1825.] 
derable portion ‘of heat to ‘the citcum- 
afibient air.*.' There is, by this means, 
a very beautiful series of compensating 
oper: tions constantly going on in our 
atmosphere ; the effect.of which, is, to 
preserye,us from,any of the extremes of 
heat,,.or, cold, moisture’ or excessive 
drought.') Many of Mr. Anderson’s re- 
marks appear ‘very judicious, and con- 
firmed: by ‘his.-own observations and 
others; but ‘they are too long to allow 
of! extracting more than one or two 
general inferences :—That the greatest 
cold ‘during the night should always 
happen when the atmosphere is in its 
driest state; and conversely, when the 
airis extremely humid, there should be 
very ‘little difference between the tem- 
perature of the day and the night :—and 
that;'by ‘attending to the hygrometric 
state‘of the’air in the evening, there is 
no! diffieulty in predicting the minimum 
temperature of the ensuing night, the 
deviation very seldom being beyond the 
limitsowithin' which the nicest thermo- 
metrical observations are usually made. 
srsbnsq A. Z. 
—— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
, SOIR: 
FTER all that has been effected by 
& learning and industry, towards the 
preanshon of a perfectly faithful trans- 
lation of the Scriptures, such a transla- 
lation. still remains a desideratum. Of 
all. existing books, the Oid and New 
: estaments are those,a true and _ per- 
spicuous rendering of the sense of which 
is of, more importance than a correct 
version of any. other volumes; and, 
therefore, I am anxious to persuade the 
Sang members of the church of Eng- 
Yan ; of the necessity of such a version; 
and cannot, in my own opinion, convey 
my sentiments rargugn a more eligible 
medium than that of your respectable 
and aelrcidaloied miscellany. 
During the long reign of darkness 
spread over the Western World by the 
Fos BS Oe PEPE | ae See 
‘© Various experiments prove the quan- 
tity of heat yiven out by the condensation 
of atmospheric air; and the amount of this 
disengaged heat is always greater in pro- 
portion to the humidity of the air. That 
the quantity of heat given out by the con- 
sation of vapour into rain is a powerful 
agent in maintaining an equilibrium tempe- 
ture in the atmosphere, there can be no 
foubt ; and we see no reason why it may 
pag ent when the condensation is 
emely rapid, to produce light as well as 
heat) arid thus occasion atmospheric elec- 
tricity, or lightning. ” 
New Transtation of the Scriptures. 
493 
Goths and. Vandals, the, knowledge of 
the Hebrew tongue was. confined. to a 
despised. people, to whose. ancestors it 
had been vernacular; yet it had no, rea- 
son to complain of particular neglect ; 
it did but undergo the common fate of 
literature; or, perhaps, indeed, had par- 
ticular advantages in being preserved 
and cultivated, for peculiar. reasons, by 
a peculiar people, at a. time. when, 
amongst Christians in general, religion 
had been separated from learning ; and, 
according to well-authenticated ac- 
counts, a knowledge of the Greek ren- 
dered a man suspected, and an acquaint- 
ance with the Hebrew amounted. to 
heresy. 
In consequence of this state of things, 
it was a considerable time ere the Chris- 
tian world was awakened to the neces- 
sity of inquiring into. the language of 
Scripture. 
For the first fair interpretation of the 
holy volumes, England was indebted to 
the labours of. Wickliffe, who, by the 
way, was content to translate. from a 
version couched in a humble dialeet and 
style; and, at the commencement of the 
Reformation, little more, indeed, was 
aimed at, than to interpret the text of 
the Bible, as exhibited in the Jewish 
editions. For a considerable period, 
translators did not aspire to the effecting 
any emendation of the misrepresented 
original, either by the collation of manu- 
scripts, or the happy and temperate 
exercise cf even conjectural criticism. 
At a somewhat later period, however, 
what might be called the national ver- 
sion was so improved by a new revisal, 
as to give it a more decided superiority 
over two others then partially in use; 
which object was fully attained. When 
this emendation, or rather new version, 
appeared, it was found to be, compara- 
tively, faithful, animated, and perspicu- 
ous; and it is not averring too much to 
say, that while it served the cause of 
religion, it added something of weight 
and dignity to the English language. 
But while the happy consequence of 
this improved interpretation is acknow- 
ledged, we have reason to regret, that 
it has been allowed to supersede the 
necessity of more closely consulting the 
original. The Hebrew language, for a 
considerable period, was, at best, but 
negligently cultivated, and had too un- 
settled a station among theological stu- 
dies. It was, in fact, more attended to 
by the ardour of the Puritans, a sect not 
over-qualified to recommend any species 
of knowledge; but whose attachment 
to 
