The first book printed in America was the _Bay Psalm Book_, an independent version of the Psalms made by Thomas Welde, Richard Mather, and John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, a committee appointed in 1636. It was proposed to make it more scriptural than either of the previous versions used. It appeared in 1640. Its preface consisted of a discourse urging that psalm-singing was both lawful and necessary. During the next century and a half no less than seventy editions were printed. It was improved by Dunster and Lyon and reprinted in Great Britain, eighteen editions being called for in England and twenty-two in Scotland. This was America’s first contribution to the song service of the Mother Country, but by no means the last. It may be interesting to see just what literary style this _Bay Psalm Book_ could display, and a few specimens are herewith given. The one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, for instance, was given the following form: 1. “The rivers on of Babilon There when wee did sit downe: Yea, even then wee mourned when wee remembred Sion. 2. Our Harp wee did hang it amid Upon the willow tree, Because there they that us away led in captivitee, 3. Required of us a song and thus ask mirth: us waste who laid, sing us among a Sion’s song unto us then they said. 4. The Lord’s song sing can wee? being in stranger’s land. Then let loose her skill my right hand, if I Jerusalem forget. 5. Let cleave my tongue my pallate on if minde thee doe not I if chief joys or’e I prize not more Jerusalem my joy.” Cotton Mather’s rhymeless version was much more sensible in its form, for it eliminated the chief handicap in producing a literal version in metrical form. As in the Psalm versions of England and Scotland, there was a vivid consciousness of literary and poetic shortcomings; but the sense of obligation to supply a literal translation of the Hebrew overrode all impulses toward a smoother rendering. The preface frankly states the position of the committee: “If therefore the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider that God’s altar needs not our polishing (Ex. 20), for we have respected rather a plaine translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrase, and soe have attended Conscience rather than Elegance, fidelity rather than poetry, in translating the Hebrew words into English language and David’s poetry into English meetre.” There were other American Psalm versions, but the only versions worth considering are the revisions of Isaac Watts’ Psalms, which will come up in introducing American hymnody later. XI. THE VALUE OF THE PSALM VERSIONS