e _Books of Kings_! lest the _wars_, of which so much is there
recorded, should increase their inclination to fighting, already too
prevalent. Jortin notices this castrated copy of the Bible in his
Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.

As the Bible, in many parts, consists merely of historical transactions,
and as too many exhibit a detail of offensive ones, it has often
occurred to the fathers of families, as well as to the popes, to
prohibit its general reading. Archbishop Tillotson formed a design of
purifying the historical parts. Those who have given us a _Family
Shakspeare_, in the same spirit may present us with a _Family Bible_.

In these attempts to recompose the Bible, the broad vulgar colloquial
diction, which has been used by our theological writers, is less
tolerable than the quaintness of Castalion and the floridity of Pere
Berruyer.

The style now noticed long disgraced the writings of our divines; and we
see it sometimes still employed by some of a certain stamp. Matthew
Henry, whose commentaries are well known, writes in this manner on
Judges ix.:--"We are here told by what acts Abimelech _got into the
saddle_.--None would have _dreamed_ of making such a _fellow_ as he
king.--See how he has _wheedled_ them into the choice. He hired into his
service the _scum_ and _scoundrels_ of the country. Jotham was really a
_fine gentleman_.--The Sechemites that set Abimelech up, were the first
to _kick him off_. The Sechemites said all the ill they could of him in
their _table-talk_; they _drank healths_ to his _confusion_.--Well,
Gaal's interest in Sechem is soon at an end. _Exit Gaal_!"

Lancelot Addison, by the vulgar coarseness of his style, forms an
admirable contrast with the amenity and grace of his son's Spectators.
He tells us, in his voyage to Barbary, that "A rabbin once told him,
among other _heinous stuff_, that he did not expect the felicity of the
next world on the account of any merits but his own; whoever kept the
law would arrive at the bliss, by _coming upon his own legs_."

It must be confessed that the rabbin, considering he could not
conscientiously have the same creed as Addison, did not deliver any very
"heinous stuff," in believing that other people's merits have nothing to
do with our own; and that "we should stand on our own legs!" But this
was not "proper words in proper places."

ORIGIN OF THE MATERIALS OF WRITING.

It is curious to observe the various substitutes for paper