1841.
Life of Dr. Morrison.
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31
and idiomatic translation, made by a Christian missionary of a sound judg- ment and moderate acquirements, is likely to convey the sense of divine revelation better than a translation made by the most accomplished pagan scholar, who has not studied the sacred writings, and who, if he possessed the adequate knowledge, in consequence of his dislike of the subject, rarely brings mind enough to the work, to comprehend clearly the sacred text. Not to mention the influence of his preconceived pagan notions in his composi- tion, and the dishonesty which generally characterizes most heathens, I think any of the Chinese I have ever seen would slur the work over in any way, or, if they were more zealous, would affect to amend the sense of the original, when it did not comport with their previous opinions.
"In my translations, I have studied fidelity, perspicuity, and simplicity; I have preferred common words to rare and classical ones; I have avoided technical terms, which occur in the pagan philosophy and religion. I would rather be deemed inelegant, than hard to be understood. In difficult pas- sages. I have taken the sense given by the general consent of the gravest, most pious, and least eccentric divines, to whom I had access.
"To the task, I have brought patient endurance of long labor and seclu sion from society; a calm and unprejudiced judgment; not enamored of novelty and eccentricity, nor yet tenacious of an opinion merely because it was old; and, I hope, somewhat of an accurate mode of thinking, with a reverential sense of the awful responsibility of misinterpreting God's word Such-qualifications are, perhaps, as indispensable as grammatical learning, in translating such a book as the Bible."
Of Dr. Morrison's Philological works, the second great object to which he devoted his time and strength, and of his Dictionary in par- ticular, we need not here say much. These works are well known by reputation to the literary world in general, and to those with whom Chinese study is an object, they are the daily and invaluable compa- nions. His Grammar was compiled, at an early period in his studies, chiefly for his own advantage; and others of more value have since been published: yet Sir George T. Staunton speaks of it, as “a work which will prove, both in regard to its plan and its execution, a most valuable acquisition to the student of the Chinese language." His Dictionary is such as no student of Chinese can, without great injury to himself, fail to make daily use of. A living sinologue of the highest merit speaks of it as being laid aside for other dictionaries, only by those whose means are so limited that they cannot afford to purchase anything so expensive as it is. The Vocabulary of the Canton dialect has till lately been the only publication for the advantage of those who, residing chiefly at Canton, choose the study of the local dialect in preference to that of the general language.
The next great work, in the promotion of which Dr. Morrison took