1800.] 
BIBLE INTERPOLATED. 
Is it to be wondered at that authors 
of all times fhould be interpolated, and, 
otherwite corrupted, when the Bible itfel 
publifthed at Paris 1538, a French tranf- 
Jation, by authority and the pee order 
of the king (Charles VIII.), fhould have 
two fuch ftrange texts as thefe, without 
the leaft colour from the original, foifted 
into the 32d chapter of Exodus, in rela- 
tion to the golden calf? One of them, 
that “ the duit of the golden calf, which 
Moles burnt and cround, and ftrewed upon 
the water, of which he obliged the chil- 
dren of Ifrael to drink, foaked into the 
Beever rarer chem who had really 
worfhipped it, and gilded them, which re- 
mained upon them a {pecial mark of their 
idolatry.”? The other, that ** the children 
of Ifrael {pate upon Hur, who had refufed 
to make them gods, in fuch abundance, 
that they ftif@ed him with their fla- 
Vere, 
Thefe paffages are probably traditions 
picked out of the reveries of the Talmu- 
diftts ; but are fuflicient proofs of that 
fhamele{s audacity of interpolation, which 
has tainted even the moft facred of 
books. 
AVARICE. 
Richardfon has given us two very ftrik- 
ing inftances of this ‘* mafter paffion in 
the breaft,”’ 
«< Larkham, the apothecary, of Rich. 
mond, told Mr. Henry Floyd that his pa- 
tient, Mr. Waifon, a man of a very large 
fortune, and uncle to Lord Rockingham, 
juft before he died, defired to give him a 
fhirt out of a drawer he pointed to.‘ Lord ! 
Sir,” faid Larkham,‘ what do you mean to 
think of putting on another fhirt now?’ 
‘Why,’ faidWatfon,* I underftand it is the 
cuftom for the fhirt I have on to be the 
perquifite of thofe who fhall lay me out ; 
and that is an old ragged one, ‘and good 
enough for them !”’ 
i remember Mr. Pope repeating to my 
father and me, in his hbrary at Twicken- 
ham, four verfes, defigned for his epiftle 
on Riches, which were an exquifite ‘* de- 
{cription of an old lady dying, and ju 
raifing herfelf up, and blowing out a little 
end of a candle, that ftood by her bedfide, 
with her lait breath. The lines here 
alluded to are in Pope’s Effay on ** the 
Characters of Men,” epiftle 1, and the 
note informs us, was a faét told the poet 
of a lady at Paris. 
«¢ The frugal crone, whom praying priefts 
attend, 
Still tries to fave the hallowed tapex’s 
Mona. L¥ Mac, No. 64. 
end 3 
Extraéts from the Port- Folio of a Adan of Letters, 
Q4A1 
Colle&ts her breath, as ebbing life retires, 
For one puff nevre, and in that puff ex- 
pikes,” 
“SIR GODFREY KNELLER. 
Kneller was a man to be tickled with 
flattery. He was very covetous, but then 
he was very vain, and a great glutton. 
Old Tonfon, the bookfeller, got many 
pictures from him by playing thefe pafions 
againft the other. He would tell Kneller 
he was the greateft mafter that ever was, 
and fend him every now andthen a ene 
of venifon, and dozens of claret. ¢ O my 
G—"" {aid he once to Vandergucht, 6 this 
old Jacob loves me; he is a very good 
man; you fee he loves me, for he jends 
me good things; the venifon was fit 
Keller would fay to Cock, the «uétio- 
neer, and theChriftie of his age, * By G— 
T love you, Mr. Cock, and I wilido you 
good; but you muft do fomething for me 
too, Mr. Cock; one hand can wath the 
face, but two hands wath one ano- 
ther.” 
If you would be tickled, tickle firft, 
feems to have been the maxim of Sir God- 
frey ; or, according to the Latin adage, . 
manus manum fricat—put water in the 
pump ! q 
ANECDOTES of LUTHER. 
Dr. Martin Luther faid, in the year 
1546, at Eifleben, a fhort time before 
his death : “ I have, in my life time, been 
a fhicld of peace to the pope; but there 
will come one after me, who will fhave 
the crown of the popith priefts witha biunt 
{cythe till the blood comes.”’ This anec- 
dote is related likewile in the Table Talk 
(part xxi. p. 1367, of Luther’s Works), 
but with the omiffion of the latter words, 
the fulfilment of which has taken place in 
our days. 
In a copy of the firft volume of Lu- 
ther’s Tranflation of the Bible, printed at 
Wittenberg in 1541, 1n two volumes, 
Paul Luther, the {fon of the reformer, 
wrote as follows : 
<< Anno 1544. 
«« My deareft father, of bleffed memory, 
related in the pretence of his guefts and of 
us all, the whole hiftory of his journey to 
Rome, which he was obliged to undertake 
to fettle fome affairs; and, among other 
things, he confeffed with great joy, that 
he had there, through the fpirit of Jelus 
Chrilt, been brought to a knowledge of 
the verity of the holy gofpel, in this man- 
ner: as he was going to perform his 
preces graduales im fcala Laterana, the 
faying of the prophet Habakkuk i1. 4. — 
which Paul has introduced in the firft 
Ti chapter 
