sorts, of
_silence_, of tolerance and moderation, among others, are very notable
in these circumstances.

Tolerance, I say; a very genuine kind of tolerance: he distinguishes
what is essential, and what is not; the unessential may go very much
as it will. A complaint comes to him that such and such a Reformed
Preacher, 'will not preach without a cassock.' Well, answers Luther,
what harm will a cassock do the man? 'Let him have a cassock to preach
in; let him have three cassocks if he find benefit in them!' His
conduct in the matter of Karlstadt's wild image-breaking; of the
Anabaptists; of the Peasants' War, shows a noble strength, very
different from spasmodic violence. With sure prompt insight he
discriminates what is what: a strong just man, he speaks-forth what is
the wise course, and all men follow him in that. Luther's Written
Works give similar testimony of him. The dialect of these speculations
is now grown obsolete for us; but one still reads them with a singular
attraction. And indeed the mere grammatical diction is still legible
enough; Luther's merit in literary history is of the greatest; his
dialect became the language of all writing. They are not well written,
these Four-and-twenty Quartos of his; written hastily, with quite
other than literary objects. But in no Books have I found a more
robust, genuine, I will say noble faculty of a man than in these. A
rugged honesty, homeliness, simplicity; a rugged sterling sense and
strength. He flashes-out illumination from him; his smiting idiomatic
phrases seem to cleave into the very secret of the matter. Good humour
too, nay tender affection, nobleness, and depth: this man could have
been a Poet too! He had to _work_ an Epic Poem, not write one. I call
him a great Thinker; as indeed his greatness of heart already betokens
that.

Richter says of Luther's words, 'his words are half-battles.' They may
be called so. The essential quality of him was, that he could fight
and conquer; that he was a right piece of human Valour. No more
valiant man, no mortal heart to be called _braver_, that one has
record of, ever lived in that Teutonic Kindred, whose character is
valour. His defiance of the 'Devils' in Worms was not a mere boast, as
the like might be if now spoken. It was a faith of Luther's that there
were Devils, spiritual denizens of the Pit, continually besetting men.
Many times, in his writings, this turns-up; and a most small sneer has
been grounded on it by