s by no means clear how the holy writings were anciently divided,
and still less how quoted or referred to. The honour of the invention of
the present arrangement of the Scriptures is ascribed to Robert
Stephens, by his son, in the preface to his Concordance, a task which he
performed during a journey on horseback from Paris to London, in 1551;
and whether it was done as Yorick would in his Shandean manner lounging
on his mule, or at his intermediate baits, he has received all possible
thanks for this employment of his time. Two years afterwards he
concluded with the Bible. But that the honour of every invention may be
disputed, Sanctus Pagninus's Bible, printed at Lyons in 1527, seems to
have led the way to these convenient divisions; Stephens, however,
improved on Pagninus's mode of paragraphical marks and marginal verses;
and our present "chapter and verse," more numerous and more commodiously
numbered, were the project of this learned printer, to _recommend his
edition of the Bible_; trade and learning were once combined! Whether in
this arrangement any disturbance of the continuity of the text has
followed, is a subject not fitted for my inquiry.

FOOTNOTES:

[270] Harl. MS. 6395.

[271] "Scintilla, or a light broken into darke Warehouses; of some
Printers, sleeping Stationers, and combining Booksellers; in which
is only a touch of their forestalling and ingrossing of Books in
Pattents, and raysing them to excessive prises. Left to the
consideration of the high and honourable House of Parliament, now
assembled. London: Nowhere to be sold, but somewhere to be given."
1641.

[272] A technical printing-term for a sheet containing twenty-four
pages.

[273] The passage is as follows, and is addressed by the apostles to
"the multitude of the disciples," who desired an improved clerical
rule:--"Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of
honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom _we_ may
appoint over this business."

[274] G. Garrard's Letter to the Earl of Strafford, vol. i. p. 208.

[275] Harl. MS. 7580.

[276] See the London Printers' Lamentation on the Press Oppressed.
Harl. Coll. iii. 280.

VIEW OF A PARTICULAR PERIOD OF THE STATE OF RELIGION IN OUR CIVIL WARS.

Looking over the manuscript diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, I was struck by
a picture of the domestic religious life which at that period was
prevalent