CHAPTER XII.

ON TRANSLATIONS AND ORIGINAL WORKS IN

THE VERNACULAR TONGUES.

THE REFORMATION FROM POPERY-THE LATIN LANGUAGE-BISHOP GARDINER-THE EXERTIONS OF THE REFORMERS-VIEWS OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES-TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES— OBJECTIONS MADE BY OPPONENTS-THE MADRAS BIBLE SOCIETY -BIBLE THEOLOGY-THE USE WHICH THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS MAKE OF SCRIPTURE-THE DISTRIBUTION OF TRACTS AMONG THE PEOPLE-THEOLOGY ADDRESSED TO HINDOOS.

THE liberty of the press, associated with the dissemination of truth, affords the greatest promise to future exertions. At the revival of literature in Europe, and at the time of the Reformation, nothing had a greater influence in the changes which took place, than the invention of printing and the labours of the press. From the days of the apostles when every man was permitted to hear in his own tongue the wonderful works of God, to the period when Luther and his coadjutors burst asunder the shackles of an ecclesiastical despotism, the use of the Latin— a dead language-had shut up the stores of learning and of theology from the mass of the people.

During the sixteenth century, and in the reign of Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth, a person who did not read Greek and Latin, could read nothing or next to nothing. The Italian was the only modern language which possessed any thing that could be called a literature. All the valuable books then extant in all the vernacular dialects of Europe, would hardly have filled a single shelf."*

Latin was every thing. The mass was performed in Latin; the prayers were read in Latin; sermons were delivered in Latin; conversations between the great and the learned were carried on in Latin; and lectures on subjects of interest, and books of every description were written in Latin. Whatever was delivered in the vernacular tongues was thought to be worthless, vulgar, illiterate and contemptible. In a word, the same method was adopted to support the reigning superstition, which has sustained every other idolatrous system, and which exists to this day in the mythology of China, and of Hindosthanthere was a language which was sacred and another which was profane-a language in which theology and literature and science were wrapt up in mystery, and another that was suited to the common people and to the usual engagements of life-a language through the medium of which alone God ought to be worshipped, and men ought to be prayed for, and another in which it would be a deadly sin to

Edinburgh Review, cxxxii. p. 10.

196

SACRED LANGUAGES.

write upon, or themes.

to converse upon such sacred

Religion, it was said, could not be understood in the vulgar tongue. There were not terms which would properly convey the meaning of theological words, and in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the cruel, the bigoted and infamous Bishop Gardiner had the assurance to propose "that instead of employing English expressions throughout, in the translation of the Scriptures, many Latin words should be preserved, because they contained, as he pretended, such peculiar energy and significance that they had no correspondent terms in the vulgar tongue. The words "ecclesia, pœnitentia, pontifex, contritus, holocausta, sacramentum, elementa, ceremonia, mysterium, presbyter, sacrificium, humilitas, satisfactio, peccatum, gratia, hostia, charitas," &c. were too sacred to be expressed in English. "But as this mixture," remarks the historian, "would have appeared extremely barbarous, and was plainly calculated for no other purpose, than to retain the people in their ancient ignorance, the proposal was rejected."

During the dark ages, then, and while century after century rolled away, the use of a learned and of a universal language had a fair trial; and what was the result of the experiment? To keep the people in the grossest darkness; to bring dishonour and scorn and contempt upon the vernacular dialects; to give a monopoly of science and literature

VERNACULAR TONGUES.

197

and religion to the favoured few; to rob the community of their civil and religious liberty, and to deprive them of advantages both temporal and spiritual, which, but for such a system, they might have enjoyed for many an age. No wonder that when our reformers, when Luther, Latimer, and Ridley, and Cranmer and Knox began their labours, they used the language of the people. A strange and a foreign tongue, they knew, had kept the masses too long in ignorance, and in slavery; and, determined that their countrymen should hear and read in their own tongues the tidings of salvation, they employed the press to pour forth their thunders against the corruptions of Rome, to publish the gospel of Christ among the multitudes who were ready to perish, and to enrich their native dialects-with what? With translations from the works of the fathers? No. With translations from the mine of classic and ecclesiastical lore? But with their own warm thoughts and meditations on the strange theme of mercy to the conversion and the delight of thousands. The non-conformists of the following age, advanced in the same line, and replenished their own tongue with a literature and a theology which is still the boast of our land, and these principles, so much in accordance with reason and with common sense, continued to deepen and to spread, till now the English language is in possession of a mine of religious and intellectual wealth which the Greek and the Latin never knew.

No.

198

FIRST MISSIONARIES.

From the moment that Protestant missionaries landed in India and acquired the language of the country, they began to publish grace and salvation to the inhabitants in their vernacular tongues. It was easier, they contended, for the few who had more leisure, had greater facilities, were endowed with ability and talents, and kept such a transcendent object in view as the conversion of the heathen, to learn the language of millions, than for the heathen to learn the language of strangers, or for ambassadors of mercy to accomplish their design through the medium of interpreters. As soon, therefore, as difficulties were overcome, Grammars were written, and Dictionaries were compiled, so as to render the language easier of acquirement to their successors. Numbers of tracts and many treatises on theology were published in a style suited to the capacity and corresponding with the habits and genius of the Hindoos, and now, in some languages, every native teacher has his small library to instruct him, and to open to him the treasures of the gospel. Above all, the sacred scriptures-a book which, written in an Eastern language, is peculiarly adapted to eastern climes, has been translated into almost every tongue, and has been disseminated among the people as the bread and water of life.

Some have found fault with the translations. They tell us that they are ill calculated to give a right view of the divine originals; that such are the false idioms, the barbarous phraseology, and