IMPROVING THE BIBLE
SIR,—Some fifty-odd years ago, when I was the navigator of a sailing ship, my old• friend the boatswain had a Cromwellian aptitude for always finding a suitable quotation from -the Old Testament to meet every situation. One of his favourites, which he would murmur in my ear when there was a "flap" on and everyone was running around in circles, was, " In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." I was reminded of this when looking in the window of a near-by book-shop where they were "featuring " Monsignor Ronald Knox's version of the Old Testament, and one volume was open at the end of the Bo& of Judges, where I read in the last verse, " This was in the days bef&e any king ruled in Israel, when men lived by the best lights they had." This is another case in which I prefer the cole sailing days and ways.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, HAROLD KELLY1 51 Ashley Gardens, S.W.z.
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