To the Rev.J.Jowett (ENDORSED:recd.Nov.14,1834)ST.PETERSBURG,OCT.13TH (old style)1834.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,-In pursuance of the promise given in my epistle of last week,which I trust in the Lord you have received,I again address you.In the first place I must intreat you to peruse and to read to the Committee the enclosed Latin certificate penned by Mr.Lipoftsoff,a gentleman as little inclined to be prodigal of praise,as was of old the learned Scaliger himself,to whom in many points indeed,he bears no faint resemblance.In the second place,I must inform you that a few hurried lines are all that I can afford to write at present;my proof sheets are rushing in so fast that time is exceedingly precious to me,and I grudge every moment that is not devoted to my Maker or to my great undertaking.
Before this letter reaches you St.Mark's Gospel will have passed through the press.The two remaining Gospels will be printed before the arrival of Christmas,and by the first of May the entire New Testament,in the Mandchou language,will have been published.
I wish this intelligence to be communicated to the public,who are at liberty,provided the Lord does not visit me with some heavy affliction,to hold me culpable,if my assertion is belied by the event.
It is true that were I to pursue the common practice of editors,it would be impossible to complete the work in less than two years;the quantity of proofs,successively required for every sheet,fail not,in general,to retard the progress of all such undertakings.
My beloved friend Mr.Swan published in this city a small tract in Mongolian;he found that it was absolutely necessary to demand six proofs of every sheet,for in the second,nay the third proof,there were frequently as many errors as in the first,from the compositors not being able properly to read the corrections.But Inever entrust the task of making alterations in the press to other hands than my own.Having corrected the first proof at home,Iproceed to the printing office and rectify all errors myself.Iconsequently never require more than two proofs;the second,which I generally show to Mr.Lipoftsoff,is frequently faultless.I am so perfectly convinced of the excellence of this plan,that it is my firm intention to pursue it in whatever foreign,or even English works,it may be my destiny to edit.
I wish now to say a few words upon a subject,on which I have previously said something.At the present moment my principal inducement to such a step is the observation every now and then made to me,both by Christians and no Christians,namely:'You are printing Testaments for which you will never find readers.Do not tell us that you can distribute them at Canton and its environs,or on the coasts of China;there are not ten individuals amongst a million of the aboriginal Chinese,and such constitute the inhabitants of Canton,of the coasts and of the isles,who understand the language in which your Testaments are printed.If you wish for readers you must seek them amongst the masters of Pekin and the fierce hordes of desert Tartary;but what means do you possess for introducing them to Tartary or Pekin?'I stated in a former letter that the town of Kiachta,upon the northern frontier of China,appeared to me to be in many respects a suitable head-quarters for any person on whom might devolve the task of endeavouring to supply the Mandchou Tartars with the word of life in their own language.I am still of opinion,and so are many individuals much more experienced than myself,that if a passport could be obtained from the Russian Government,the Bible Society would do well in despatching an agent to Kiachta,to see what might be done at,or rather from,that place in the great cause.Kiachta is little more than 800miles from Pekin,and not more than half that distance from Manjuria;he might therefore,trusting in the Lord,not unreasonably hope to be able to penetrate to the Tartar of the capital and the desert.True it is that his undertaking would not 'come within the limits of safe and prudent speculation.'