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Life of Dr. Morrison
JAN.
periods) is the third period, and embraces incidents "from his embar- kation for China, to the foundation of the Anglo-Chinese College." It would, however, be impolitic to enter at any length on the narratives given of his checkered voyage to Canton, of his reception at Can- ton, of his incipient labors, of his appointment as translator to the English factory, of the mission to Malacca, of his successes in trans- lation, &c., &c. Suffice it to say, that in the larger part of the first volume, there is much matter to interest the historian, the politician, the merchant, and the missionary.
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The second volume opens with the fourth period of our friend's "life and labors," and announces the translation of the whole Bible into Chinese as completed. This work had been commenced soon after Mr. Morrison's arrival in China in 1807, and terminated in 1819. He had been partly relieved in this labor by the late Dr. Milne, who join- ed him in 1813; and had derived some assistance in the translation of the New Testament from a MS. found in the British Museum; but the onus was borne mainly by himself. In writing to the directors of 'The London Missionary Society,' he speaks candidly his own senti- ments on the value to be attached to that translation, by no means regarding it as the ultimum. The following is an extract from the same communication expressive of his own views of the duties of a translator of the Sacred Scriptures.
"The duty of a translator of any book is two-fold, first, to comprehend ac- curately the sense, and to feel the spirit of the original work; and secondly, to express in his version faithfully, perspicuously, and idiomatically, (and, if he can attain it, elegantly,) the sense and spirit of the original.
"For the first part of this duty, a Christian student will be much more, competent than a heathen translator generally is; for the second part of the work, of course, a man who translates into his mother tongue (other things being equal) will much excel. Till those who are now heathen literati, cease to be heathens, these qualifications will not easily be found, in tolerable per- fection, in the same individual.
“That the first is of more importance than the second, is, I believe, true; for no elegance of composition can atone for a misunderstanding of the sense of the sacred page; whereas a degree of uncouthness in the style of any writ- ing destroys not the sense. Some think that the doggrel version of the Psalms used by the Church of Scotland is a better translation of the sense of that divine book than the most elegant that ever was attempted. And I know, by much experience in commercial and political translation, that a very inelegant written version of a foreigner, will enable a native student to comprehend very clearly the sense and spirit of the original, and that also much better than a verbal statement of the meaning can.
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By these remarks, I can to convey it as my opinion, that a less pure
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