18. King James's Version Printed

To this demand the King acceded; but it was not till nearly six months after the Hampton Court Conference, that the selection of scholars to undertake the work was made. Their labors began soon after, and the first revision of the sacred text by the whole company occupied about four years. The second revision, by a committee of twelve of them, took up nine months more. The sheets were then some two years in passing through the press; and the new and immortal version was finished and published in 1611, after seven years of most thorough and careful preparation.

Thus it came to pass, that the English Bible received its present form, after a fivefold revision of the translation as it was left in 1537 by Tyndale and Rogers. During this interval of seventy-four years, it had been slowly ripening, till this last, most elaborate, and thorough revision under King James matured the work for coming centuries. It is a very great advantage, that the work, which was well done at first, had the benefit of this accumulated labor and pious care bestowed upon it by so many zealous and erudite scholars in long succession. To this is to be ascribed much of its intrinsic excellence and lasting popularity. Its origin and history so strongly commended it, that it speedily came into general use as the standard version, by the common consent of the English people; and required no act of parliament nor royal proclamation to establish its authority.* Some of the older versions continued to be reprinted for forty years; but no long time elapsed ere the common version quietly and exclusively occupied the field. Who believes it possible that another translation can be produced in our time, which shall command the like acceptance; and without strife or controversy, take, among the

* Says Dr. Lee, Principal of the University of Edinburgh; "I do not find that there was any canon, proclamation, or act of parliament, to enforce the use of it." "The present version," says Dr. Symonds, as quoted in Anderson's Annals, "appears to have made its way, without the interposition of any authority whatsoever; for it is not easy to discover any traces of a proclamation, canon or statute published to enforce the use of it." It has been lately ascertained, that neither the king's private purse, nor the public exchequer, contributed a farthing toward the expense of the translation or publication of the work.

English-speaking population of the globe, the place now held by our venerable version?