It was genuine enthusiasm for a high moral ideal which made the beauty. If Wyclif and his associates provided the seed, it was Tindale and Cloverdale who raised the plant; the revisers of 1611 only pruned and trained it. . . . While Tindale was working alone in exile there was no promise in English literature. Chaucer's light had set in darkness; tho he had died less than one hundred and fifty years before, he was not so easily read as he is to-day; and Wyclif's Bible, tho more vernacular in style than Chaucer, was suffering the same obsolescence. Shakspere, without whom we can reckon nothing, was unborn. It was unforeseen and unimaginable that at that time a book should arise unmatched in the world for its beauties and mastery of style.

The style of prose eludes differentiation and description; it is one of the most complex and intangible of all phenomena that invite distinction, but its history in western Europe offers a simple classification into two main divisions, the Ciceronian and the non-Ciceronian or Romantic. These terms are not satisfactory, but they do indicate a real distinction. Cicero, founding himself on the Greek orators, perfected a manner of writing which, wherever it was known, affected European literature. Since he wrote in the language which was for centuries written and spoken by the learned all over Europe, we can not suppose that any one could wholly escape from some relics of his tradition; but his art was so elaborate that without familiarity and practice it could not be approached or attempted; and it is so far removed from colloquial speech and untrained expression as to be almost unintelligible and repulsive to the natural man. . . .

...

Our Bible, then, is in the Romantic style of prose; and, comparing our literature with the one literature in the world with which we can feel pride in comparing it, we may say that to the Greeks Herodotus' history held something like the same literary position as our Bible holds with us an early and inimitable masterpiece of abounding natural grace, whose simple charm set it above the reach of the conscious rules of grammarians, a model which no one who had sufficient taste to admire would attempt to rival. . . .

...

What England would have been if the Bible had never become a household book is a hypothetical problem for the moral philosopher; and if we ask how much we owe to the literary excellence of our translation, that question is not a wholly literary one, but it has a very important literary aspect, of which we may venture to speak without intruding upon morals or theology or the field of esoteric scholarship. For three hundred years, and we may almost say from the date of the first dissemination of Tindale's New Testament, the average Englishman has been subjected to an influence of incalculable magnitude, the greater because he has been unaware of its unusual character; for the Bible that he has read and revered has not only more beauty than any other vernacular rendering that any other nation has possessed, but it is in its vital parts more beautiful and intimate than its originals.

156. Luther to the Mayors and Magistrates of Germany (Martin Luther, Letter to the Mayors and Aidermen of all Cities of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools, 1524; trans. in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. IV, pp. 429-30, 437-38)

Luther issued this address to the rulers of the German cities. The following extracts from it show his reasoning, and reveal the spirit of the Address. His great belief in the study of the languages for the sake of understanding the Bible is also clearly demonstrated.

To the Mayors and Councilmen of all the Towns of Germany:

Grace and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved rulers, wise and sagacious men, . . . I would have you freely, cheerfully and in a spirit of love, give me your attention; since, doubtless, if ye obey me herein, ye obey not me, but Christ, and whoever does not follow my precepts, despises Christ, and not me. Wherefore I beseech you all, beloved rulers and friends, for the sake of God and of poor neglected youth, do not count this a small matter, as some do, who, in their blindness, overlook the wiles of the adversary. For it is a great and solemn duty that is laid upon us, a duty of immense moment to Christ and to the world, to give aid and council to the young. And in so doing we likewise promote our own best interests. And remember, that the silent, hidden and malicious assaults of the devil can be withstood only by manly Christian effort. Beloved rulers, if we find it necessary to expend such large sums, as we do yearly, upon artillery, roads, bridges, dykes, and a thousand other things of the sort, in order that a city may be assured of continued order, peace, and tranquillity, ought we not to expend on the poor suffering youth therein, at least enough to provide them with a schoolmaster or two? God, the Almighty, has, in very deed, visited us Germans with the small rain of his grace, and vouchsafed to us a right golden harvest. For we have now among us many excellent and learned young men, richly furnished with knowledge, both of the languages and of the arts, who could do great good, if we would only set them to the task of teaching our little folks. Do we not see before our very eyes, that a boy may now be so thoroughly drilled in three years, that, at fifteen or eighteen, he shall know more than hitherto all the high schools and cloisters put together have ever been able to impart? Yea, what other thing have the high schools and cloisters ever achieved, but to make asses and blockheads? Twenty, forty years would they teach you, and after all you would know nothing of Latin, or of German either; and then, too, there is their shameful profligacy, by which how many ingenuous youths have been led astray! But, now that God has so richly favored us, in giving us such a number of persons competent to teach these young folks, and

to mould their powers in the best manner, truly it behooves us not to throw his grace to the wind, and not to suffer him to knock at our door in vain....

"This may be so," you reply; "but, though we ought to have schools, and must have them, still what will it profit us to have Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and your other liberal arts taught in them? Will not German suffice to teach us all of the Bible and the Word of God that is essential to salvation?" Alas, I fear me, that we Germans must ever be and continue to be mere brutes and wild beasts, as our neighbors with such good reason style us. . . . Surely, were there no other good to be got from the languages, the bare thought that they are a noble and a glorious gift from God, wherewith he has visited and enriched us, almost beyond all other nations, this thought, I say, ought to be a powerful motive, yea, an allurement to cultivate them. . . . For the prince of darkness is shrewd enough to know that, where the languages flourish, there his power will soon be so rent and torn that he cannot readily repair it. But now, since he cannot keep them from expanding into a vigorous growth, and from bearing fruit, he is at work, devising how he may render them dwarfed and sickly, if so be that they may decay and die of themselves. . . .

... For, as the light of the sun dispels the shadows of the night, so do the languages render useless all the glosses of the Fathers. Since now, it becomes Christians to regard the Scriptures as the one only book, which is all their own, and since it is a sin and a shame for us not to be familiar with our own book, nor with the language and the word of our God; — so it is a still greater sin and shame, for us not to learn the languages, especially now that God is bringing to us and freely offering us learned men, and suitable books, and everything which we need for this purpose, and is, so to speak, urging us to the task, so desirous is he to have his book open to us. O, how joyful would those beloved Fathers have been, if they could have come to the knowledge of the Scriptures, and have learned the languages so easily as we now may do it. . . .

But, you say, "we can not bring all our children up to be students; we can not spare them; we need them at home to work for us." I answer, "I do not ask for the establishment of such schools, as we have had hitherto, where our young men have spent twenty or thirty years over Donatus or Alexander, and yet have not learned anything at all. We have now another world, and things are done after a different pattern. And I ask no more than this, namely, that boys shall attend upon such schools as I have in view, an hour or two a day, and none the less; spend the rest of their time at home, or in learning some trade, or doing whatever else you will; thus both these matters will be cared for together, while they are young and opportunities are favorable. For else, they would haply spend tenfold this time in gunning and ballplaying. So, too, your little girls may easily find time enough to go to

school an hour a day, and yet do all their household duties; for they now devote more than that to overmuch play, dancing, and sleep.

It is very plain that all we need, is a cordial and earnest determination to train up our youth aright, and by this means furnish the world with wise and efficient men. For the devil is better pleased with coarse blockheads and with folks who are useful to nobody; because where such characters abound, then things do not go on prosperously here on the earth.

Hence, there is great need, not for the sake of the young alone, but also for the welfare and stability of all our institutions, temporal and spiritual alike, that we should begin at once, and in good earnest, to attend to this matter. . . .

Wherefore, dearly beloved rulers, bend yourselves to the work which God so strictly enjoins upon you, which your office involves, which our youth stand so much in need of, and which neither the world nor the spirit can afford to do without. We have lain, alas, too long in the darkness of corruption and death; too long have we been German beasts. Let us now act as becomes reasonable beings, so that God may mark our gratitude for the good things he has given us, and that other lands may see that we, too, are men; nay, more, that we are men who can either learn somewhat from them, or impart somewhat to them: so, through us, the world shall be made better. I have done my part; and with longing have I desired to bring aid and counsel to this German land. . . .

157. Luther's Conception of the Dignity and Importance of the

Teacher's Work

(Martin Luther, Sermon on the Duty of Sending Children to School; trans. in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. IV, p. 441)

Another extract from the same source as the preceding.

Where were your supply of preachers, jurists, and physicians, if the arts of grammar and rhetoric had no existence? These are the fountain, out of which they all flow. I tell you, in a word, that a diligent, devoted school-teacher, preceptor, or any person, no matter what his title, who faithfully trains and teaches boys, can never receive an adequate reward, and no money is sufficient to pay the debt you owe him; so, too, said the pagan, Aristotle. Yet we treat them with contempt, as if they were of no account whatever; and, all the time, we profess to be Christians. For my part, if I were, or were compelled to leave off preaching and to enter some other vocation, I know not an office that would please me better than that of schoolmaster, or teacher of boys. For I am convinced that, next to preaching, this is the most useful, and greatly the best labor in all the world, and, in fact, I am sometimes in doubt which of the positions is the more honorable. For you can not

teach an old dog new tricks, and it is hard to reform old sinners, but this is what by preaching we undertake to do, and our labour is often spent in vain; but it is easy to bend and train young trees, though haply in the process some may be broken. My friend, nowhere on earth can you find a higher virtue than is displayed by the stranger, who takes your children and gives them a faithful training, a labor which parents very seldom perform, even for their own offspring.

158. Luther on the Duty of compelling School Attendance (Martin Luther, Sermon on the Duty of Sending Children to School; trans. in Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. IV, pp. 440-41)

In a long sermon, written in 1530, to be preached in Lutheran churches throughout Germany, Luther admonishes the people to send their children to school. In the extract from this sermon given below Luther urges compulsion to attend, basing the right to compel attendance on the general right of the State to protect itself and advance its welfare.

I hold it to be incumbent on those in authority to command their subjects to keep their children at school; for it is, beyond doubt, their duty to insure the permanence of the above-named offices and positions, so that preachers, jurists, curates, scribes, physicians, schoolmasters, and the like, may not fail from among us; for we cannot do without them. If they have the right to command their subjects, the able-bodied among them, in time of war, to handle musket and pike, to mount the walls, or to do whatever else the exigency may require; with how much the more reason ought they to compel the people to keep their children at school, inasmuch as here upon earth the most terrible of contests, wherein there is never a truce, is ever going on, and that with the devil himself, who is lying in wait, by stealth and unawares, if so be that he may drain city and kingdom, and empty quite out of them all the brave and good, even until he has removed the kernel utterly, and naught shall be left but a mere shell, full of idle mischief-makers, to be mere puppets in his hands to do his pleasure. Then will your city or your country suffer a true famine, and, without the smoke of conflict, will be silently destroyed from within, and that without warning. Even the Turk manages in another way; for he takes every third child throughout his empire, and trains him to some calling perforce. How much more, then, ought our rulers to put at least some children to school; not that I would have a boy taken away from his parents, only that he should be educated, for his own good and the general welfare, to some calling that shall yield him abundant fruits of his industry. Wherefore, let magistrates lay these things to heart, and let them keep a vigilant look-out; and, wherever they see a promising lad, have him pledged at school.