ld give his finishing touches with the apology that he had
not done justice to his theme. No nation publishes to such an extent as
Protestant Germany in the nineteenth century; but one cannot be
adequately convinced of the extent of the literary activity of her
theologians of the former half of the seventeenth century without
loitering among the alcoves of her antiquarian bookstores of the present
day. The dusty tomes testify, by their multitude and care, to the
character of the ecclesiastical age that gave them birth. The Germans do
not sell their old books to the paper merchants because they are old. It
is sacrilege to convert the printed sheet back again to pulp. The
libraries of the universities are located in those portions of the city
where land is cheap; the catalogue is a small library of itself. The
Leipzig Fair keeps much of this long-printed literature before the
world. It changes hands, migrates to Tuebingen, Halle, or some other
book-loving place; passes through a generation of owners, and turns up
in some other spot, but little the worse for wear. The peasant is found
at the book auction; the professor considers it a white day when a
replenished purse and the sale of an old library are simultaneous facts.
And when the hour arrives, the preparations are sometimes of the most
comfortable and leisure-inviting character. We once attended an auction
in picturesque old Brunswick which continued three days; and coffee,
beer, sandwiches and other refreshments were freely enjoyed at frequent
intervals by nearly all present. Every one had a long breathing spell
when the auctioneer, or any one of his numerous secretaries, sipped his
coffee and replenished his pipe.

We cannot affirm that there was as much a deficiency of talent or
learning at the time of which we speak, as there was of an humble,
subdued religious spirit, and of clearness of conception, all of which
are equally necessary to give a high tone to theological writing and
thinking. Dr. Pusey says of the theologians, that "they were highly
learned but deficient in scientific spirit, freedom from prejudice,
destitute of comprehensive and discriminating views, without which mere
knowledge is useless." An illustration is furnished in Calov's mammoth
production, entitled, _Systema locorum Theologicorum e sacra potissimum
scriptura et antiquitate, nec non adversariorum confessione doctrinam,
praxia et controversiarum fidei, cum veterum tum inprimis recentiorum