unnecessary to go on,-that his lordship's patience was evidently at an end,—and that he wished to be a speaker, and no longer a hearer. I answered in the affirmative; and said, " for the present we must finish the subject, that we might enter into some general conversation." A conversation for more than an hour now followed, chiefly confined to his lordship and myself, though N. and M. occasionally made a remark.

His lordship said, that when he was young, his mother brought him up strictly; that he had access to a great many theological works, and remembered that, among others, he was particularly pleased with Barrow's writings, and that he also went regularly to church. He said that he was not an infidel who denied the Scriptures, and wished to remain in unbelief,-on the contrary, he was very desirous to believe, as he experienced no happiness in having his religious opinions so unsteady and unfixed. "But he could not," he added, "understand the Scriptures." He said, "that those people who conscientiously believe, he should always respect, and was always disposed to trust in them more than in others; but he had met with so many, whose conduct differed from the principles which they professed,

and who seemed to profess these principles, either because they were paid to do it, or from some other motive, which an intimate acquaintance with their character would enable one to detect; that he had seen few, if any, whom he could rely upon as truly and conscientiously believing the Scriptures." I said, "it was to be regretted that there were so many who professed their conviction of the truth of Christianity, whose conduct afforded reason to suspect the reality of their belief; but that we must not judge too harshly, since we do not know how sincerely these people have repented, and how much they have struggled to preserve themselves from those errors and infirmities, which cause at once a scandal to their profession and expose them to reprehension. As an exception proves the rule, so the existence of hypocrites, even were the people, his lordship had met with, such,-proved the existence of sincere believers: it would be unjust to entertain a general suspicion against all Christians, because one has been so unfortunate as to meet only with those whose sincerity might fairly be distrusted.”

"What do you think," said his lordship, "of Sir William Hamilton's work?" I replied, "that I thought very little of it. He had plunged into

all the obscurities of ancient mythology, and from what was uncertain in itself, had drawn what he deemed certain conclusions, although their absurdity and extravagance were obvious to every man of sound judgment, whatever might be his creed." "Well," said his lordship," Bellamy is going to give us a new translation of the Bible, which is to clear up many of our difficulties.”—“ The public," I replied, "has already decided upon the presumption and incapacity of Bellamy for the task which he has undertaken, judging from the specimens which he has already laid before it."

"Do you understand," said his lordship," the Scriptures in their original languages?" I replied, "that I understood the original language of the New, but not that of the Old Testament; that I had commenced the study of the language of the Old Testament, and should have finished it long ago, if I had any reason to doubt the accuracy of our various translations."-" The apostles," said his lordship, having written in good objection," I answered,

from ignorance or malice,

are accused of not Greek."-" This is an

which has been made

or from a want of due

consideration of the subject. They do not write, it is true, in the style of Demosthenes or Thu

cydides, any more than the majority of our authors write in the style of Robertson, Gibbon, or Johnson. If we admit them to have written by inspiration, it would be absurd to expect that God would have chosen the artificial forms and turns of expression, which to our taste might appear elegant and fine, in conveying a revelation of his will, which was intended for all mankind, of whom the poor, and the simple, and the illiterate, constitute the majority. We have, in other parts of the Scriptures, innumerable examples of the grand and sublime in writing, which uninspired writers have never equalled; but even there, the grandeur and sublimity consist entirely in the sentiments and thoughts, while the language in which they are expressed is invariably plain and simple. Fine writing among uninspired authors consists chiefly in the turns of expression. Now, the whole of the New Testament consists of narration of facts; of an enunciation of precepts; of close reasoning from, or illustration of the first, and of admonitions or exhortations to the last,-language which was plain, perspicuous, and precise; neither too elevated nor vulgar, such as the most learned and the most fastidious could not despise, and the poorest could easily comprehend, was

E

best suited to the subject, and, consequently, was that which was adopted. The style of the Septuagint, and that of the New Testament, are precisely alike in purity and correctness; and the few Latinisms introduced in that of the latter, were names of things which were not known to the ancient Greeks. It would have been strange had the Apostles used a description of these things, instead of using the names by which they were known and understood, merely because ancient writers knew neither the names nor the things which they signified."

His lordship had taken up Scott during the time that some general conversation took place, and glanced over some of the pages. He now said, "Your favourite Scott does not say that it was the devil who tempted Eve, nor does the Bible say a word about the Devil. It is only said that the serpent spoke, and that it was the subtlest of all the beasts of the field." "There is, however," I replied, "no great difficulty or doubt on the subject. As beasts have not the faculty of speech, the just inference is, that the beast was only an instrument made use of by some invisible and superior Being. The Scriptures accordingly tell us, that the Devil is the father of lies, the lie