CORRESPONDENCE.

ON THE NECESSITY OF A CRITICAL AND STANDARD EDITION OF THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,-While the innumerable editions that have issued from the press in this and other lands of the immortal allegory of John Bunyan afford a testimony of the highest kind to the wonderful powers of his gifted mind, there have resulted from the absence of a recognized standard, great and singular variations from the text as left by the author himself. Till the recent discovery of the existence of his first editions of both parts, no means existed of giving a text pure and free from alteration. It therefore appeared most suitable that a baptist society should present to the world the work of this great baptist writer in all its integrity; which the Hanserd Knollys Society is able to do by the kind permission of the owners of the unique copies of these invaluable books. Many thousand variations have been already discovered from the text as left by Bunyan, and the two communications below, which I have the pleasure of forwarding to you, will afford curious examples of the nature of the adulterations to which the work has been subjected. The first is from the editor of the proposed edition, George Offor, Esq.; and the second from the Rev. Joseph A. Warne of Frankford, near Philadelphia, United States, contained in a letter to our treasurer, Charles Jones, Esq.

In all these editions, where James is catechised by Prudence in the house called Beautiful, he is asked, "How doth God the Son save thee?" but, omitting the answer and the next question of the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, he is represented as saying, "By his illumination, by his renovation, and by his preservation," thus ascribing to the Saviour the work of the Holy Spirit. Mr. Mason, in his first edition of the Pilgrim, with Notes, expresses his surprise that Bunyan could have fallen into so serious an error, but at the end of the volume apologises for having been himself misled by the copy from which he printed. In later editions, particularly the splendid one by Southey, and that odd oblong book by the Arts Union, a very droll error is perpetuated. Christian narrates to Hopeful the experience of Little-Faith, when in the prospect of death he was attacked by the three sturdy rogues, Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt. Hopeful swaggers, and Christian points out to him the power of these enemies by the experience of David, of Heman, of Hezekiah, and of Peter. Heman, of the eighty-eighth Psalm, by a typographical error, was soon changed to Haman. But in Southey's, in the Arts Union, and many other editions, the editors, sagely considering that Haman was an exalted sinner, but not a godly champion in his day,' altered the name to Mordecai!!! and thus it appears in many thousand copies. In the conversation between Faithful and Talkative about Mr. Offor says, "Grievous errors have the difference between an outcry against sin crept into this popular work, and the public and an abhorrence of sin, what could induce have never yet read the Pilgrim's Progress as the editor of the Tract Society's edition to John Bunyan sent it forth, with new additions change the word "holy" for "chaste?" or and improvements and with some omissions why did he omit a line in the six line stanza in the ten or eleven impressions printed in his over the stile leading to Doubting Castle? life time, all of which will be exhibited in our When Christian and Ignorance are talking of new edition. I trust that when this is known, a man's opinion of himself, Bunyan says, all our subscribers will with peculiar satisfac- When our thoughts of our hearts;' why tion receive the forthcoming volume. An spoil the passage by altering it to, the accurate collation of the book in common thoughts of our hearts ? Or where Hopeful use, with those published by its author, has gives Christian an account of his conversion, excited my extreme surprise that so many Bunyan represents him as saying, "I have droll and singular errors have never yet been committed sin enough in one duty to send me detected and exposed. I give you the to hell,' why alter it to one day?' &c. That following specimens: The editions con- Southey or the Arts' Union should have idered as most correct were those published made blunders is not so surprising, but we by the aid of a subscription, and known as expected better things of the Religious Tract having Sturt's plates; these were printed Society. These are only a sample of the from time to time in a handsome 8vo. volume, whole volume, and if instead of the applicaabout eight editions between the years 1728 tion of a few months, the half of my sexageand 1775, all of them playing at follow-my-narian existence had been devoted to restoring leader. Where Christian says of Talkative, "The brute in his kind serves God far better than he," they have it, "The brewer," &c., an alteration which in these days of temperance cannot for one moment be tolerated.

the text of this inimitable volume to its pristine purity, instead of regretting the sacrifice, I should consider it the greatest honour that could have been conferred upon my humble name. My hope is to send the

pilgrims forth exactly as they came from the pen of the author, even to minute accuracy of punctuation, the use of capitals and italics; and I am delighted to find that the pilgrims look much the best in their original dress, and that even in these little points the printer must have followed the autograph of the author."

EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT.

The annual meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland is to be held this year at Norwich, on the 29th of June and following days.

An advertisement on the wrapper of our number for February announced the appointment of Mr. Blair, one of the evangelists of the Baptist Union of Scotland, to visit the south, and solicit aid on behalf of the operations of our northern brethren. His non

by the dangerous illness of Mrs. Blair; and it is probable that the task that had been assigned to him will be performed by one of the secretaries of the Union, Mr. Henderson of Galashiels.

"Something Wrong." Some verses under this title appeared in our last, which were taken avowedly from an American journal, and were supposed to be of American origin. We have since received a small volume con

taining them, published last year in London, entitled, "The Struggle of Freedom, and other Poems, by M. C. Cooke." Why the American editor should not have acknowledged the source whence he derived them we know not; but we think the author is to it, when an appropriation of this sort entitled to say, that whatever may have led is made covertly, "There must be something wrong."

Mr. Warne says, "There is another matter of interest to your Society, and to the denomination in America, to which I beg to call your attention. I do not positively know whether you intend to re-publish all the writings of baptists who lived and are well-arrival has been occasioned, we are informed, nigh forgotten, or only such of their works as are not generally known. If the former be your intention, of course the Pilgrim's Progress will be among your books; and I earnestly hope it may. Not that we have no copies of that work in this country; but we have, I fear, very few correct and faithful copies. I have examined three editions, one by the American Tract Society, one by the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and one by our own Baptist Publication Society, and I can almost venture to risk my right-hand that they are all wrong; and wrong on the very point which makes the Pilgrim's Progress a baptist book. I read that book in childhood and youth, and in my Christian infancy, till I almost knew it by heart. I feel confident that all its details, especially those of its allegory proper, are correctly registered in my memory; and there it is clearly recorded, that when Christian had reached the house called Beautiful, on the top of the Hill Difficulty, after conversation with the porter and Prudence, Piety and Charity, before he supped with the family, he was washed to cleanse him from the filth (or 'defilement,' but I think it is filth') he had contracted in his journey:-in plain English, before he entered the church, after examination had of his conversion, he was baptized. But these three editions contain nothing like it; they tell us that after conversation had with Christian by the above-named persons, they gave him something to drink,' and occupied the time till supper was ready in conversation. Now you will perceive, from the narration of these facts, what it is which I desire of your society, viz., that if possible they will print from editions of the respective works which were issued under the eyes of the authors themselves, that we may be certain of having what they say, and not what others of different sentiments put into their

mouths."

It will be seen that Mr. Warne writes in ignorance of the fact that the reprint he urges had been already determined upon. I remain, dear sir,

Yours most truly,

EDW. B. UNDERHILL,
Hon. Sec.

London, March 17, 1847.

Our brethren in Calcutta have commenced a new periodical entitled "The Oriental Baptist." In the first number we are gratified to see, with some original pieces, some taken with due acknowledgment from the Baptist Magazine, especially the introductory essay to the course of Family Bible Reading, and the Family Bible Reading for January, which it is the design of the conductors of the work to continue. In the tables of the rising and setting of the sun, which of course are altered to suit the meridian of Calcutta, it is curious to observe that on the first day of January the sun rises at forty-two minutes after six, and on the last day of the month, so slow is the progress, only one minute earlier. It sets at the commencement of the month at twenty-six minutes after five, and at forty-six minutes after five on the 31st.

Our friend Mr. Acworth, the respected president of Horton College, Bradford, has received from the University of Glasgow, in which he studied, the degree of LL.D. The degree of D.D. conferred by an American college a little more than four years ago, he declined to accept, for reasons which he gave to the world in our pages; but as those reasons are not applicable to the present case, his friends will address him, we presume, by his new title, without hesitation.

MISSION-HOUSE, CHAPEL, AND ADJACENT MOSQUE, MUTTRA, HINDOSTHAN.

ASIA.

CALCUTTA.

Our most recent letters from the metropolis of British India were written on the twenty-first of January. Mr. Wenger had just recovered from a severe illness, and had been called to endure family afflictions. Mr. Pearce had recently returned from a long trip up the Hooghly and Jellinghee rivers, and then down the main stream of the Ganges, whence he struck off for Barisal. The chief object was the benefit of his health and that of Mrs. Pearce; but he and two native preachers embraced very numerous opportunities for preaching and distributing books, and spent three days among the Barisal converts. Messrs. Leslie and Page had attended the Saugor mela: in conjunction with some missionaries of other societies they preached from ten till five, on two successive days, to very attentive crowds-several hundreds of people at a time. The Calcutta Missionary Herald is discontinued as a separate publication, being superseded by the Oriental Baptist, which will include such intelligence as the Herald was accustomed to contain, with other articles such as are usually found in magazines. A periodical in the Bengali language was commenced also on the first of January, each number to consist of twenty-four pages, designed principally for the benefit of native Christians.

The following pleasant narrative is furnished by Mr. Pearce:

"A little while after this some eight or ten of our neighbours came to our house, at a time when I was reading the Mahabharat. Seeing me reading, some one requested me to read a little to them. I asked them what they would like to hear. They replied, 'Read about the battle in which Droun was killed.' On finishing the story, I observed to them that Krishna was the occasion of Droun's death, by inducing King Judhistir to assert a falsehood; and, remembering what I had read in the True Refuge, I added, if Krishna were God, how could he encourage lying? and some other remarks against Krishna. On this they remarked, 'This man talks like a Christian, how did he learn all this? My uncle then confessed that he had given me a Christian book some little while before. They then said, Take care, and do not allow him to read it any more, otherwise he will be ensnared, and become a Christian.' Alarmed, therefore, at what the neighbours said, my uncle shortly after, without my knowledge, took the tract from the place where I was accustomed to keep it, and destroyed it. Finding the tract was gone, I was much con cerned to know how I should get another. A few days after, however, two native Christian preachers came to our village, when I inquired of them if they could supply me with the tract Satya-Asray; they replied they had no copies of the tract which I asked for, but they could give me Satya Dharmma Prakash, Muki Mimangsa, and the Bhrum Nasuk. I took those three books with joy, and hil

I am happy to say that a case of some interest has come to my knowledge recently, of our tracts being made, under the divine blessing, the means of the conversion of an individual, who is now a member of one of the baptist churches in the south. Having heard the particulars of this happy event from the man's own lips, I requested him to put the account to paper, which he has done, and from the original now before me I give you the details. He says, "When I was young I learned to read in the village school, and afterwards was fond of reading the Hindu shastras. When I was about seventeen years of age, my uncle one day having received from some one a copy of the tract called Satya-Asray (the True Refuge), brought and gave it to me. I was much pleased with the printed character, and tried to read it. As I read on, the dialogue form excited my interest further, and I thought I will see what this is all about, and who has the best of the arguments, the old or the young man. As I proceeded, the old man seemed to me to leave the young man without any answer, as he showed the vanity of debtas, holy places, washing in the Ganges, &c. He further proved that our God Krishna had caused King Judhistir to assert a falsehood. It then occurred to me, that if Krishna were truly God, he would not encourage lying. I concluded, therefore, that he was neither God nor a saviour, and afterwards I learned from the tract that Jesus Christ had given his life for me, and is the only true Saviour.