nd I
would ask if its paternity is known to any of your antiquarian
correspondents there or here.

The Fragment is preceded by a very remarkable Preface, containing "some
reasons why this little piece has thus been thrown off in such a loose and
disorderly manner;" among which figure the desire "to disperse a parcel of
them gratis,--because they are, perhaps, worth nothing; that nobody may pay
for his folly but himself; that, if his Fragment is damned, which it
probably may be, he will thenceforth drop any farther correspondence with
Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c.; and, lastly, that he may be benefited by the
criticisms upon its faults and failings, while he himself lurks cunningly
behind the curtain. But if, after all," says the facetious author, "this
little northern urchin shall chance to spring forward under the influence
of a more southern and warmer sun, the author will then endeavour to bring
his goods to market as plump, fresh, and fair as the soil will admit."

I presume, however, the public did not call for any of the farther
instalments promised in the title.

J. O.

* * * * *

ERRATA IN PRINTED BIBLES.

Mr. D'Israeli, in his _Curiosities of Literature_, has an article entitled
"The Pearl Bibles and Six Thousand Errata," in which he gives some notable
specimens of the blunders perpetrated in the printing of Bibles in earlier
times. The great demand for them prompted unscrupulous persons to supply it
without much regard to carefulness or accuracy; and, besides, printers were
not so expert as at the present day.

"The learned Ussher," Mr. D'Israeli tells us, "one day hastening to
preach at Paul's Cross, entered the shop of one of the stationers, as
booksellers were then called, and inquiring for a Bible of the London
edition, when he came to look for his text, to his astonishment and his
horror he discovered that the verse was omitted in the Bible! This gave
the first occasion of complaint to the king, of the insufferable
negligence and incapacity of the London press; and first bred that
great contest which followed between the University of Cambridge and
the London stationers, about the right of printing Bibles."

Even during the reign of Charles I., and in the time of the Commonwealth,
the manufacture of spurious Bibles was carried on to an alarming extent.
English Bibles were fabricated in Holland for cheapness, without any regard
to accur