that they neglect not time, and lose it. Many a young fellow has a school stipend for six or seven years, during which he ought diligently to study; he has his tutors, and other means, but he thinks: O, I have time enough yet. But I say: No, fellow. What little Jack learns not, great John learns not. Occasion salutes thee, and reaches out her forelock to thee, saying: "Here I am, take hold of me;" thou thinkest she will come again. Then says she: "Well, seeing thou wilt not take hold of my top, take hold of my tail ;" and therewith flings away.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Anno 1546, a case in law was related to Luther: A miller had an ass, which went into a fisherman's boat to drink; the boat, not being tied fast, floated away with the ass, so that the miller lost his ass, and the fisherman his boat. The miller complained that the fisher, neglecting to tie his boat fast, had lost him his ass; the fisher complained of the miller for not keeping his ass at home, and desired satisfaction for his boat. Query: What is the law? Took the ass the boat away, or the boat the ass? Luther said: "Both were in error; the fisherman that he tied not fast his boat; the miller in not keeping his ass at home."

There was a miser who, when he sent his man to the cellar for wine, made him fill his mouth with water, which he was to spit out on his return, to show he had drunk no wine. But the servant kept a pitcher of water in the cellar, wherewith, after taking his fill of the better drink, he managed to deceive his master.

A student of Erfurt, desiring to see Nuremberg, departed with a friend on a journey thither. Before they had walked half a mile, he asked his companion whether they should soon get to Nuremberg, and was answered: ""Tis scarce likely, since we have only just left Erfurt." Having repeated the question, another half mile further on, and getting the same answer, he said: "Let's give up the journey, and go back, since the world is so vast!

There are poets who affect to be carried away by their enthusiasm. There was Richius, for example; I remember his sitting with his legs out of window, pretending to be in a fit of poetic fury against the devil, whom he was abusing and vilifying with long, roundabout phrases. Stiegel, who chanced to

pass under, for sport suddenly took hold of the brawling poet's leg, and frightened him horribly, the poor man thinking the devil had come to carry him off.

An idle priest, instead of reciting his breviary, used to run over the alphabet, and then say: "O, my God, take this alphabet, and put it together how you will!"

A certain honest man, at Eisleben, complained to me of his great misery; he had bestowed on his children all his goods, and now in his old age they forsook and trod him under their feet. I said: Ecclesiasticus gives unto parents the best counsel, where he says: "Give not all out of thy hands while thou livest," etc., for the children keep not promises. One father, as the proverb says, can maintain ten children, but ten children cannot, or at least will not, maintain one father. There is a story of a certain father that, having made his last will, locked it up safe in a chest, and, together with a good strong cudgel, laid a note thereby, in these words: "The father who gives his goods out of his hands to his children, deserves to have his brains beat out with cudgels." Here is another story: A certain father, that was grown old, had given over all his goods to his children, on condition they should maintain him; but the children were unthankful, and being weary of him, kept him very hard and sparingly, and gave him not sufficient to eat. The father, being a wise man, more crafty than his children, locked himself secretly into a chamber, and made a great ringing and jingling with gold crowns, which, for that purpose, a rich neighbor had lent him, as though he had still much money in store. When his children heard this, they gave him ever afterwards good entertainment, in hopes he would leave them much wealth; but the father secretly restored the crowns again to his neighbor, and so rightly deceived his children.

I am a great enemy to flies: Quia sunt imagines diaboli et hæreticorum. When I have a good book, they flock upon it and parade up and down upon it, and soil it. 'Tis just the same with the devil: when our hearts are purest, he comes and soils them.

Question was made why, in the Psalms and other portions of the Bible, there is repeated mention of ravens and sparrows, of all birds the least agreeable to the sight, and, in other respects, odious? Dr. Luther said: "If the Holy Ghost could have named birds more objectionable than these, he would

have done so, in order to show us that, as in their case, what we receive is not given to our merits."

Before I translated the New Testament from the Greek, every one longed for it; when it was finished, their longing hardly lasted a month. Then they wanted the books of Moses; when I had translated these, they had enough of them in a little time. After that, they must have the Psalms; they were soon weary of these and desired others. It will be the same with the Book of Ecclesiasticus, which they are now eager for, and which I have taken great pains with. Everything is acceptable till our fickle minds are glutted; then we leave the things alone and seek for new ones.

My being so insignificant was a great misfortune to the Pope he despised me too much. What could a menial like me, he thought, do to him—to him, the greatest potentate in the world. If he had accepted my proposal he would have extinguished me.

The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure or limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name; others for the sake of lucre and gain. The Bible is now buried under so many commentaries, that the text is nothing regarded. I could wish all my books were buried nine ells deep in the ground, by reason of the ill example they will give, every one seeking to imitate me in writing many books, with the hope of procuring fame. But Christ died not to favor our ambition and vainglory, but that his name might be glorified.

The aggregation of large libraries tends to divert men's thoughts from the one great book, the Bible, which ought, day and night, to be in every one's hand. My object, my hope, in translating the Scriptures, was to check the so prevalent production of new works, and so to direct men's study and thoughts more closely to the divine Word. Never will the writings of mortal man in any respect equal the sentences inspired by God. We must yield the place of honor to the prophets and the apostles, keeping ourselves prostrate at their feet as we listen to their teaching. I would not have those who read my books, in these stormy times, devote one moment to them which they would otherwise have consecrated to the Bible.

DEFENSE OF PROTESTANTISM.

BY JOHN CALVIN.

(Prefatory Address to the "Institutes of the Christian Religion.")

[JOHN CALVIN, French Protestant reformer and theologian, was born at Noyon, Picardy, France, July 10, 1509. He studied theology at Paris, and then law at Orleans and Bourges; became an avowed friend of the Reformation; and began preaching in Paris, from which he was banished for his bold attacks on Romanism. He took refuge at Geneva, and here passed the remainder of his life, with the exception of a few years spent in banishment (1538–1541). In 1559 he founded the Academy of Geneva. His chief work, which has been translated into nearly all the European languages, is the "Institutes of the Christian Religion." He died at Geneva, May 27, 1564.]

ΤΟ

HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY,

THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH,

FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH,

HIS SOVEREIGN;

JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST.

SIRE, When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should afterwards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to true godliness. And I toiled at the task chiefly for the sake of my countrymen, the French, multitudes of whom I perceived to be hungering and thirsting after Christ, while very few seemed to have been duly imbued with even a slender knowledge of him. That this was the object which I had in view is apparent from the work itself, which is written in a simple and elementary form adapted for instruction.

But when I perceived that the fury of certain bad men had risen to such a height in your realm that there was no place in it for sound doctrine, I thought it might be of service if I were in the same work both to give instruction to my countrymen, and also lay before your Majesty a Confession, from which you may learn what the doctrine is that so inflames the rage of those madmen who are this day, with fire and sword, troubling your kingdom. For I fear not to declare that what I have

i

here given may be regarded as a summary of the very doctrine which, they vociferate, ought to be punished with confiscation, exile, imprisonment, and flames, as well as exterminated by land and sea.

I am aware, indeed, how, in order to render our cause as hateful to your Majesty as possible, they have filled your ears and mind with atrocious insinuations; but you will be pleased, of your clemency, to reflect that neither in word nor deed could there be any innocence, were it sufficient merely to accuse. When any one, with a view of exciting prejudice, observes that this doctrine, of which I am endeavoring to give your Majesty an account, has been condemned by the suffrages of all the estates, and was long ago stabbed again and again by partial sentences of courts of law, he undoubtedly says nothing more than that it has sometimes been violently oppressed by the power and faction of adversaries, and sometimes fraudulently and insidiously overwhelmed by lies, cavils, and calumny. While a cause is unheard, it is violence to pass sanguinary sentences against it; it is fraud to charge it, contrary to its deserts, with sedition and mischief.

That no one may suppose we are unjust in thus complaining, you yourself, most illustrious Sovereign, can bear us witness with what lying calumnies it is daily traduced in your presence, as aiming at nothing else than to wrest the scepters of kings out of their hands, to overturn all tribunals and seats of justice, to subvert all order and government, to disturb the peace and quiet of society, to abolish all laws, destroy the distinctions of rank and property, and, in short, turn all things upside down. And yet, that which you hear is but the smallest portion of what is said: for among the common people are disseminated certain horrible insinuations - insinuations which, if well founded, would justify the whole world in condemning the doctrine with its authors to a thousand fires and gibbets. Who can wonder that the popular hatred is inflamed against it, when credit is given to those most iniquitous accusations? See why all ranks unite with one accord in condemning our persons and our doctrine.

Carried away by this feeling, those who sit in judgment merely give utterance to the prejudices which they have imbibed at home, and think they have duly performed their part if they do not order punishment to be inflicted on any one until convicted, either on his own confession, or on legal evidence.

VOL. XI.-25

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