God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible (British title: Power and Glory) By Adam Nicolson 281 pp. New York: HarperCollins Publishers US $24.95 (he).
When the King James Bible rolled off the press in 1611 it included a Preface. The author of the Preface, Miles Smith, was one of 50 or so scholars from Cambridge. Oxford, and London who worked on the Bible project. Unlike the running heads at the top of each page that he also wrote, Smith's Preface is rarely included in modern reprints.
But hear how it set the tone for the familiar cadences and metaphors of the grand book that followed. The word of God, Smith wrote, "is not onely an armour, but also a whole armorie of weapons, both offensiue, and defensiue; whereby we may saue our selues and put the enemy to flight. ... a fountaine of most pure water springing vp vnto euerlasting life."
