reign of Elizabeth there was only one English-speaking nation. This
nation consisted of a bare five million people, fewer than there are
to-day in London or New York. But hardly had the Great Queen died before
Englishmen began that colonizing movement which has carried their
language the whole world round and established their civilization in
every quarter of the globe. Within three centuries after Elizabeth's day
the use of English as a native speech had grown quite thirtyfold. Within
the same three centuries the number of those living under laws and
institutions derived from England had grown a hundredfold.

The England of Elizabeth was an England of great deeds, but of greater
dreams. Elizabethan literature, take it for all in all, has never been
surpassed; myriad-minded Shakespeare remains unequalled still.
Elizabethan England was indeed 'a nest of singing birds.' Prose was
often far too pedestrian for the exultant life of such a mighty
generation. As new worlds came into their expectant ken, the glowing
Elizabethans wished to fly there on the soaring wings of verse. To them
the tide of fortune was no ordinary stream but the 'white-maned, proud,
neck-arching tide' that bore adventurers to sea 'with pomp of waters
unwithstood.'

The goodly heritage that England gave her offspring overseas included
Shakespeare and the English Bible. The Authorized Version entered into
the very substance of early American life. There was a marked difference
between Episcopalian Virginia and Puritan New England. But both took
their stand on this version of the English Bible, in which the springs
of Holy Writ rejoiced to run through channels of Elizabethan prose. It
is true that Elizabeth slept with her fathers before this book of books
was printed, and that the first of the Stuarts reigned in her stead.
Nevertheless the Authorized Version is pure Elizabethan. All its