"We have thus[1] passed in review[2] the changes and improvements[3] which the revision contains[4] in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. It has[5] not, indeed,[6] been possible to refer to[7] them all; but so many illustrations[8] have been given in[9] the several classes described that the reader will have[10] a satisfactory[11] survey of the whole subject. Whatever may be said of other portions[12] of the New Testament, we think it will be generally admitted that in this Epistle the changes have improved the old[13] translation. They are such as[14] make the English version[15] conform more completely[16] to the Greek original. If this be[17] true, the revisers have done a good work for the Church.[18] If it be true[19] with regard to all the New Testament books, the work which they have done will remain[20] a blessing to the readers of those books for[21] generations to come. But the blessing will be only in the clearer presentation of the Divine truth, and, therefore, it will be only to the glory of God."
This astonishingly slipshod bit of composition is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight. If the learned Professor of Divinity in Yale College deemed it worth while to give a little thought to manner as well as to matter, it is probable that his diction would be very different from what it is; and, if he were to give a few minutes to the making of verbal corrections in the foregoing paragraph, he would, perhaps, do something like this: 1, change _thus_ to _now_; 2, write _some of_ the changes; 3, strike out _and improvements_; 4, for _contains changes_ substitute some other form of expression; 5, instead of _has been_, write _was_; 6, strike out _indeed_; 7, instead of _refer to_, write _cite_; 8, change _illustrations_ to _examples_; 9, instead of _in_, write _of_; 10, instead of _the reader will have_, write _the reader will be able to get_; 11, change _satisfactory_ to _tolerable_; 12, change _portions_ to _parts_; 13, not talk of the _old_ translation, as we have no new one; 14, strike out as superfluous the words _are such as_; 15, change _version_ to _text_; 16, substitute _nearly_ for _completely_, which does not admit of comparison; 17, substitute the indicative for the conditional; 18, end sentence with the word _work_; 19, introduce _also_ after _be_; 20, instead of _remain_, in the sense of _be_, use _be_; 21, introduce _the_ after _for_. As for the last sentence, it reminds one of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words," though here we have, instead of a song and no words, words and no song, or rather no meaning. As is often true of cant, we have here simply a syntactical arrangement of words signifying--nothing.