les for the carrying out of the
revision, which, as I have mentioned, had been drawn up in draft were all
duly considered by the committee and carried, and the way left clear and
open for the commencement of the work. These rules (copies of which will
be found in nearly all the prefaces to the Revised Version hitherto
issued by the Universities) were only the necessary amplifications of the
fundamental rules passed by the two Houses of Convocation which have been
already specified.

The first of these subsidiary rules was as follows:--"To introduce as few
alterations as possible in the text of the Authorised Version
consistently with faithfulness." This rule must be read in connexion
with the first and third fundamental rules and the comments I have
already made on those rules.

The second of the rules of the committee was as follows:--"To limit, as
far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of
the Authorised and earlier English versions." This rule was carefully
attended to in its reference to the Authorised Version. I do not however
remember, in the revision of the version of the New Testament, that we
often fell back on the renderings of the earlier English versions. They
were always before us: but, in reference to other versions where there
were differences of rendering, we frequently considered the renderings of
the ancient versions, especially of the Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic, and
occasionally of the Gothic and Armenian. To these, however, the rule
makes no allusion.

The third rule speaks for itself:--"Each Company to go twice over the
portion to be revised, once provisionally, the second time finally, and
on principles of voting as hereinafter is provided."

The fourth rule refers to the very important subject of the text, and is
an amplification of the last part of the third fundamental rule. The
rule of the committee is as follows:--"That the text to be adopted be
that for which the evidence is decidedly preponderating; and that when
the text so adopted differs from that from which the Authorised Version
was made, the alteration be indicated in the margin." The subject of the
text is continued in the fifth rule, which is as follows:--"To make or
retain no change in the text on the second final revision by the Company
except _two-thirds_ of those present approve of the same, but on the
first revision to decide by simple majorities."

The sixth rule is of importance, but i