count of the escape of a woman with her child on the ice of the Ohio river from Kentucky. The incident was given by an eye-witness, who had helped the woman to the Ohio shore. This formed the first salient point of the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin. She began to meditate. The first part of the book committed to writing was the death of Uncle Tom. This scene presented itself almost as a tangible vision to her mind while sitting at the communion table in Brunswick. She was perfectly overcome by it, and could scarcely restrain the convulsions of tears and sobbings. She hastened home and wrote it. From that time the story can less be said to have been composed by her than imposed upon her. Scenes, incidents, conversations rushed upon her, with a vividness and importunity that would not be denied. The book seemed to be a thing of mental birth, of divine thrusting on.' She was then in the midst of heavy domestic cares, with a young infant, with a party of pupils in her family, to whom she was imparting daily les sons with her own children, and with untrained servants requiring constant supervision. It was, nevertheless, in her mind day and night waiting to be written, and requiring but a few moments to bring each weekly instalment into visible characters."

John Van Zant, alias John Van Tromp, was a real character, and lived within ten miles of Cincinnati. The writer has been at his house,

a part of which is yet standing. Mrs. Stowe thus described him :

"Honest old John Van Tromp was once quite a considerable land owner and slave owner in Kentucky. Having nothing of the bear about him but the skin, and being gifted by nature with a great, honest, just heart, quite equal to his gigantic frame, he had been for several years witnessing with repressed uneasiness the working of a system equally bad for the oppressor and oppressed. At last one day John's great heart had swelled altogether too big to wear its bonds any longer. So he just took his pocketbook out of his desk and went over into Ohio and bought a quarter of a township of good rich land, made out free papers for all his people-men, women and children-packed them up in wagons and sent them off to settle down, and then honest John turned his face up the creek and sat quietly down on a snug, retired farm, to enjoy his conscience and his reflections."

The historical facts are that he removed to the beautiful Miami Valley in 1828 and settled upon a farm of 103 acres, just south and west of Sharon, in Hamilton County. Here he built his home and called his rich and fruitful farm Mount Pierpoint. From thence he turned none away who sought food and protection and. shelter. He said to one who was his friend and coadjutor that the "highest Christian duty is that of extending a helping hand to the poor and down

trodden, whether of the family of Japhet or Ham, and the performance of such duties is the great evidence of a Christian faith."

For living up to this rule of conduct he was siezed and imprisoned, his property attached-his farm taken and sold upon execution-to satisfy a judgment rendered against him in the Circuit Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout this celebrated. case, viz.: Wharton Jones against Van Zant, he was defended by Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Governor William H. Seward and the Hon. Flamen Ball. Between the rendering of the judgment and its execution he died, financially ruined and broken-hearted.

Upon his death, Edmund R. Glenn, the original proprietor of Glendale, was appointed his administrator. The name of Robert Crawford, late of Glendale, also appears upon the record of the case as surety for Van Zant-a noble act that released him from prison.

In stay of execution the following note was given by Glenn, the consideration for which was the adjudged value of the slave that procured his liberty through Van Zant's intervention :

The freedom of Henry, the slave, cost Van Zant: Judgment, $1,044-34; interest $65.24; auctioneers, $16.75; cost of Court, $125.68; U. S. Court, $333.68; commissions for sale of farm, $220.16; total, $1,860.85.

To pay this cost and judgment and other attendant expenses, "the good, rich farm" was sold, but not until death had come to his relief.

For years his body slept in an old burying ground near Sharon, marked by a slab bearing this inscription, dictated, it is said, by Salmon P. Chase:

In memory of John Van Zant,

Born in Fleming County, Kentucky,
Sept. 23, 1791.

Died at Mt. Pierpoint, May 25, 1847. "In him Christianity had a living witness; he saw God as the father and received every man as a brother. The cause of the poor, the widow, the orphan and the oppressed was his cause. He fed, sheltered and clothed and guarded them; he was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. He was a tender father; a devoted husband and a friend to all. He was what is here described because he was a Christian philanthropist, who practiced what he believed."

Not long since his remains were removed to Spring Grove Cemetery, where so many of his co-laborers in behalf of humanity-Levi Coffin, John Joliffe, Samuel Lewis, Thomas Emery, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Harwood, Mrs. Justice John McLean and Flamen Ball-now dreamlessly sleep. "Such a life and death," says Mrs. Stowe, "are not for pity. Not in the riches of omnipotence is the chief

glory of God, but in self-denying, suffering lives. And blessed are they whom He calls to fellowship with

Him, bearing their cross after Him with patience."

HENRY DUDLEY TEETOR.

1533.

AN edition of the Bible was printed in Greek and Latin, at Venice, by Frabres de Sabio. At the same place one was printed by L. A. Giunta or Junta. The Psalms of David were printed at Paris by Angelo Politiano, a copy of which is in the Lord Library. The Psalms were also printed by Penderanzi at Venice. The Bible was printed in Saxon at Lubeck, by L. Dietz. A Latin and Greek edition of the Bible was printed at Venice, by Lefevre d'Etaples. A Bible in German (Lutheran translation) also made its appearance in print during this year.

1534.

An edition of the Bible was printed at Paris, in ancient Greek, by Colinæus, who drew his text partly from the editions of Erasmus, partly from the Complutensian, and partly from MSS., which he collected for the purpose. This edition is remarkably

*Copyrighted 1889, by Charles W. Darling.

correct, but it met with undeserved neglect, and (as it was eclipsed by the more popular editions of Stephens) it had no share in the formation of the received text. An edition of the New Testament was printed at Venice by Giunta. Jaques Lefevre d'Etaples printed at Antwerp an edition of the Scriptures in French. W. Vorsterman published one edition of the Bible in Dutch and another in Belgic. An edition of the Bible in German was printed at Freyburg, by J. Fabrum. An edition of the Bible was printed in Latin, at Paris, by Robert Stephens. Tyndale published, at Antwerp, in English, a revised edition of the New Testament, with marginal notes and prologues. In it, the beginning and ending-of the lessons were marked. A copy of this edition was presented by Tyndale to the wife of Henry VIII., who at the time exercised such a wonderful influence over Henry's conduct. This Testament was printed on vellum and beautifully illuminated, with Anne Boleyn's name

distributed over the edges; "Anne" in red letters on the top, "Regina "Regina" on the front, and "Anglica" on the lower part. The shield on the title page had the arms of France and England. This book was bequeathed to the British Museum, in 1799, by Rev. C. M. Cracherode. In the preface of this edition Tyndale acknowledges his responsibility for the work, which acknowledgment caused his arrest. He was seized by the authorities of Antwerp, sent to Vilvoorden, and there sent to prison for eighteen months, when his body was burned October 6th, 1536. This edition forms one of the versions in the English Hexapla. Before this glorius martyr died, he left also to the people, and also to future generations, the English Pentateuch, or as the record stands-"The fyrst five bokes of Moses." The translation of the whole Bible in the German language, by Martin Luther, was completed during this year. The closing period of this great Reformer's life was devoted to theological writings, and to the completion of a commentary on Genesis. He died at his native place in Eisleben, on the 18th of February, 1546, and his remains were buried in the castle church at Wittenberg. Valuable aid was rendered by Philip Melancthon to Luther in his translation of the Bible, and this deeply religious student of the Bible in the original, greatly assisted Luther with his own vast learning. After the decease of Luther, he became the acknowledged

leader of the German Protestants. He breathed his last on the 19th of April, 1560, and was buried at Wittenberg, by the side of his friend, Martin Luther. The first Hebrew Bible, published by Gentile, was that printed at Basle (with a Latin translation in a parallel column), by Munster, a learned German. This version is confined to the Old Testament, and is held in high esteem on account of its strict fidelity to the Hebrew text. A Greek Testament was published at Paris by Simon de Colines.

A German version of the Bible, was undertaken by Dr. Johan Dietenberger, a Dominican monk, at the command of Albert II, with the design of counteracting the labors of Luther. It was printed in folio at Mentz. In this version Dietenberger had no recourse to the Hebrew and Greek originals, with which he admitted that that he was unfamiliar. Like Emser he only succeeded in producing a bad translation of Luther's Bible, but notwithstanding this, his version has gone through several editions. The Bible was translated by Olaus Petri and Laurentius into Swedish, from the German version. of Martin Luther. The Swedes are a branch of the same family as the Danes and Norwegian, and originally spoke the same language, at least the most ancient documents extant of old Swedish, are so similar in idiom to the coeval production in old Danish that little difference can be discerned between them. Political

separation has occasioned the modern. dialects of the old Norse to differ considerably, and now books require to be translated from one language into the other. The only region in which the old language is spoken with purity is in Dalecarlia, in the east of Sweden, where the Dalesmen still preserve traces of the manners and customs of their Gothic forefathers. A version of Luther's Bible was printed in Low German. Bugenhagius superintended the work, and the first edition passed through the press at Lubeck.

1535.

Coverdale's version of the entire Scriptures was printed on the continent, but at what place is uncertain. In producing the first complete Bible, printed in the English language, he accomplished what the combined efforts of the king, the two Houses of Convocation, and Archbishop Cranmer, had been unable to effect. Coverdale's translation, made at the request of Sir Thomas More, was not from the original tongues, but from the Vulgate, and Luther's Bible. In his preface he states he had used five different Latin and German versions in the formation of his own, and it is certain that he availed himself largely of the labors of Tyndale. This translation was regarded with favor by Henry VIII., and was the first English Bible allowed by royal authority. After Edward VI. came to the throne, Coverdale was appointed by the council one of the Royal Chaplains,

and subsequently raised to the See of Exeter. Bloody Queen Mary cast him into prison, but, through the influence of the King of Denmark, he was released from confinement, and permitted to leave England. During the reign of Elizabeth he returned and was appointed to the living of St. Magnus-the-Martyr, which benefice he resigned in two years. He died in 1569, at the age of eighty-one, and was buried under the chancel of St. Bartholomew's Church in London. This Bible is supposed by some to have been printed by Jacob van Meteren, at Antwerp, and sent in sheets to Nicholson, of Southwark, as the introduction of bound books into England was prohibited. There are others who assert that Christopher Froschover, of Zurich, was the printer of this work, while yet others with equal confidence say that Paris was the city from which it was issued; there are those also who assign it to Christian Egenolph, a skilled printer of Franfort. The evidence in favor of this view appears to be that Egenolph published in 1536 a volume of the Bible with cuts used in printing Coverdale's Bible, and the argument is that as he possessed those cuts he must have been the printer of this Bible. In Nicolson's edition, however, may be found the same woodcuts, and side ornaments of the titles, but some of the woodcuts in the text can hardly be looked upon without a shudder. There is only one of them (Jonah) not in that of the "Coverdale," which