraphrase, as unintelligible as the English Bible would 

 be with as many Choctaw words in their place. Still nothing coidd be more 

 unnecessary, for the readers of the version are nearly as familiar with mint, 

 anise and cummin as the people of Europe, and have as well established 

 names for them in their language. 



In two versions made several thousand miles apart, the translators 

 transferred the original word for wood-aloes, although the people for whom 

 they wi'ote were well acquainted with it, and there were good terras iu the 

 languages in which they were translating by which to render the word, but 

 of both facts the translators were manifestly ignorant. 



These examples, which might be easUy multiplied, illustrate the ad- 

 vantages which a translator with some knowledge of the natural sciences 

 possesses in dealing with the AVord of God. But the reader asks, "Why need 

 he enter scientificallj' into these studios ^ Why does he not take the 

 lexicons and other helps prepared for him ? 



Many are the admirers of nature, but let it not be supposed that all 

 are her observing students. The pages of learned men in Europe and 

 America, who have incidentally written upon natural history, prove that 

 they are not. 



Rosenm iiller is the author of the best work extant on the botany of the 

 Bible, yet his unskilfid treatment of the subject sufficiently attests his sliglit 

 knowledge of the science. Ilis descriptions are usually ill-written, and bring 

 before the eye of the reader no definite picture. They are often, moreover, 



