of the Word of God in the language of any country, is a boon precious beyond computation. Well does the martyred translator of our English Bible remark, when assigning his reason for undertaking the work: "I had perceived by experience that it was impossible to establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly laid before their eyes in their mother-tongue, that they might see the process, order and meaning of the text; for else, whatever truth is taught them, these enemies of all truth quench it again." Some, to whom the sacred pages of the Orissa Bible were precious, have died in the Lord since I last wrote, and have left a sweet savor behind. To one of these, Nimi, who was for a considerable time in the Asylum at Cuttack, I will briefly refer. Nimi was an orphan, and was at an early age admitted into the Female Asylum at Cuttack, then under the care of brother Sutton. About three years since she was baptized in the name of the Lord; and a little more than twelve months ago she entered the married state, and afterwards resided at Choga, a flourishing Christian settlement about seven miles from Cuttack. Her last illness was short and severe, and did not admit of her saying much respecting the state of her mind; but to Bella, one of her school companions, she said that she felt happy and should soon be in heaven with the Lord. The general consistency of her course secured for her the affectionate esteem of her pastor and Christian friends; and many tears were shed over her early removal. Her pastor justly describes her as "a burning and shining light" at Choga. She was a young person of a meek and humble disposition-of a gentle and tender spirit. Her soul lived by the words which proceeded out of the mouth of God, and at family worship she supplied her husband's deficiency by reading a portion of the sacred Word, and he afterwards offered prayer. The Orissa Bible was a lamp which daily enlightened the path of this youthful pilgrim. It was a fountain at which her fainting soul was refreshed by draughts of life-giving water, of which he who drinks shall thirst no more. She is now, we cannot for a moment doubt, with Him whose love the Bible reveals, and therefore needs its grateful light no longer. I do not mention this as a case of any very special interest, but rather as a specimen of a goodly number of cases that have occurred amongst us; and no doubt in future years, by the abounding grace of Him who will "multiply the seed sown, and increase the fruit of righteousness," the number of such cases will be greatly increased.

Believe me, yours in Christian love,

JOHN BUCKLEY.

SIAM.

LETTER FROM MR. J. H. CHANDLER.

Ir affords me much pleasure to be able to inform you, that the second revised edition of the New Testament, in Siamese, is out of press.

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The form of the work is small octavo, and makes a book of 595 pages. It is bound and circulated as follows: 1,000 copies of each of the Gospels separately; also, 1,000 of the Gospels and Acts; 1,000 of Romans; 500 of first and second Corinthians; 500 from Galatians to Philemon; 500 from James to Jude; 500 of Revelation, and 1,000 copies of the entire work in one volume. Binding the work in this way, gives us 9,500 books, and enables us to circulate the Word of Life more extensively. We should we glad to be able to give a Testament, or at least the Gospels and Acts, to every reader in the country; but the limited appropriations to this station do not enable us to give so much as one Gospel to one in five thousand. God, in his providence, seems to have given the work of Bible translation to our mission; and, if the friends of the "BIBLE TRANSLATED" are sincere in their professions, they ought to encourage and sustain our translator in going through the Old Testament, re-revising the New, and enabling us to print and circulate the whole Word of God throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom.

The publication of this edition of the New Testament is a great advance in our missionary labors. But, to profit by it, we need more missionaries, to enable us to go about among the people, in the towns and villages, preaching the glad tidings of salvation, and distributing the Word of Life. There is, probably, no country in the East, under a native government, where missionaries are more free to travel about, and pursue their appointed work, than in Siam. The people are ready to listen to our instruction, and eager to obtain books. Oh that the friends of the Bible were more alive to the importance of this field! * For the history of Bible translations in this country, you are referred to the Yours truly,

following Preface.

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J. H. CHANDLER.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION OF THE SIAMESE NEW TESTAMENT.

In issuing a second Complete Edition of the New Testament in Siamese, it seems proper to give some account of the circumstances under which the translation has been made. In doing so, the topics which will claim attention are: 1. The history of Biblical translation into this language; 2. The text made use of; 3. The principles adopted in prosecution of the work.

1. Catholic missionaries from France have resided in the country about 200 years, and have translated such portions of the Christian Scriptures as they required for their service, but it does not appear that they have ever printed any of their translations. I have seen a translation of the Gospel by Matthew, made by them, evidently from the Latin. It was in manuscript, and in the Roman letter. The Latin words, sacerdos, pænitentia, &c., are retained. It has a marked leaning to the Latin idiom, but is generally executed with perspicuity and fidelity. The time when the translation of Matthew was made I have no means of ascertaining, or by what individual, except that it was executed before the destruction of Ayuthiya, the old capital of Siam, more than 80 years ago.

By the kindness of Bishop Pallegoix, I have recently seen another manuscript copy of a translation of Matthew, which, I am persuaded, is an entirely distinct version. It is divided into parts and sections quite diverse from the preceding; and scarcely a single complete sentence can be found which is not characterized by numerous Pali words, even where pure Siamese would be quite as clear, and wholly exempt from objection that it wanted dignity.

It is said that many translations were made in the earlier days of their mission, but some were destroyed in the ruins of Ayuthiya, and some perished in the wreck of vessels in which they were embarked for preservation. In recent years, several religious books have been published by them, but no translation of the Holy Scriptures.

Their

The first attempt made by Protestants in this work was in 1818-20, at Rangoon, in Burmah. Some thousands of Siamese who had been made prisoners of war at that time resided in and about Rangoon, where, by constant intercourse and some study, many made themselves familiar with the Burman language. case drew the sympathy and efforts of the American missionaries to the acquisition of the Siamese language; and resulted in the preparation of a small tract, and the translation of the Gospel by Matthew. The latter was never published. On examination, it was found to be rather a free paraphrase than a strict translation.

The next endeavor was made by Rev. C. Gutzlaff, in 1828-32. It will sufficiently characterize his translation, to say that it embraced the whole of the Old and New Testaments, executed, with two other translations of the same extent, in three years, without any previous knoweldge of either of the three languagesSiamese, Kambojan, and Laos-and executed, too, while the translator was preaching in Chinese, making Siamese and Cochin-Chinese vocabularies, and practising medicine and surgery. The only part ever published was a small edition of Luke, in 1834, printed at Singapore.

Availing himself of all the aid he could gather from his predecessors, the writer of this notice prepared the first edition of Matthew, which was printed at Singapore in 1835-1500 copies. Acts succeeded in 1836-7. Then a second edition of Matthew-a second edition of Acts; and eventually, in 1842, all parts of the New Testament were completed in one volume, though generally published and circulated in parts. A free expression of views, and suggestions of emendations, were sought from all engaged in the study of the Siamese language. Valuable hints were received from the late Rev. C. Robinson and others. The work was under revision, and a second edition commenced, in 1845, but had proceeded only to Luke, 16th chapter, when illness, absence, and other causes, suspended it till March, 1849. The parts published had been circulated, and this new edition was then begun. All the best of my time and energies for the last four years have been spent in revising it, in which, for a season, I received many valuable suggestions from my dear friend and Christian brother, the late Rev. Jesse Caswell. I should feel very

"M. de Berythe estant arrivé à Siam en 1662, il y trouva deux eglises, dont l'une estoit gouvernée par les Pères de S. Dominique et l'autre par les Pères Jesuites. Elles contenoient en tout quinze cens Chrestiens ramassez de differentes nations."-Relation des Missions des Evêques François aux Royaumes de Siam, de la Cochin-China, &-c., 1674, page 4.

+ See a particular Relation of the American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire, in a series of Letters to Joseph Butterworth, Esq., M. P., London, by Ann H. Judson, p. 158.

glad to spend four years more of uninterrupted labor upon it. It has many defects. I may sometimes have misapprehended the original. I may have failed to express it fully in the translation. Verses or parts of sentences may sometimes have been overlooked. Things of this nature will only be understood by those who have attempted a similar work, and their judgment will be lenient. For suggestions by which any such errors may be corrected, the translator will ever be grateful. I may here add that the translation of some portions of the Old and New Testaments was undertaken by the late Rev. Charles Robinson, and more or less revised by the late Rev. Jesse Caswell, but their decease left them incomplete.

2. The text used in the original translation was that of Knapp's Third Edition, from which I scarcely ever deviated. Having no access to original manuscripts, I became, of course, dependent upon the investigations of others. Where the text was contested, I availed myself of such information as I could glean from Kuinoel, Rosenmuller, A. Clark, G. Campbell, McKnight, Doddridge, &c.; but generally, Knapp's text was followed pretty closely. Even his bracketed passages were inserted in the translation. In the first revision, the Textus Receptus, as found in Bloomfield, was constantly used, but with some scrupulosity. Throughout the last revision, the edition of Hahn, as edited by Dr. Robinson, has been my guide. It would be easy to enlarge on this topic, and give reasons for preferences, but it is feared that little benefit would result from it. Where passages are indicated as doubtful in the text, they are indicated in the translation by being included in parenthetic marks, and a note explaining their design is prefixed to the volume. The Siamese, having been only accustomed to manuscript books, are familiar with the fact that copies differ-not only from design, but from various causes, which involve nothing of a censurable nature-and will readily appreciate the attempt to represent the matter to them as it really is.

3. In regard to the principles on which the translation has been conducted, the main and primary one is, that the meaning of an author should be given by the translator, and as much of his manner as the idioms and circumstances will allow. If the translation is to be merely verbal, or strictly literal, the Scriptures might just as well be given in Hebrew or Greek. The Scriptures themselves assert that they are given "for instruction." Instruction can only profit where it is understood. It may be urged that an attempt to give the meaning makes the translator an expounder. This is true. He cannot be otherwise if he would do any good. When a mercantile or political document is put into the hands of a translator for rendering, what is the object? It is, that the meaning may be known through the medium of another language. There are cases where a strictly literal_rendering from one language into another gives the meaning fully and perfectly. In all such cases strict literality is preferable, but, at all events, a translation should be made intelligible. So far as it is not so it is labor lost to make it. There are idioms in Hebrew, Greek, and English, which are unknown to the Siamese. Some of these would be perfectly intelligible. By these, the Siamese language would be enriched without detriment. Some would convey no meaning, or a decidedly false one. They must be changed till they shall convey a meaning, and the true one.

The Siamese designate the hours of the day by one word, those of the night by another. They reckon from sunrise to noon, six hours. From noon till sunset, six hours. They have no "ninth hour" of the day. How, then, shall Acts iii. 1 be translated? What does it mean? Unquestionably, three o'clock P. M. I translate it so. The Siamese have no word for week. The name of the days, as Sunday, Monday, &c., corresponding to western nations, they have-well known to all. How, then, shall Matthew xxviii. 1 be translated? If we seek the meaning, no one questions but what it is this: "In the end of the Sabbath, as Sunday was dawning." So then I translate it, giving the meaning, and not the words, for this is impossible.

Following out the principles above stated, the words sunagogue, episcopos, presbuteros, ecclesia, diabolos, angelos, &c., have been rendered by words intelligible as far as the language would allow. Where these words have different meanings, I have not hesitated to render them by different words: e. g., angelos means sometimes a heavenly messenger, sometimes an emissary of the devil, sometimes a spy, and sometimes a church officer, and has been so rendered; but an earnest endeavor has been cherished to render the same word by the same equivalent when the meaning was the same.

After having labored to determine the meaning of the original, I have asked myself, “If an intelligent Siamese had full possession of this idea, how would he

express it?" In general, I would aim to express it in the same way—I say, in general; in peculiar cases there may be reasons for deviating from their idiom and enriching their language by a foreign one, if it is not unintelligible.

There are other cases of this sort. Whenever the Siamese speak of a city, or country, or officer of distinction, they cannot neglect to join some designation, by which these shall be rendered definite, as the city of London, the country China, the ruler Herod. As the Siamese have no capital letters with which to commence proper names, this is the only resource left them whereby to guard against misconstruction. When a name has become familiar, it is not indispensable to repeat the epithet in every case, though it is generally done. Were I to use Herod, Jerusalem, Samaria, Athens, without prefixing ruler, city, country, the reader would be at a loss to know whether these were proper names or not; and if he decided that they were proper names, he might class them all as names of men or cities promiscuously. Hence, though such epithets are not found, or not always found, in the original, I have not hesitated to use them, because the genius of the language into which I translate requires them.

In regard to style, perspicuity and simplicity have been aimed at, rather than loftiness or elegance. Though some words of Bali origin have been used, it has been more a matter of necessity than ornament; and very few are employed at all, except such as have become, by long use, almost or quite as familiar as those of strictly Siamese origin.

That the translation throughout will be at once understood, even by intelligent and reflecting readers, cannot be expected. To secure this, there must be such aids as are found requisite every where-a knowledge of customs and facts, which can come only in the way of commentary, either written or oral. It is confidently believed, however, that so much is fully intelligible as may leave the honest and candid reader inexcusable for not understanding God's plan of saving sinners. May His blessing make it effective for this great object. J. T. JONES. Bangkok, Siam, June, 1850.

ACTION OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS

UPON THE REPORT ON ARTICLE SECOND OF THE CONSTITUTION.

Ar the meeting of the Board of Managers, held May 10, the Report on Article Second of the Constitution, presented to the Society by Rev. J. N. Granger, and referred to the Board with power, was referred to a special committee, consisting of Rev. S. S. Cutting, Rev. C. G. Sommers, Rev. E. L. Magoon, W. Carter, Esq.,* and Rev. J. R. Stone, to report as far as practicable at the next meeting of the Board.

The result of this action was presented in the following report, which was adopted by the Board of Managers June 12, and ordered to be printed with the Annual Report.

REPORT.

The Committee of the Board of Managers of the American and Foreign Bible Society, to whom was referred the report of the Committee on Article Second of the Constitution, presented at the late Annual Meeting of the Society, have given to the duty assigned them such attention as has been practicable, and beg leave to submit the following report:

The document placed in the hands of the Committee surveys the publishing department of this Society's operations for a series of years, and arrives at the conclusion that the business of publishing, as conducted hitherto, has been attended

* Mr. Carter was subsequently, at his request, excused from the Committee, and Mr. Sommers was prevented by illness from participating in the duties assigned him.

with losses. On this view of the Society's affairs, certain practical conclusions and suggestions are based, which have been referred by the Society to the Board of Managers, with power to act in the premises as to them may seem wisest and most useful. The responsibility thus cast upon the Board is a grave one, and ultimate decisions should be fixed only after very studious deliberation. Some of the suggestions contained in the document are necessarily reserved for future consideration;-on others a present course of action seems sufficiently clear. Many of the matters discussed are not new to the Board, a series of examinations and inquiries having been carried forward by the Board during the past year, for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Society, and providing as rapidly as practicable for such changes in methods of business as a wise economy might require! It will be observed by examining that part of the report of the Society's Committee, which contains its conclusions and suggestions, (pp. 14, 15,) and that part of the Annual Report of the Board of Managers which relates to the same subject, (p. 35,) that the views taken are not widely dissimilar. In both a remedy is pointed out in improved methods of business rather than by destroying the department, and the remedy itself in many important features is the same.

The report of the Society's Committee finds, "that the chief source of all the losses to the department is to be sought in the manufacture of books." In this view the present Committee concur. While it may be true that in the case of some particular styles or editions, the Society may be able to produce at specially favorable rates, it is not reasonable to suppose that, generally, Boards, or Committees, or Secretaries, chosen without reference to skill or sagacity as book-manufacturers, can compete successfully with men whose business and profits lie in that line. And this view is sustained by inquiries which have been instituted by the Board during the past year. They have found that generally they can buy cheaper than they can manu. facture; and in this belief, they several months ago disposed of a contract for stereotype plates which had been entered into previously to the annual meeting of 1850, and which, when disposed of, had been partially executed. Happily, the Board were able to dispose of it without loss to the Society, by agreeing to take certain quantities of the Bible when completed. They likewise procured by purchase a quantity of twenty-five cent Bibles, (with the imprint of the Society,) instead of manufacturing them from their own plates. The style purchased is likely to become a favorite at once, and can at all times be procured at advantageous rates. The further these inquiries have been pursued, the profounder has been the conviction that the true course of business was to rely mainly on purchases for supplies of stock.

The resolution, however, which embodies the chief practical suggestion of the Society's Committee,* goes further than this: it interdicts manufacture in every case, except where it may be necessary to fulfil existing contracts, and proposes the sale of all manufacturing stock for the benefit of the Depository. It follows, of course, that the policy of purchasing exclusively is designed to be adopted.

Of the wisdom of this policy there would be no doubt in the minds of the present Committee, were it not that the Society is already in possession of stereotype plates, which it can contribute to the manufacture of books with possible advantage in a few cases. Whether in these cases the plates could be sold for such a price as would make an offset for this consideration, there has, as yet, been no opportunity to learn. Further inquiries should be made before a definitive conclusion could

* Resolved, That the Board of Managers be instructed to discontinue all further operations in the business of manufacturing English Bibles, except what may be required by existing contracts; and that so much of the capital stock now on hand as is held for the purpose of manufacturing be disposed of in the most advantageous manner, for the benefit of the Depository.