5 OCTOBER 1934, Page 32

OUR HERITAGE

The British and Foreign Bible Society has issued its pular. Annual .1:it-port in the form of a volume entitled

r Heritage. The book does not aim at giving only an account of the year's work brit at tracing the steps by which the Bible has come-to be-part of not only the religious, but also of the literary heritage of England. After a prologue in which other inspects of the heritage. of Englishmen are considered, such as the landscape, literature, liberty and sports which haVe come to associate particularly With our country,- the author -tribes the steps by which the Bible became the common property of the English-speaking races. The various attempts • at• translation from Bede to Coverdale are discussed,ind.finally the author emphasizes the incompar- able goodinrtuae which led to the production of the Authorized Version in 1611. A chapter is devoted to a summary of the Work of the Society- since its foundation, ending with a mention of the translation of the Bible into Afrikaans which was donipleted &Whig the year 1933, and of which nearly a quarter of a -million of 'copies have already been sent to South Africa, _A quantity. of anecdotes illustrate the incon- veniences and dangers whiCh have to be faced by those who engage in carrying the Bible to parts where it is not known • or -Where its 'study is actively opposed. On the other hand, it appears also -that in many places the authorities are well disposed, and-'that the opposition springs more from

individuals: