concise rendering is, I change my thought, I change my mind." Change is of the essence of the meaning. This essential idea is ignored in the words "do penance." The Thesaurus was published in Paris more than 200 years ago, long years before the version of the Bible was made in which do penance is made to stand for the Greek of the New Testament. Henry Stephens would not have found the smallest difficulty in expressing the idea of doing penance. For, it is a prominent, frequently recurring thought among pagan peoples and occurs frequently in Cicero, Horace, and other classic authors.

In the next, place do penance is not a correct translation, a "fair rendering" of Agite poenitentiam of the Vulgate. It may be safely admitted, though it can not be proven, that agite pænitentiam was retained by St. Jerome in his revision, from the earliest versions that were made of the Scriptures into Latin while this language was spoken in its purity. Versions were made thus early but they are wholly lost, except as they may or may not have been used by St. Jerome.

It is worth while to pause here and contemplate how strikingly the Greek word and its Latin translation in the Vulgate denote the respective characters of the Greek and of the Roman. The old Greek was a man of thought even more than of action. The Roman was a man of action almost wholly. The cogitation of the Greek was introverted upon his own nature, on the soul and its future, on life and "the proper business of life, to wit, to learn to die," on duty and its grounds, on material substance and its qualities; and their philosophers pushed their speculations on every metaphysical and transcendental object of thought to the extremest limit of human subtlety. Thus the Greek developed a language the most perfect instrument of thought which ever existed. And in this language are enshrined the teachings of our Saviour for all mankind forever. With the Romans life was external; it consisted almost wholly in action. They had no philosophers. Cicero was not a philosopher. He was only an enthusiastic translator of Greek philosophy into the stern, inflexible Latin language. Seneca was merely a John Stuart Mill moralist, only something better Thus, in default of language, the Latin Vulgate translated the internal thought of the Greek into external action-μετανοειτε,

into agite pœnitentiam-act your repentance. The Greek refers to the motive thought, the Latin regards the resultant actions. This comes as near, perhaps, to the command to change the motive of our actions as can be well expressed by single words of classical Latin. Poenitemini, the Vulgate translation of Mark i, 15 is not Latin of classical times. Until otherwise instructed we may suspect it came into use with the diffusion of Christian teachings. However this may be it does not even squint in meaning at do penance. Some of the fathers, it seems, sensible of the incompleteness of pontitentia to express the full meaning of the Greek perάvota, preferred resipiscentia. It seems best to acquiesce in the classical Latin of St. Jerome. The correct meaning of agere pœnitentiam may be ascertained, if further illustration is needed, by reference to the Roman classics. Quintus Curtius, viii, 6, pœnitentiam ejus ageret, and De Oratoribus Dialogus attributed to Tacitus 15, Neque illius sermonis mei pœnitentiam ago. Surely Professor Short would not burlesque the meaning of these sentences by the translation to do penance. It seems surplusage to add, what every scholar knows, that agere and facere are not synonymous.

If uncertainty could rest on the true sense of the Greek word in question, it is utterly removed by what follows in Matthew iii. 8. Ποιήσατε οὖν καρποὺς ἄξιους τῆς μετανοίας. Make or bring forth fruits worthy of THE repentance. The adjective follows the noun fruits and governs the genitive repentance. The meaning is still further elucidated for us by observing that the command to repent is in the present tense and thus refers to one decisive act, the command to do or bring forth, TomoαTε is in the aorist and applies to any and all time. The force of the article 75 before uɛravoías is also to be noted. The article makes the repentance relate back and connect it with the command to repent and is equivalent in emphasis to this. The force of the article is in a good measure lost both in the Latin and English translations.

I have taken the words "do penance" in their common acceptation. I have not stopped to inquire what meaning they may be sublimated and refined to express to esoterics.

Finally and simply, neither uɛravow nor agere pœnitentiam can be "fairly rendered do penance.

This memorandum, which I intended should be only a brief protest against Professor Short's incorrect rendering of a Greek word, has expanded far beyond my expectation-not perhaps beyond the intrinsic importance of the error. In refuting this error there has not been present in my mind any doctrine, dogma, tenet, or practice of any of the denominations or subdivisions which make up the Christian world.

ART. VIII.—THE HISTORY OF THE CARDIFF GIANT

HOAX.

THE recent revival of the discussion regarding the Cardiff Giant has made it worth while, perhaps, to present a connected statement of the facts regarding the origin and history of that monstrous hoax. The stone image has been frequently traced from its source in an Iowa gypsum quarry to the workshop of a stone-cutter in Chicago, and thence over various railways and wagon roads to Cardiff, New York, where it was buried only a year previous to its pretended discovery. But the manner in which this curious project for hoaxing the world originated, and its history from beginning to end, as it appears from the point of view of those cognizant of the facts and acquainted with the giant-manufacturer himself, has never been given to the world.

George Hull, who conceived the scheme, and carried it out to its complete fulfillment with a perseverance worthy of a much better cause, lives in the city of Binghamton, New York, where he has of recent years erected a brick block in which he carries on the tobacco business, and which was built with funds earned for him, as rumor says, by the Cardiff Giant. Previous to his embarking in the hoax, he had been known as a small farmer engaged in raising tobacco on a few acres in the outskirts of the city. This occupation was not very lucrative, and in 1866 he went west to see if he could not better his fortunes. In the course of this tour something brought him to the village of Ackley, in Hardin County, Iowa. Here one winter's night found the wandering tobacco planter watching at the sick bed of a man of the name of Benjamin Ogden, and having for a companion in the sick room a clergyman of the village, a Rev. Mr. Turk. The two entered on a discussion of theological subjects, and concluded a long argument with a warm dispute about the sons of Anak. Hull went to bed at a late hour excited by the discussion and convinced of the inordinate credulity of mankind—especially

regarding the giants mentioned in the Bible. In this state of mind his sleepless thoughts conceived the scheme of manufacturing a giant which could be buried and unexpectedly discovered in the earth, and pass for a petrified man. He believed that such a device would both substantiate his theory as to the credulity of mankind, and-something of far greater importance-make his own fortune.

The man carried this project in his mind for a year and a half before putting it in a practical form. But at length, his faith in it having grown with his diminishing success in other pursuits, he removed his family again to Binghamton, and, providing for them for a few months to come, returned immediately to the West for the sole purpose of entering on the work of making the giant. He had up to this time confided his mysterious plans to only a single person, a man named H. B. Martin of Marshalltown, Iowa, who had been taken into confidence under the promise of a partnership in the enterprise.

On returning to the west, Hull joined Martin at Marshalltown, and the two proceeded to Fort Dodge to look at the gypsum of that vicinity, which, as they judged from the description would furnish the proper material for the projected Giant. On the 6th of June, 1868, these two men registered themselves at the St. Charles Hotel, Fort Dodge, and at once proceeded to view the gypsum quarries on the river bank just below the city. Satisfied with the huge masses of soft stone which they saw there and its apparent ease of carving, they bought of one John McDermott an acre of quarry land for one hundred dollars, on which they immediately commenced work, attempting to secure a block suitable for the giant. But finding it difficult to get one large enough, and annoyed by the curiosity and suspicions of the neighbors they finally deserted their quarry.

At this point Martin forsook the enterprise. But Hull, holding to his purpose, and hearing of another bed of the same stone opened by the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad, in the construction of a culvert over Gypsum Creek, about two miles east of Fort Dodge, went there to renew the effort. After carefully looking over the ground he gave the foreman of the work, one Michael Foley, a keg of lager bier, as a consideration for engaging his men to work on Sunday and to "fracture out" as