CORRESPONDENCE.
WORDSWORTH ON THE REVISION OF THE BIBLE AND THE PRAYER-BOOS.—AN UNPUB- LISHED REMINISCENCE.
[To THZ EDITOR OF THR "SPICITATOR.1 Sin,••.-I have just come across the following record of a con- veisation between the poet Wordsworth and my uncle, the Rev. Robert Perceval Graves, amongst my uncle's papers, which have been left in my charge as his literary executor. This note was evidently offered with other matter for inclu- sion by Dr. Christopher Wordsworth in his Memoirs of the poet, yet was for some reason or other excluded from that work, though my uncle's other contributions to it were
accepted. I have therefore reason to believe that its contents will be fresh to all who are interested in the great Lake poet :—
" I remember to have been very much struck by what appeared to me the wisdom of a plan suggested by Mr. Wordsworth for the revision of the Authorised Version of the Bible and of the Book of Common Prayer. With regard to the former no one, be said, could be more deeply convinced of the inestimable value of its having been made when it was, and being what it is. In his opinion it was made at the happy juncture when our language had attained adequate expansion and flexibility, and when, at the same time, its idiomatic strength was unimpaired by excess of technical distinctions and conventional refinements. And these circumstances, though of course infinitely subordinate to the spiritual influence of its subject matter, be considered to be highly important in connection with the volume which naturally became a universally recognised standard of the language, a well of English undefiled and a perennial blessing to the nation, in no slight degree conducive to the robust and manly thinking and character of its inhabitants.
He was satisfied, too, as to its general and most impartial accuracy, and its faithfulness in rendering not only the words, but the style, the strength, the spirit and the character, of the original records. He attached, too, the value one might suppose he would attach to the desirableness of leaving undisturbed the sacred associations, w:lich to the feeling of aged Christians belonged to the ipsissima verba, which had been their support under the trials of life.
And so with regard to the Prayer-book, he reverenced it and loved it as the Church's precious heritage of primitive piety, equally admirable for its matter and its style. It may be interesting to add that, in reference to this latter point, I have heard him pronounce that many of the Collects seemed to him examples of perfection,—consisting, –ording to his expression, of words whose signification fills up without excess or defect the simple and symmetrical contour of some majestic meaning, and whose sound was a harmony of accordant simplicity and grandeur.
But notwithstanding that he held these opinions, which will make it clear that he was not one who would lightly touch either sacred volume, he did not think that plain mistakes in the translation of the Bible, or obsolete words, or renderings commonly misunder- stood, should be perpetually handed down in our authorised volume of inspiration, or that similar blemishes in the Prayer- book—which, as being of human composition, would admit of freer though still reverential handling—should be permitted to continue as stumbling-blocks, interfering with its acceptableness or usefulness.
The plan which he suggested as meeting the difficulties of the case was the following :—That by proper authority a Commission of Revisionists of the English Bible should be appointed, whose business should be—retaining the present Authorised Version as a standard to be departed from as little as possible—to settle upon such indubitable corrections of meaning and improvements of expression as they agreed should be made, and have these printed in the margin of all Bibles published by authority.
That, as an essential part of the scheme, this Committee of Revision should be renewed periodically, but not too frequently— he suggested periods of fifty years—at which times it should be competent to the Committee to authorise the transference from the margin into the text of all such alterations as had stood the test of experience and criticism during the previous period, as well as to fix upon new marginal readings.
He was of opinion that in the constitution of the Committee care should be taken to appoint not only divines of established reputation for sound theology, and especially for their knowledge of the connection of the sacred volume with the original lan- guages, but some one author at least noted for his mastery over he vernacular language. It will be seen that this plan, while it provides for corrections of errors and the substitution of understood for obsolete or mis- talk& expressions, leaves undisturbed these associations of aged Christians and prepares the younger generation for receiving the marginal amendments into the text.
Mr. Wordsworth conceived that fixing 'the duration of the period of revision was of great consequence, both as obviating all agitation in the way of call for such a process, and as tending— in the matter of critical discussions respecting the sanctioning, cancelling, or proposing of amendments—to bring them to some- thing of definiteness in preparation for each era of revision.
The same process, under certain modifications, he thought applicable to the Book of Common Prayer. In this he deprecated all tampering with doctrine, considering that alterations ought to be confined to changes rendering the services more clearly under- stood or more conveniently usea. It is fair to add, however, that I have heard him express a strong desire that the Atbanasian Creed were rid of the so-called damnatory clauses, at the same time declaring that no one was more profoundly convinced than himself of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity.
He was in favour of a collection of metrical hymns more peculiarly Christian in character than the Psalter being set forth by authority for use in the Church, and for the choice of such hymns he thought a Committee should be appointed in which the knowledge of divines, poets, and of laymen trusted for common sense and experience of life should be severally and conjointly engaged. As a practical suggestion of moment in the composition of such hymns he advised that composers should not in the four- line stanza do more than make the second and fourth lines rhyme, leaving the other two unrhymed, which he said would give an important addition of freedom both to the sense and the style."
My uncle's note was evidently written in the year 1850. He appends to it the following addendum :—" To the above memorandum I now, September 1874, add two items, of which I retain a remembrance, confident with respect to the first, certain with respect to the second :—(1) He was in favour of the clergyman being allowed to introduce into his reading of the lessons in Church the authorised marginal corrections ; (2) he expressed in very strong terms his opinion that the prefatory portion of the Marriage Service should be altered so as to make it not only less repulsive to modern feelings, but more accdraant with the higher aspects of the union to be solemnised."—I am, Sir, &c , ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES.
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