MACALLISTER V. MR BEATTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 45, 22 February 1901, Page 2

MACALLISTER V. MR BEATTY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—There was a Scotchman who was told tha.t the bird called kittewake was the thing? to eat if you wanted a fine appetite wherewith to start gormandising. He ate three, and then lugubriously complained that he was "no hungrier than before!" Now. I have perused Macaliister's effusion thrice, and it has not whetted my appetite for more "pudden" of "his'n." Tn fact, I learn something from one who shears down "fathoms deep" like Mr Beatty; but the Lord preserve me from Macalllster, and when he is "con-speak-uous" may it be "by his absence!" Commonsense teaches us just the opposite to what he says it does. The men of recent times who try to reconstruct the modus operandi of the Spirit vouchsafed to Saint Paul by translation into the haberdashery of modern KngHsh, a language ot "thunder and lightning" pattern, ore mere Greek and Latin schoolmen whose existence is passed between book covers, whereas such prodigies of Greek and Latin learning as Lady Jane Grey, Lady Anne Bncon, her son, Baron Verulam, Alexander Pope, translator of' Homer, John Dryden. Milton, the evervenorable Cranmer, Latimer, etc., and men who rapped out "hammer and stiddy" English, such as Shakespeare and Raleigh, and oven Queen Gloriana herself, prove that the then translators were' closer to the kernel of the Gospel Nut. "Macallister" would have been "brushed up" Jbo do things then, eh, sir? At a time

when a wit like the Queen said to a deputation of eighteen tailors, "Good morning, gentlemen, both!" I would suggest that "Macallister" study William the Conqueror. He could read Paul in Greek, used Greek fire, and, what is very important to up, said. "A King without learning is a crowned ass." Before a viper bite a "jilts" like Mr Beatty, let him take stock oi his teeth, for, if he lack the molars, canines am! incisors ot' Latin, Greek and Hebrew, he must needs swallow everything that "noddy-caps" dish up as EnglUli. For instance, lie will read to nig wife and olive branches at the family conclave in Hebrews i. ix what bunglers have dished up for him there, on principle •'tncy'll never know the difference." But would William the Conqueror, or Osterv.iki, or any Norman? No. Here follows what those exact worthies (I speak advisedly: "I magnify mine ollice," so to apeak) would peruse (and, understand, ye ken):— Hebreux, Chapitre i. ix.: Tv as aime la justice, et tv as hai l'inquite e'est pourquoi o Dieu, ton Dieu, t'a sirit dune huile de joie audessus de tous tes semblabies. Moreover, how ashamed we English feel when we reflect William the Conqueror knew no "Hell" but "Gehenna," Nor Christ!—l am, etc., ONE. FOR MACALLISTER'S NOB.