an worship in the gardens of the Florentine
Academy, their direct influence was purely intellectual. But the
language of the Hebrew, the idiom of the Hellenistic Greek, lent
themselves with a curious felicity to the purposes of translation. As a
mere literary monument the English version of the Bible remains the
noblest example of the English tongue, while its perpetual use made it
from the instant of its appearance the standard of our language.

[Sidenote: Its social influence.]

For the moment however its literary effect was less than its social. The
power of the book over the mass of Englishmen showed itself in a
thousand superficial ways, and in none more conspicuously than in the
influence it exerted on ordinary speech. It formed, we must repeat, the
whole literature which was practically accessible to ordinary
Englishmen; and when we recall the number of common phrases which we owe
to great authors, the bits of Shakspere, or Milton, or Dickens, or
Thackeray, which unconsciously interweave themselves in our ordinary
talk, we shall better understand the strange mosaic of Biblical words
and phrases which coloured English talk two hundred years ago. The mass
of picturesque allusion and illustration which we borrow from a thousand
books, our fathers were forced to borrow from one; and the borrowing was
the easier and the more natural that the range of the Hebrew literature
fitted it for the expression of every phase of feeling. When Spenser
poured forth his warmest love-notes in the "Epithalamion," he adopted
the very words of the Psalmist, as he bade the gates open for the
entrance of his bride. When Cromwell saw the mists break over the hills
of Dunbar, he hailed the sun-burst with the cry of David: "Let God
arise, and let his enemies be scattered. Like as the smoke vanisheth, so
shalt thou drive them away!" Even to common minds this familiarity with
grand poetic imagery in prophet and apocalypse gave a loftiness and
ardour of expression that with all its tendency to exaggeration and
bombast we may prefer to the slipshod vulgarisms of to-day.

[Sidenote: Its religious influence.]

But far greater than its effect on literature or social phrase was the
effect of the Bible on the character of the people at large. The Bible
was as yet the one book which was familiar to every Englishman; and
everywhere its words, as they fell on ears which custom had not deadened
to their force and beauty, kindled a startling enthusias