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930 THE IiE ADEB, [No. 340, Saturday ,
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THE NEW TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. Revise...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Napoleon In Russia. " Histoire Da Coiisu...
¦ who resorted to a plan partly offensive , and partly defensive , to obstruct and destroy tlie enemy . His manoeuvres , -which cost the French the 4 oss of many men , cost the Russian army more , so that when Napoleon pursued him from Witebofc , the advantage lay , clearly , with the invader . But &< rain had the weather undergone an almost magical change . The heat was intense ; the roads were deep in Egyptian dust ; and , as the French pressed ¦ on , it appeared as though Russia had been converted into an Eastern ¦ desert . . ¦ ¦ : ¦ ¦ . . . . ¦ ' '¦ •¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ¦ " . ¦ ¦ Hitherto , alL Napoleon ' s schemes had failed . His hopes of fighting a decisive battle had been disappointed , and though he had beaten the Eussians At several points , caused them a loss of at least fifteen thousand men , tilled , wounded , and taken prisoners , and driven them into Lithuania and ¦ Courland , he -was still as far as ever from the grand object of his expedition . He had now new combinations to invent . The armies of the Dnieper and the Dwina , in spite of his tactics , were united under De Tolly , and it appeared impossible to overwhelm that wary captain by one of those surprises with which Napoleon imagined he could put to confusion the best general
and the best troops in Europe . Nevertheless , De Tolly only counted one hundred and forty thousand men under his immediate command ; Napoleon counted a quarter of a million 5 and during fifteen days , meditating in a ¦ deserted palace , he plotted how to bring this mighty force to bear . When , however , he received his quarter of a million of soldiers , he could not but remember that at the Nieinen his active army consisted of four lmndred thousand . A . hundred and sixty thousand remained between the Niemen and the Rhine ; fifty or sixty thousand lay in the German and Polish hosp itals ; and it was even , necessary to diminish his personal followers "b y sending sixty thousand , under Macdonald and Oudiaot , to the Dwina , and twenty thousand to the Dnieper . No doubt ^ when he chose to lead his hundred and seventy thousand soldiers to St . Petersburg or Moscow , his flanks would "be well protected ; but it was astonishing , after the campaign had lasted only one month , to find the invading legions so signally reduced . Of the veterans that had marched six hundred leagues from Italy , and of those which had marched five hundred leagues from the Bhine , how many had disappeared !
M . Thiers's qualities as a military historian are displayed with particular brilliance in his account of the operations that ensued up to the date of Borodino . The complex movements of tlie several divisions are described in a narrative not less lucid than minute . The battle at Smolensk forms a terrible p icture ; it was , indeed , designed by Napoleon to appal his enemies . With this object , he threw his whole force at once upon the hostile lines ; one of his batteries alone mounted sixty guns ; and the Russians were attacked , simultaneously , by enormous masses at every point . The unhappy city was literally shattered by tins infernal cannonade , and when it
was abandoned , after a day of uninterrupted slaughter , its defenders and its . assailants combined to complete the ruin . Fires broke out in every quarter ; magazines exploded ; and great pieces of ordnance burst amid the flames , /'• which resembled an eruption of Vesuvius in a summer night . " The French batteries continued to play upon the houses , while the conflagration swept on , so that Smolensk might no longer be a habitable city . From six to seven thousand French , and from twelve to thirteen thousand Eussians , were killed or wounded . This calculation , it is true , is contradicted by M . Boutouriin , but M . Thiers furnishes an amount of evidence sufficient to confute the perverse exaggeration of that dogmatic
writer-Even after such a day of carnage and such a night of destruction , the old Byzantine Basilica remained erect , sheltering a crowd of old men , women , and children , who clung to the altars . As they were led back to the few houses that bad escaped demolition , a hideous spectacle met their eyes . The dead lay thick in the streets , fires still broke out of the ruins , and of the population all but the hel pless had fled . u Not even the Jews , so numerous in Poland , so avariciously serviceable , so accustomed to greet us with their disgusting but useful hospitality , —not even the Jews were here , for we had passed the boundary of their settlements on the Polish borders . " Napoleon rode through the city— " ' a calcined skeleton "—and prepared , without much decision , according to M . Thiers , for the next stage of the campaign . Next came the bloody day of Yaloutina , only paralleled by Eylau , Ebersbcrg , or Essling , yet almost without object or result . At this point , Napoleon , when
Guam expired before his eyes , could not but reflect , suggests the latest historian of liis misfortunes and of his glory , that in the course of the Russian ¦ expedition , to which he looked as the climax of his life , fortune had not granted him a single favour ; his preparations had hitherto been fruitless , His genius unavailing . "While he had fought the enemy with Invariable success , his plans for defeating their combinations had been invariable failures . Bagration was still with De Tolly ; Do Tolly still held the road to . Moscow . At Deweltowo , at Mohilow , at Ostrawo , at Polotsk , at Vikowo , at ICrasnoe , at Smolensk , at Valoutina , ho had driven the Russians ¦ off" the field ; with the exception of Vblhynia , he had beon proclaimed as a conqueror throughout the ancient kingdom of Poland . But there was wanting the eclat of a great battle , and a splendid success , and in search of this it was necessary to persevore in mai'ching on , though marching was far more fatal to his troops than fighting . To the onward inarch , however , the army
was by no means averse , for some propitious changes in their situation had exhilarated tho soldiers . The weather had again become serene and warm ; tho route lay along a broad , smooth road , shaded at intervals b y avenues of trees ; a green plain spread in front ; and while the generals , calculating the chances of the future , rode on in gloomy silence , " tho men cried , 'To Mobcow ! to Moscow I' and followed Napoleon , as in other day 3 the Macedonian warriors followed Alexander to Bab ylon . " f X > uring the advance to Borodino a dramatic incident occurred , which M . x ™ erB &» cribos upon the personal authority of M . Lelorgne d'Ideville him-« elL Some of the light cavalry having taken a Cossack prisoner , brought -T - > t . ^ P ^ . ' ^^ ordere d him to bo mounted , and rode by his Bide with M . d'Meville . his interpreter :-wr-t * c ° 8 ^ xllc ' , e norM »» of the company in which ho was travelling—for tho simplicity of Napoleon * aa little calculated to suggest to an Oriental imngination tho presence or a nronarcfc- ^ nvwBeA ^» itU th * utmost familiarity on matters connected * Wi tho waff . He repeated all that vw » eaid in the Russian army about tho movements
of the several divisions ; pretended that Platoff / himself had quarrelled with r 7 Tally ; extolled the services of the Cossacks , without whom , he declared , the Rush ! would have heeii already conquered , and assured his companions that within -Tr days , there would he a great battle . If this battle , he said , were fough t within th days , the French would win it ; but , if it-were postponed beyond that time Heav " only knew what would happen . He added that , as far as he could learn the Vrenf were commanded by a general named Bonaparte , who was in the habit of heatino- li his enemies , but that the Eussians were about to receive immense reinforcement * keep him at bay , so that , in . this instance , he would be less fortunate than uan 1 ° This conversation , which reflected in the most natural and original manner the carwt ideas of the Russian camp , was very interesting to the mighty interlocutor ofti young Cossack . ; He smiled frequently , and willing to try the effect of his i . resen upon this son of the Don , desired AT . d'ldeville to inform him that the Boiiaharte h had heard of was the individual with whom he was riding . No sooner had the inte preter spoken than the Cossack , seized with a stupor of astonishment , ceased speakinc- " and rode on with his eyes fixed upon the great conqueror , whose name had reached him , -with rumours of glory , in the distant steppes of the East . His loquacity gave way to a respectful and admiring silence , and soon afterwards Napoleon rewardinc him for his agreeable gossip , set him free like a bird in its native fields ¦
In no part of his narrative is M . Thiers more _ successful than in his account of the battle of Borodino , which Napoleon ' converted into a ruthless slaughter . Towards the close of the day he brought up four hundred pieces of artillery * and saying , "As they want more , let them have it , " fired volley after volley upon the helpless masses of the enemy , sweeping them down by hundreds , " until evening darkened upon this atrocious s ° ene , vi ' chout a parallel in the annals of the human race . " The conqueror retired to his tent surrounded by flatteries ; but the exulting enthusiasm of Austerlitz , of Jena ' and of Friedland was altogether wanting . Ninety thousand men lay upon the field dead or wounded , with twenty thousand / horses , and threi or four hundred overturned gun-carriages added to the . picture of havoc . The Russians themselves admitted a loss of sixty thousand ; the French had thirty thousand put hors de combat , including forty-seven generals and thirtyseven colonels killed or maimed . A . hundred thousand soldiers were left to
complete the march upon Moscow . But when they deployed along the heights on their approach to the capital , all former sacrifices and miseries " were forgotten ; joy , pride , and illusion animated their hearts ; they who had beenwith Napoleon at the Pyramids , on the Jordan , at Milan and Madrid , at Vienna and at . Berlin , were thrilled with expectation at the first glimpse of the ancient city of Muscovy . There , too , they expected to enjoy repose and plenty , and thither Napoleon galloped early in the morning , amid tremendous acclamations . The gilded domes , the mass of Byzantine and Gothic decorations , enriching church and palace , the lakes glittering amid painted pavilions , formed a paradise to the imagination of the army . Their first impressions within the walls were not less flattering . They were dreaming of long days of luxury , when avast cloud of smoke rose above the great bazaar , and a storm of tire burst amidst the magazines in the most opulent quarter of the city .
The disappointment and the desolation that followed , the errors of Napoleon , and the despair of the army , the gloomy retreat , sometimes lit by a sudden beam of victory , the horrible confusion of the march , and the dissipation of the conqueror ' s most splendid hopes ; ,: form the subject of a history composed by M . Thiers in a style of epic variety . We have but glanced at some of its episodes ; the narrative itself is voluminous , clear , and . rapid .
930 The Iie Adeb, [No. 340, Saturday ,
930 THE IiE ADEB , [ No . 340 , Saturday ,
The New Translation Of The Bible. Revise...
THE NEW TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE . Revised English Versicnof the Holy Scriptures . By the American Bible Union . The Book of Job . Triibner . Mant English students first heard of this publication from that polite preacher and correspondent , Dr . dimming . He spoke of it as a " trim , new ,-fangled version now issuing from the American press . " New-fangled " being the historical epithet applied by coach-proprietors to railways , and likely to be applied to all improvements as long as interested or stupid persons form , part of the population , has ceased to be a term of reproach . The American version , then , is new-fangled ; but it has a history which perhaps pr . Curnming has not studied , and which will , at least , convince all but the irrational and the impertinent that it deserves to be treated with somcthinndiSerent from the uncritical flippancy of the fashionable pulpit . The Ame ^
rican Bible Union was founded by men equally respected in the Old and Now Worlds—Cone , Maclay , Annitage—who , perceiving the multiplicity of interpretations and glosses , determined to procure a new and scholarly translation of the Old and New Testaments . Theirs was no sectarian or exclusive plan . The translators they engaged , in the first instance , were gentlemen in ecclesiastical connexion with eight denominations , —tlie Church of England , the Old School Presbyterians , the Disciples , or Reformers , the Associate Reformed Presbyterians , the Seventh-Day Baptists , the American Protestant Episcopalians , the Baptists , and tlie German Reformed Church . Written engagements were entered into with more than twenty scholars of repute , many of whom , in compliance with tho stipulations of the contract ,
employed approved assistants , so that the working body was composed of between thirty and forty persons . Seven of the rcvisors , including two ministers of the Church of England , reside in . this country , while a number of scholars have offered their independent aid in the criticism of particular passages . _ One , for example , has furnished a , literal translation of all the passages in which tho Burmese versions by Dr . Judson differs from the common English text ; while others have applied tho test of an elaborate scrutiny to tho Siamese , Bengali , and Sanscrit versions . This comparative analysis has been extended to the Spanish and to tho Italian ; the most rare and costly books have been purchased , in-whatever language , that seemed to promise any aid to tho translators , and every conceivable care hns boon taken . to secure the complete collation of the ancient Codices .
We have before us three versions of the Book of Job , from the fourteenth , to tho twenty-ninth chapters—the Hebrew Text , tho Authorized , and the Proposed Vcrsioiu Leaving the Hebrew to the reference of tho critical reader , we may point attention to a few of the " ¦ revisions" of the American Union . Some of these are remarkable , as substitutions of one form of expression for another , others aa positive alterations of the meaning . I »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27091856/page/18/
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