Encyclopædia americana. A popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, a new ed.; including a copious collection of original articles in American biography; on the basis of the 7th ed. of the German Conversations-lexicon. Ed. by Francis Lieber, assisted by E. Wigglesworth ...

BIBLE SOCIETIETIES. 9
ciety, directly or indirectly:-Reprints, has been completed; 1 at Berlin; 1 at
42; retranslations, 5; languages and di- Dresden, which, besides a stereotype edialects in which the Scriptures had never tion of the German Bible, has also publishbeen printed before the institution of the ed an edition, in the Wendish tongue, for
society, 58; new translations commenced Lusatia; 1 at Frankfort on the Maine. In
or completed, 38; total, 143. The soci- Bavaria, the distribution of the Bible has
ety provides many translations of single been confined to the efforts of individuals.
books of the Bible, or of the New Testa- (180,000 copies of the Catholic translament, in numerous languages and dialects tions of the New Testament, by Gossner
of the nations of Middle and Eastern Asia, and van Ess, had been distributed in
at Calcutta and Madras; as well as in the Germany and Switzerland, up to 1821.
languages of the Levant, North Africa, lIany of these reached the Austrian prov&c. (e. g., the Arabic, Tartar, Syriac, and inces, which at present are closed against
two dialects of the Ethiopic), at Smyrna, German Bibles.) The society at StuttMalta, and other depots of the Mediterra- gart has printed an edition of 10,000 Binean; and aids all the Bible societies of bles and 2000 Testaments, which have
the continent of Europe. It has agents already been taken up. Societies exist at
in almost all parts of the inhabited globe, Hamburg, Baden, Weimar, Bremen, Luwho travel at its expense, to discover the beck; at Schleswig-Holstein, Schwerin,
best means of diffusing the Bible, and to Ratzeburg, Eutin, Brunswick, &c. (each
procure able translators and manuscripts of them having auxiliary societies). Protof ancient translations for the use of the estant Switzerland has a Bible society of
society. Pinkerton found, in Paris, trans- its own; so has the kingdom of the
lations of the Bible in the dialects of Netherlands, which provides its colonies
Northern Asia and Thibet, with the char- with Bibles. In Paris, such a society was
acters belonging to them, which had been instituted, Dec. 6, 1818, for the Protestants
brought to France, under Napoleon, from in France. The means of this society
the archives of the propaganda at Rome. were small (in 1820, not more than 58,212
The most difficult translation was that francs had been received), and it had
into the Esquimaux language. Accord- principally in view the supplying of
ing to the 24th report above-mentioned, schools, hospitals and prisons; but, as
published in 1828, there were issued in Catholics also have received the Bible, it
England, during the 24th year from the es- has met with a strong opposition from
tablishment of the society, Bibles, 137,162; the papal-jesuitical party in France. In
Testaments, 199,108; purchased and is- Strasburg, an edition of 20,000 Bibles was
sued for the society, in foreign parts, du- printed for Alsace. In Sweden, the chief
rin the same period, Bibles, 212,024; society in Stockholm have distributed a
Testaments, 818,834: total issued on ac- large number of Bibles and Testaments.
count of the society, from its establish- In Norway and Denmark, editions have
ment, Bibles, 2,248,182; Testaments, been published with the same view, and
3,422,341; grand total, 5,670,523. In the Danish society has branches in Iceaddition to this, the society has granted land and the ~West Indies. The Russian
about ~53,800 for distributing, in various society in Petersburg has vied with the
parts of the European continent, French, English, and some years since had printGerman, Swedish and Danish Bibles and ed the Bible in 31 languages and dialects
Testaments. The number of Bible so- spoken in the Russian dominions, among
cieties throughout the world, given in the which is one in the modern Russian,
same report, is as follows:-In Great since the translation of the church is in
Britain and Ireland, connected with the the Sclavonic, and unintelligible to layBritish and foreign Bible society, 262 men. This new translation has been
uxiliaries, 350 branches, and 1493 asso- joyfully received by the country people,
iations; in Ireland, connected with the and shows them the errors and many suHibernian Bible society, 70 auxiliaries, 38 perstitions which disfigure the ritual of
branches, and 18 associations; on the the Greek church. On this account, it
European continent and in the Ionian will probably give rise to contests,'which
islands, 854 societies; in Asia, 13; in can hardly be terminated without a gradAfrica, 4; in America, 549 (there are, in ual reformation of the Greek church.
fact, 631 societies in America, in the Part of the clergy are opposed to the.
present year, 1829); total, 3733.-In Ger- distribution of the Bible, and persecutions
many, the following were the chief Bible against zealous readers of the sacred book
societies in 1817: 1 at Hanover, where have already taken place in the more
an edition of the Bible, of 10,000 copies, distant governments. The Gospels in thu