se things, as with
the ebbing of the sea: you look at the waves oscillating hither, thither
on the beach; for _minutes_ you cannot tell how it is going; look in
half an hour where it is,--look in half a century where your Popehood
is! Alas, would there were no greater danger to our Europe than the poor
old Pope's revival! Thor may as soon try to revive.--And withal this
oscillation has a meaning. The poor old Popehood will not die away
entirely, as Thor has done, for some time yet; nor ought it. We may say,
the Old never dies till this happen, Till all the soul of good that was
in it have got itself transfused into the practical New. While a good
work remains capable of being done by the Romish form; or, what is
inclusive of all, while a pious _life_ remains capable of being led
by it, just so long, if we consider, will this or the other human soul
adopt it, go about as a living witness of it. So long it will obtrude
itself on the eye of us who reject it, till we in our practice too have
appropriated whatsoever of truth was in it. Then, but also not till
then, it will have no charm more for any man. It lasts here for a
purpose. Let it last as long as it can.--

Of Luther I will add now, in reference to all these wars and bloodshed,
the noticeable fact that none of them began so long as he continued
living. The controversy did not get to fighting so long as he was there.
To me it is proof of his greatness in all senses, this fact. How seldom
do we find a man that has stirred up some vast commotion, who does
not himself perish, swept away in it! Such is the usual course of
revolutionists. Luther continued, in a good degree, sovereign of this
greatest revolution; all Protestants, of what rank or function soever,
looking much to him for guidance: and he held it peaceable, continued
firm at the centre of it. A man to do this must have a kingly faculty:
he must have the gift to discern at all turns where the true heart of
the matter lies, and to plant himself courageously on that, as a strong
true man, that other true men may rally round him there. He will not
continue leader of men otherwise. Luther's clear deep force of judgment,
his force of all 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 hi