"PROVE ALL THINGS. "
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-1 am deeply gratified to learn from his last letter that your correspondent, "P. C. W.," has such a perception and practical hold of the duty of intellectual honesty as made it needless, so far as he is concerned, to call special attention to it. I should not have troubled you with a reply, if he had not, as it seems to me, fallen into a mistake, apparently trivial, but perhaps fraught with serious consequence. He says, "It was put in very short words long ago by a greater reasoner than either Professor Clifford or myself, as, 'Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good.'" Now, there is reason to believe that the English New Testament printed by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode is not an original work, but a translation from the Greek. The words Ilicorec UX4 T£ Ta xxXOY ZETEXETE, although clear enough, are not all of them "very short."
A wicked story is told of the late Dr. Montagu Villiers, Bishop of Durham. On being consulted by one of his clergy about a passage in the Greek Testament, it is related that he opened an authorised version, saying, "Let us turn to the Holy Original." If this opinion is really spreading, 6what is to become of the Revision Committee ?—I am, Sir, &c., W. K. CLIFFORD.
Previous page
