Not long in vain.

Small progress he had made, the man forlorn,—
Aged, and weak, and worn ;—

And found, they brought him to the tent again.
With tenderest care,

To honourable entertainment there

Soft rest and choicest fare

And Abram waited on his guest that night

Self humbled in his sight!"

C. A. SOUTHEY.

No. I.

Parochial Fragments, &c.,

Appertaining to Chiefly the Parishes

OF

West Tarring, Heene, and Burrington.

"Heaps of written thoughts,-gold of the Dead

Which time does still disperse, but not devour."
DAVENANT'S Gondibert, Canto v.

"In troubled water you can scarce see your face; or see it very little, till the water be quiet, and stand still. So in troubled times, you can see little truth; when times are quiet and settled, then truth appears."

SELDEN'S Table Talk, p. 215. Singer.

"Nec nos impediet illa ignava ratio quæ dicitur; appellatur enim quidam à philosophis apyòç λóyoç, cui si pareamus, nihil omninò agamus in vitâ." CICERO de Fato, c. xii.

"In doubtful cases, in other men's actions, when it appears not evidently, whether it were well or ill done, where the balance is even, always put in your charity, and that will turn the scale the best way. Things which are in themselves but misinterpretable, do not you presently misinterpret ; but allow some grains to your gold, before you call it light; allow some infirmities to any man, before you call him ill."

DONNE'S Sermons, p. 165. Folio.

"Of studie toke he moste care and hede,
Not a worde spake he more than was nede;
And that was saide in forme and reverence,
And short and quike, and full of high sentence,
Souning in moral virtue was his speche,
And gladly wolde he learne and gladly teche."

CHAUCER: Canterbury Tales.

Fragments on Church Subjects,

AND

On Parochial Matters.

EUBULUS.

THE gale still continues, though moderated. As the gusts and squalls during the night were less fitful, I am inclined to think it will lull by sunset. In St. Matthew, xiv. 32, our version has "the wind ceased," but the Greek to me has always appeared very expressiveἐκόπασεν ὁ ἄνεμος.

ALETHES.

And so it has to me, notwithstanding the remark of that archcritic, Longinus, who, referring to a passage in Herodotus, calls the use of it ἄσεμνον καὶ ἰδιωτικόν '. In the New Testament the usage of the term is borrowed from the LXX. It occurs, for instance, in the prophet Jonah, i. 11, 12; but the most striking example is in the Book of Numbers, xvi. 48: Kaì έkówασεv ǹ Opavois, " And the plague was stayed.”

EUBULUS.

Where, I observe, the metaphor is in like manner expressed by a plain English word.

ALETHES.

Just so. And I confess I am quite contented with our Version as it is. The language is clear and intelligible—the sense almost

1 See Herod. lib. vii. c. 191, and Longin. 7. 'Y. xliii. 1.

always given in the plainest terms-no single doctrine compromised from the first chapter in Genesis to the last in the Revelation. Critical readers will individually be impressed with the deeper import of the original, as, for example, in the case we have just referred to, but the plain unlearned man, who reads to edifying, will have his heart equally enlarged. There is food for every palate there, and the spiritual manna is suited to each one's taste.

EUBULUS.

The plain and racy English of our Bible Translation is, I conceive, the standard of our language. It is to us, what Luther's translation is to the Germans; and the sooner the better they quit their present inverted modes of speech, and return to it.

ALETHES.

We too should be more intelligible, and perhaps more intelligent, if we looked to the words, as well as the spirit of our own version. But, whether we do or no, God grant the doctrine be taken heed to, and our practice fashioned accordingly!

EUBULUS.

Never did mortal man join more sincerely in that prayer than I do now! The time is come when God's Word should have free course in this land, and if it have not, terror and astonishment will eat up the inhabiters of it. If God's Spirit and God's Word do not animate the mass of ungodliness now weltering and festering in the sight of the sun, ruin must betide us. If the leaven of iniquity be not leavened with good, corruption and moral putrefaction must ensue. No human effort must be spared, but we must, one and all, labour in the Lord, if we hope to avert that dreadful catastrophe which will be sure to be the result of a people "destroyed for lack of knowledge." (See Hos. iv. 6.)

ALETHES.

On a future occasion I wish much to discuss the subject of education. Much is doing, and much remains to be done. Meanwhile, at all events, "Occurrendum augescentibus vitiis, et medendum est"." We can all do something, however little, and that must be done.

2 Plin. Epist. ix. 37.