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ENGLISH.

6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'

CANARA.

6. Then God said,' Let the orb of space be made in the middle of the water; and let it be separated from the water, on this side and on that.' ENGLISH.

7. And God made the firmament; and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.'

CANARA.

7. In this manner, God having created the orb of space, he divided the water which was under the orb of space and the water which was above the orb of space, and it was so.'

ENGLISH.

8. And God called the firmament heaven: and the evening and the morning were the second day.'

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CANARA.

8. He gave the name of air to the orb of space; and because in this manner the evening and the morning came to pass, this was the second day.'

Thus far, we apprehend, the native of the Canara district would be pretty well puzzled to understand what was the air, for he would find that it was twice created. His Bible would also give him the strange and unintelligible information that the succession of day and night was caused either by the orb of space receiving the name of air, or by the division of the said orb from the waters above and beneath it. He might take either or both interpretations, and certainly he would still be very far from a satisfactory solution of the difficulty, as well as from the meaning of the original.

ENGLISH.

11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so.'

CANARA.

11. And God said: Let the earth bring forth herbs, and plants yielding seeds; and, besides that, let the seeds, when produced, bring forth, according to their kind, trees producing fruits; and it was so.'

This version is, it must be admitted, a very odd and unintelligible medley, to say the least of it. We say nothing of its interpolations.

ENGLISH.

13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.'

CANARA.

13. And because, in this manner, the evening and the morning came to pass, this was the third day.'

ENGLISH.

14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.'

CANARA.

14. But God said: Let there be in the orb of space, that is to say, in the air, light to divide the day from the night, and let them be for making known the signs, and the seasons, the nights, and the days.'

The remainder of the chapter produces such a ridiculous effect in the Canara version, that we must give the English of it at length, placing by its side the translation, accepted in this country, also at length, in order that the comparison may be more satisfactorily made.

ENGLISH.

20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21. And God created great whales, and every living thing that moveth, which the waters brought forth, abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good.

22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after his kind: and it was so.

25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

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CANARA.

19.* Then God said, Let there be in the water a great many animated aquatic insects, and birds which are on the earth and which fly in the orb of space, that is to say, in the air.

20. In this manner God created a great many large fish which bring forth in the water, each after its kind, and the animated aquatic insects, and the different winged tribes, and birds of every description, and God saw that it was good.

21. Then God blessed them, saying, Fish, increase and multiply, and be ye abundant in the waves of the sea. Ye, also, birds, multiply on the earth.

( 22. And because in this manner the morning and the evening came to pass, this was the fifth day.

23. Then God said, Let the earth give birth to different species of living creatures, of cows, of animated insects, and to all the tribes of the beasts of the forests: and it was so done.

24. In this manner God created the different tribes of horned beasts, and the different tribes of animated insects on the earth, and he saw that it was good.

By some accident the Canara translators have confounded two of the verses together, so that their nineteenth verse corresponds, or rather was intended to correspond, with our twentieth.

26. And God said, Lat us make 25. Then God said, Let us create man in our image, after our likeness: man like to us, and having our form; and let them have dominion over the let him rule the aquatic insects of fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the sea, the birds which fly in the the air, and over the cattle, and over air, the beasts which have life, the all the earth, and over every creeping whole earth, and the insects which thing that creepeth upon the earth. move upon the earth.

27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them.

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28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat.

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26. In this manner God created a man, having his form. He created him having the figure of God; moreover, he created him male and female.

27. Then God blessing him, said, Increase and multiply, and filling the earth, subjugate it; and rule the fish, the birds of the air, and all the animals that move upon the earth.

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Thus, we may observe, the unfortunate Indians who have received and read in the Canara language, the first chapter of Genesis, if they be disposed to believe a syllable of the information which it contains, must have formed very strange notions indeed of the true God. They must suppose, that since man bears the figure and form of his Creator, the Creator must be a man also, which is unqualified blasphemy. They must also think, that the first created man united in himself the two sexes; that he was, therefore, a monster, and that whereas he had the figure and form of the Creator, the Creator was (if we may say so without impiety) also of a nature abhorrent to their feelings. It is bad enough to give the tribes of Canara an Apocryphal Bible, which the trans

lation unquestionably is; but to imbue their minds with such abominable notions of the creation and the Creator, as are inculcated in their copy of the Scriptures, is nothing more nor less than aiding and abetting the most violent enemies of Christianity, whether upon the earth or beneath it.

Let it be supposed for a moment, that the translation which we have given above of the first chapter of Genesis, from the Canara Bible, was substituted for the version which is in general use in this country, and that the clergyman reading the service attempted to palm it upon his congregation as the true sense of that sublime introduction to the Sacred Writings, what would be the consequence? Would a single Christian member of his audience remain to listen to such blasphemy? Would he not be justly dragged from the pulpit which he had dared to profane, and be degraded from the profession which he had so unworthily assumed? And yet this is the Bible which our Missionaries promulgate in Canara, containing in every page errors of the most flagrant and mischievous character! Such is the system of Scriptual forgery, for the propagation of which, numberless subscribers,-ignorant of what they are doing, though meaning certainly to do what they believe to be right, -willingly renew every year their abundant donations; little thinking the while, that, instead of extending the boundaries of Christianity, they are actually contracting its limits, and assisting to render its holy revelations contemptible and ridiculous.

The annual reports of the Bible Societies never fail to exhibit a glowing and plausible account of the number of sacred volumes which are distributed in distant countries, and of the conversions which have been made. It is true that many copies of the Bible in different languages have been given to the natives of India; but it has been ascertained, that by far the greater part of them are sold and used as waste paper. The shoe-makers convert them into Chinese slippers; the druggists, the confectioners, the dealers in tea, sugar, and spices, also, rejoice much in the industry of the British Missionaries, whose labours are thus described by an eyewitness:-"The India Company organizes an administration as soon as it becomes master of a new country. Magnificent houses are built for the company's officers; a church is erected, and a house for the clergyman, who repairs thither with all his family. His first care is to open the chests in which the Bibles are contained, and to deal them out every where around him. The children of the neighbourhood come to school to learn the languages. You are not to look for these ministers of the Gospel in the cottage of the poor, or at the bed-side of the dying, there they are not to be found; but go to the public promenades, there you will have the honour of seeing the Rev. Mr. and his wife taking a drive in their carriage. Thus matters go on until the lady gets a settled pain in her head, or until her daughters think of getting married. Forthwith their baggage is packed up, and they return home."

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In some places the Missionaries have been apparently successful: so long as they were enabled to continue their weekly distribution of rice and money, their schools were well attended; but when the rice and the money were no longer given, the schools were deserted.

It is, therefore, high time for those persons who subscribe their money to Bible and Missionary Societies, to insist upon a rigid scrutiny of the facts which are annually put forth in the reports of those institutions, and to demand a clear and well authenticated account of the real progress which has been made, not in the circulation of Bibles, but in the great work of the conversion of Pagans to christianity. If a true list of the latter be produced, it will exhibit a most ludicrous disproportion with the enormous sum, exceeding two millions sterling, which has been expended upon this undertaking. Perhaps upon looking about them in their own country, in these perilous times, they will find many objects upon which their bounty might be bestowed with infinitely more advantage to charity and religion, and even to their own happiness.

ART. II.-The Arrow and the Rose; with other Poems. By William Kennedy. 8vo. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1830. WE have of late, we beg to announce, surrendered, without reserve, all the old-fashioned notions in which we once so unwittingly indulged, concerning the poets and the poetry of our country. The time for such boyish admiration as we used to bestow on some of the most boasted productions of former bards, is gone by. The Popes and the Grays of our literary calendar, whom our simple forefathers were wont to venerate, have all fallen, like contemned idols, before the inconoclast severity of a more enlightened and discerning age. The Miltons have found their level at last neither Cowley nor Waller, nor yet Goldsmith nor Cowper, has a worshipper at this day: and as for Byron, Moore, Campbell, and the like, these modern eminences are abundantly honoured when they obtain permission to vary the small recreations of the present race of children. Such are the results of the progress of mind, such the mighty revolutions involved in the mysterious law of intellectual vegetation. No more than its dishes or its garments, will the poets of one age command the sympathies, or gratify the taste, of another. Spenser and Philip Sydney were meet ornaments of an epoch, when pulse and sack were the staple sources of aliment to our countrymen. But in an age when we drink over twenty million gallons of fiery gin by the twelvemonth, a Robert Montgomery and a William Kennedy are absolutely indispensible.

We stand not alone in this judgment: the gravest authorities extant strengthen our hands. Quoth the " Literary Gazette," for example, speaking of the wonderful poem, whose title we have copied above,

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