Note 3 — Chapter I

In the library of the late Rev. T. Toller of Kettering was a manuscript (now in the library of Bristol Baptist College) of nine small octavo pages, evidently in the exquisitely small and legible handwriting of Carey, on the Psalter. The short treatise discusses the literary character and authorship of the Psalms in the style of Michaelis and Bishop Lowth, whose writings are referred to. The Hebrew words used are written even more beautifully than the English. If this little work was written before Carey went to India—and the caligraphy seems to point to that—the author shows a very early familiarity with the writings of one who was his predecessor as a Christian Orientalist, Sir William Jones. The closing paragraph has this sentence:—"A frequent perusal of the book of Psalms is recommended to all. We should permit few days to pass without reading in Hebrew one of those sacred poems; the more they are read and studied, the more will they delight, edify, and instruct."