i62 NETHER LOCHABER. 



idle, he would, in hunting phrase, " hark back " upon his old 

 track, and diligently undo all he had spent his life in doing, and 

 without much regard to the consequences. 



"We have been led into these remarks by the recollection, when 

 quoting the above verses of the Eighth Paraphrase, that there are at 

 this moment some people busily bestirring themselves in the matter 

 of a new translation of the Scriptures, to supersede the authorised 

 version now in use. N"ow, we most solemnly protest against all this, 

 as a most rash proposal, ill-advised, and utterly uncalled for. At 

 present we object very much on the same principle that we should 

 object to a painting by one of the old masters being cleansed and 

 retouched by a modern E.A., however eminent in his own person, 

 or on the same principle that we should feel tempted to kick the 

 ladder from under the feet of a man we should detect white-wash- 

 ing a stately pUe of the olden time, under the plea, forsooth, that 

 in obliterating weather stains, and freely applying putty and paint, he 

 was thereby improving, renovating, and beautifying the whole fabric. 

 That there are verbal inaccuracies in our authorised version of the 

 Scriptures is on all hands admitted ; let these be rectified, if people 

 please, and let the corrections so made, under adequate authority, 

 appear in the form of marginal notes opposite the passage amended, 

 but let the body of The Book stand as it is — intact. The edifice, 

 as it exists, is too grand, and stately, and beautiful, and hallowed, 

 not to suffer under the proposed remodelling, even in the most 

 competent hands. 



But to turn to a different theme. The following is a translation 

 from the Gaelic, as literal as we could make it, with anything like 

 due regard to the spirit and manner of the original. It is a fairy 

 song, if song it can be called, from the manuscript volume referred 

 to in a former communication. Fairy tales, both in prose and 

 verse, were common with our Celtic forefathers, and, if we only 

 examine them with sufficient care, we shall find that, underlying 

 all their quaintness, there is always to be found a substratum of 



