I referred a few weeks ago to the new edition
of the Bible, printed as ordinary literature, with verse and chapter divisions omitted, and the archaic spelling of the translators of 1611 brought up to date when necessary. The volume is impres- sively produced, but it costs xos. 6d. It might reasonably have been asked—the publishers must have asked themselves rather anxiously—what sale could have been expected at that figure. The answer has come with astonishing prompti- tude. The book went with a rush from the moment it was put on sale on Monday, and since there is little doubt that the first week will see' the first edition exhausted, a new edition has already been put in hand. Now this is not a novel by Mr. Priestley or Dr. Cronin, but the Bible, a per- fectly good edition of which can be bought anywhere for a shilling. People, it seems, will read this book. Many, no doubt, will read or re-read it in its new form who have long dropped the habit of reading it in the old. They will, at any rate, have the satisfaction of reading it as its writers meant it to be read.
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