perfect reflection, it ought to be subjected to | popular form before us, of the wrong version a course of continuous and careful revision, in the text and the right version in the note. till it shall. But even supposing that this But whatever course our ecclesiastical auconfidence of the people in the immaculate thorities may pursue, they may depend upon excellence of the English Bible were as deeply it, that the Bible will not long be allowed to impressed and generally diffused as some of remain in its present mutilated and unsatisus imagine, and that hitherto we have evinced factory condition. Whatever the public may a salutary caution in respecting it, the time demand will, in some shape, be supplied. for such forbearance has now ceased. The The move now taken by the Religious Tract popular belief in its perfection must grad- Society will not end in the present publicaually fade away before the cheap dissemina- tion. The more the Committee of Managetion of such works as that of which the title ment dare, the more adventurous will they stands at the head of the present article, and grow in daring. After no very long interval in every page of which some error of the from the completion of the Bible, we may translation is exposed, and an amendment expect to see the reading of the text and of suggested. For instance, on the 819th page, the notes change places, and a revised edition which contains no more than seventeen verses of the Sacred Scriptures appearing under the of the 8th chapter of Jeremiah, we meet auspices and from the press of the Tract with the following corrections: Society.

Text. "Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return?" Note. "These are proverbial questions, "Will not those who fall try to rise? Will not one who has taken a wrong course turn back?" Text. —“The crane and the swallow." (Jeremiah, viii. 7.)

Note.-"Rather the swallow and the

crane.

Text.-"Lo, certainly in vain made he it (i. e. the Law);

The pen of the scribes is in vain." (Jeremiah, viii. 8.)

Note. Rather, But, behold the false pen

of the scribes hath turned it into falsehood." " Text."When I would comfort myself against sorrow,

My heart is faint in me." (Jeremiah, viii. 18.) Note. "Rather, My joy within me is sorrow, my heart within me is faint.'"'

Text.- -"Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people,

Because of them that dwell in a far country." (Jeremiah, viii. 19.)

Yet, this is an evil which we most earnestly deprecate. With all our anxiety to witness the issue of a corrected translation of the Sacred Scriptures, which we believe would most powerfully serve to direct attention to them, and produce among us the most wholesome kind of religious revival; we should deeply regret to find it attempted without authority, at the expense of an unlearned society, and under the direction of the right understanding of which the salvaan anonymous editor. The Holy Bible, on lightly or irreverently dealt by. What we tion of us all depends, ought not to be thus should desire would be to see such a company of erudite persons appointed by the Royal Head of the Anglican Church for the execution of the task required, as were selected by James the First, for the last revision of the Sacred Volume- but with this addition, that they should constitute a permanent commission; that when any vacancy occurred in their body, a successor should be chosen in his place, from among the most eminent Hebrew and Greek and English scholars of These alterations are not, perhaps, of any the Kingdom; and that the important office very material consequence, but they are all of guarding, superintending, and perfecting found in the same page, to which we casually the text of the Inspired Writings, both in turned, and which affords no more than a the original languages and in the translafair sample of the rest. The corrections tion, should be committed to their charge. proposed in this book are multitudinous. In the performance of these sacred duties, They are also, for the most part, very judicious, and their appearance in a work of this description not only proves that our Common Version requires a diligent revision, but that the great body of the people are aware of it, and that their trust in its perfection, which has been so long opposed against every suggestion of improvement, can no longer be alleged as a pretext for delaying the attempt. No overweening confidence in the English Bible, even if it now existed, could be long preserved in face of the exhibition which the Annotated Paragraph Bible" sets in a

Note. Rather, Of the daughter of my people from a far country.'

they would be expected to avail themselves of every discovery for the purification of the original; to suggest such improvements in the translation as might best serve to disseminate among the ignorant the benefit of their researches; and, above all, to publish, from time to time, and at no long intervals, under the sanction of their joint authority, improved editions of the Hebrew, Greek, and English Scriptures. By the help of Divine Providence to the labors of so competent a body, we might reasonably hope to find ourselves eventually in possession of such a ver

sion of the Bible as should correctly repre- | christian differences diminish, as the sense of sent the sense of its inspired authors; and the authorities to which they all appeal was we do most seriously believe that the piety set more fully and distinctly and accurately of the people would increase, and their un- before them.

KRUMMACHER AND THOLUCK.

REV. ABEL STEVENS, writing from Paris, describes two of the distinguished members of the Conference as follows:

is personally a delightful man. He appears to be between fifty and sixty; his hair is light, but not gray; it is combed sleekly over his ears; his eyes, peering through bright gold spectacles, are blue, and expressive of mildness of character notwithstanding the roaring ferocity of his voice. He is in good condition, inclining a little to episcopal dimensions. There is a peculiar blandness and youthfulness about him which recalls to you the title of " the ever youthful," which was applied to his great countryman, the poet Klopstock.

Near him sits KRUMMACHER, the famous German preacher and author. His "Elijah the Tishbite" is well known in America. When I told him, the other night, at a teaparty, the number of some of its editions among us, and that it was read in our logcabins, in California and Oregon, he seemed hardly to believe me, for the extent of the American press is scarcely known in Europe; Glance down from the platform, and you and when I assured him that if he would see, not far from it, another noted German, come to New York we could place him in but a perfect contrast to Krummacher; it is sections of the city where for whole squares THOLUCK. You would single him out from he could read German "signs," and hear all this throng as the least important, the the children playing in German, and if he least interesting man present, not to say the liked lager bier,' drown himself in an most ugly and the most inferior. He is ocean of it, he laughed as you might sup- small in stature, stoops somewhat, has a low, pose a lion would were it the habit of that wrinkled, but broad forehead, and rugged, noble creature to laugh at all, his mighty uninteresting features. He is one of those voice ringing into the adjacent apartments. men whom it seems impossible for the best But suppose not that there was anything tailor to improve into ordinary dignity; his peculiarly humorous in my remarks, or un- clothes hang and dangle about him. Thocommon in Krummacher's uproarious out- luck would be shabby in the robes of royalbreaks. It is the "vocal style" of the man. ty. But this great man has done a mighty What the watchman said of George Whit- work, borne a mighty testimony in Gerfield can be said of this great German: "He many. His name and his rough person are preaches like a lion!" He not only preach- dear to all good men in Europe. He is said es, but prays so, and makes speeches, and to be very nervous," and usually in poor says grace" at the table in the same health, but he works like a giant. There is manner. He introduced our public dinner a great lesson on that strange agonized face the other day with a "grace" in German, of his. I thought of it, as he was relating which was roared out as if addressed to an to me, the other night, the history of one of army half a mile off. Of course this pecu- his American students, who, while in Gerliarity surprises everybody at first, but you many, had passed through the soul-strugsoon get accustomed to it. Whether it gles of German doubt. If we come out arises from good Gothic heartiness or is a triumphantly from such conflicts," said the vocal defect I know not; but be this as it German professor, "we are strong forever," may, Krummacher is considered the most - and he darted away into the throng of eloquent man now in Europe. He is chap- company as if struck by a sudden and irrelain to the King of Prussia, and some of his sistible impulse. sermons are said to be like earthquakes. He

even "

From Household Words.

PIERRE ERARD.

ON Monday, the 20th of August last, when all Paris, and all its vast crowds of visitors, were agog to see Queen Victoria in the Champs Elysées, a stately hearse, followed by mourning coaches and a large procession, crossed the avenue, and changed for a moment the thoughts of the sight-seers. The question, "Whose is it? whose is it?" brought out the answer, “It is the funeral of Pierre Erard, the pianoforte maker" the last of his

name.

the Duchesse de Villeroy, wão occupied herself much with art and music, she offered him a lodging in her hotel, which he accepted. At this period pianos were little more than curiosities. A few amateurs only had obtained them from Germany and England. Sébastien constructed one for the Duchesse de Villeroy-the first he ever made. The numerous orders he received caused him to send for his brother, Jean Baptiste, to come and help him. Quitting the Hôtel de Villeroy, he founded his house in the Rue de Bourbon, in the Faubourg St. Germain. By this first step (says M. Adams, of the Institute, patriotically) he emancipated his country from tribute to foreigners; English and German pianos gave place everywhere to French pianos, and the instrument which had been only exceptionally used came into general request.

Without prejudging the questions of rivalry and merit between the French and English pianoforte-makers, and while stating with all possible reserve the claims put forth by the Erards, we think part of their tale worth telling to our readers, most of whom must have heard of Erard's pianos. The genealogy of these instruments is the psaltery or dulciThe luthiers, or makers of musical instrumer, the clavichord (the tinkling grandfather ments, who bought and sold foreign pianos, of the pianoforte), the harpsichord, and then found the new factory injurious to their comthe pianoforte the soft-loud. merce. They made a seizure in it, under the pretext that the brothers Erard were not members of the Corporation of Fanmakers to which the luthiers belonged. Sébastien Erard had powerful friends, however, and he obtained a brevet from Louis the Sixteenth which delivered him completely from the persecuting corporation. This document has the rare merit of being a pleasant specimen of the paternal government of the Bourbons; we translate it entire :

Sébastien Erard was born at Strasbourg in 1752, and was the eldest of the four children of an upholsterer. His father sent him, when he was eight years old, to schools in which he was taught the elements of architecture, perspective drawing, and practical geometry. His father having married very late in life, was surprised by death before his children reached an age at which they could be useful to their mother or support themselves. Sébastien Erard became the head of a family at the age of sixteen. As his native seven hundred and eighty-five, the king being This day, the fifth of February, one thousand town did not afford him the scope of which he at Versailles informed that Mr. Sébastien Erard felt the need, he set off courageously for has succeeded by a new method of his invention Paris. There he obtained employment in the to improve the instrument called a forté-piano; that he has even obtained the preference over shop of a maker of clavichords, who was a those made in England, of which he makes a man mean enough to dismiss Sébastien be-commerce in the city of Paris, and his majesty cause he wished to understand all that he saw. His second employer having received an order to make a clavichord of an extraordinary kind, found it required a number of mechanical contrivances of which he felt himself to be incapable. Thanks to Sébastien, however, the clavichord was finished and pronounced a masterpiece. When the nominal maker was questioned by competent persons, he could neither show nor explain the mechanism, and was forced to refer them to his assistant. Henceforth Sébastien Erard found himself connected with distinguished made a point of extolling him.

persons, who
Presented to

wishing to fix the talents of Mr. Erard in the said city, and to give him testimonies of the protection with which he honors those who, like him, have by assiduous labor contributed to the useful and agreeable arts, has permitted him to make, to cause to be made, and to sell in the city and faubourgs of Paris, and wherever it may seem to him good, forté-pianos; and to workmen, the wood, the iron, and all the other employ there, whether by himself or by his materials necessary to the perfection or the ornament of the said instrument without his being liable on this account to be troubled or disturbed by the guards, syndics, and adjutants of the corporations and committees of arts and trades for any cause or under any pretext whatever; under the conditions, nevertheless, by the said

commands and Finances.

(Signed) LOUIS.

LE BARON DE BRETEUIL.

The chief improvements in musical instruments due to the Erards are, the double action of the harp and the double escapement of the piano. Sébastien Erard imagined the improvements, and his brother, Jean Baptiste, and his nephew, Pierre, brought them to practical perfection.

Mr. Erard of conforming himself to the regu- Organs have occupied the talents of the lations and ordinances concerning the discipline Erards, as well as harps and pianos. Sébasof journeymen and workmen, and of not admitting into his workshops any but those who tien Erard applied to the organ his system of shall have satisfied the aforesaid regulations. expression by the fingers. An organ which And for assurance of his will, his majesty has he had constructed in the chapel of the Tuilercommanded me to expedite to the aforesaid Mr. ies was destroyed by the insurgents of July, Erard the present brevet, which he has chosen 1830. Luckily, the whole of the mechanism to sign with his own hand, and to be countersigned by me, Secretary of State, and of his of the expression had been preserved in the factory. Pierre Erard was authorized by the present Emperor to construct another organ in the Imperial chapel; an order which he promptly executed. The new instrument is admired as a chef d'œuvre of mechanical art. The financial career of the Erards was chequered. The political events in France to wards the end of the first empire had an evil influence upon commerce, and the Paris branch of the house was forced to suspend The double action made the harp a com- payments in 1813, overwhelmed by a debt of plete instrument, on which inharmonically more than one million three hundred thoumodulated music could be played. Sébastien sand francs, or fifty-two thousand pounds. Erard had been induced to turn his attention The establishment was not, however, totally to the improvement of the harp by Krum- crippled; for, aided by the prosperity of the pholtz, a celebrated harpist of Paris. After London house, the firm paid off this debt in he had been working for a year, Beaumar- ten years. chais, author of the Barber of Seville, who was at once an author, a politician, a musician, and a mechanician, on examining his plans, told him frankly that, as they were impracticable, he would do well to abandon them. Erard did not heed his advice, and was on the point of obtaining success when Krumpholtz connected his interests with a maker of harps upon the old models. Erard felt that success was impossible in Paris if he encountered the opposition of the harpists with Krumpholtz at their head, and left for London. There he continued his experiments, finished his improvements, and established a house. The double action cost him twelve years of anxious toil; and, although he took out his first patent in 1801, he did not complete his invention until 1811. His immediate pecuniary success was extraordinary. He sold £25,000 worth of the new harps in London alone in the first year.

The double escapement of the piano was not made public until 1823. The wonders achieved on the piano by such performers as Lizt and Thalberg are due to the scope given to their perseverance and genius by mechanism which makes the instrument capable of expressing the sweetest, the most powerful, and the most varied sounds, and the most delicate repetitions.

The history of the fortunes of the Erards is picturesquely connected with the beautiful Château de la Muette, at Passy, near Paris, a château which may be seen from the end of the lake recently made in the Bois de Boulogne. When Sébastien Erard was a young man, newly arrived in Paris, he waited one Sunday at the gate of the château to see the Queen Marie Antoinette, who resided in it, come out in her carriage. Sébastien, who was in the midst of the crowd when she passed, cried "Vive la Reine!" with a powerful voice and an Alsacian accent. The Queen remarked the fine young man, whom she mistook for one of her own countrymen. She spoke to him, and asked him of what country he was? He replied, "I am French at heart by my birth, as your majesty is by your marriage.'

The queen ordered the Swiss guards at the gate to allow him to walk over the garden and see the grounds. Sébastien went in, and spent the day in admiring the magnificent alleys and fairy-like walks of the park. A few years later Sébastien Erard constructed a piano for Marie Antoinette, which combined several remarkable inventions, to adapt the instrument to the limited resources of her voice. About half a century after the Sunday on which the Queen of France permitted

the young
clavichord-maker to walk over the
gardens, the Château de la Muette was for
sale, and in 1823 Sébastien Erard was the
purchaser, and installed himself in it with his
family. He took a great pleasure in repeat-
ing the story of his first interview with Marie
Antoinette.

bered. He attended to the execution of the pianos, and raised the house to its greatest pitch of prosperity and renown.

The Château de la Muette plays once more a part in the history of the Erards. In 1852 there was a railway executed which environs Paris. Pierre Erard saw it in his garden, and heard the engines shrieking underneath his windows. It was too much for him. He became a mental wreck, and died in August, 1855.

Jean Baptiste Erard died in 1826. He had been extremely useful to his brother in superintending the execution of his designs and inventions. In 1831, Sébastien died. During the period in which the man of genius The Erards have wisely stood by their own of the family was at the head of it, uncon- order. When Jean Baptiste might have obtrolled and unassisted, the details of execution tained, by means of her fortune, a husband were neglected, the financial aspect of the for his daughter from among the nobility of business was lost sight of, and the instru- France, he referred Spontini, the composer, ments of the Erards lost somewhat of their who could sympathise with the just pride and repute. Pierre Erard, born in 1794, was left feel the inventive and industrial merits of the sole executor of his uncle; and, when the in- Erards. Their family is now extinct and a ventory of the state of the affairs was sub-century elapsing from 1752 to 1855 rounds mitted to a London attorney, Pierre was ad- the story from the cradles of the orphans of vised to renounce the succession. He had, however, more confidence in the capabilities of the business; and continued it with such success that in a few years he extinguished the enormous debt with which it was encum

the poor cabinet-maker of Strasbourg to the hearse of the wealthy tradesman which divided the attention of the Parisians with the equipage of Queen Victoria.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM COBBETT. - and who sat for Oldham in the first reformed Those of your correspondents who admire "pure parliament, died at his farm called Nutwood, in Saxon and short sentences," will forgive me for the adjoining parish of Ash, in 1835. Assuredsaying a few words respecting the humble birth-ly that modest grave has closed over a thorough place of William Cobbett, than whom no one Englishman, be his faults what they may. drew more largely from the "well of English Notes and Queries. undefiled."

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. The 2thake may

In the little town of Farnham, in Surrey, stands a roadside inn, with the sign of the " Jolly Farmer." It is without beauty, it is hardly be perfectly cured without pain by the French countrified; nevertheless it possesses great inter-specific.-Mercury.

est for the tourist; for here it was that Cobbett We wonder if the specific is hard 2 take — if was born, in 1762. On the sign-post appear his not we will try it 4thwith. Ex. name, and the dates of his birth and death. If cured it will be a 1der, indeed. Trans. Doubtless the landlord finds this notice far more 10derly, gentlemen, 'tis a sore subject. — Ledattractive than the ordinary "neat wines, good entertainment for man and beast." In the parlor is a cupboard, with this inscription :

"This cupboard was the property of the late William Cobbett, Esqr., M. P. for Oldham. He was born 1762. His great light was extinguished 1835."

The good people of Farnham are justly proud of their late fellow-townsman. They are delighted to show his birthplace, and to descant on the great powers of mind which distinguished him.

ger.

Yes, and requiring 40tude to bear. - Amer. Cour.

You are far too cruel, and should be more b9. · Amer. Courier.

Cobbett lies buried in the churchyard of his native town. Close by the church-door a plain Those who are so 4-2n8 as to do the above, will stone sets forth, that William Cobbett, one time find each paragraph to contain a slight 11 of hua sergeant-major in the king's army, who subse-mor.-N. Y. Globe.

quently obtained great fame as a political writer, 5.4 shame, gentlemen-5.4 shame!