recasting and heightening, under a certain condition of spiritual excitement, of what a man has to say, in such a manner as to add dignity and distinction to it; and dignity and distinction are not terms which suit many acts or works of Luther. Deeply touched with the Gemeinheit which is the bane of his nation, as he is at the same time a grand example of the honesty which is his nation's excellence, he can seldom even show himself brave, resolute, and truthful, without showing a strong dash of coarseness and commonness all the while; the right definition of Luther, as of our own Bunyan, is that he is a Philistine of genius. So Luther's sincere idiomatic German,- such language as this: "Hilf lieber Gott, wie manchen Jammer habe ich gesehen, dass der gemeine Mann doch so gar nichts Weiss von der christlichen Lehre:"- no more proves a power of style in German literature, than Cobbett's sinewy idiomatic. Power of style, properly so called, as manifested in masters of style like Dante or Milton in poetry, Cicero, Bossuet, or Holingbroke in prose, is something quite different, and has, as I have said, for its characteristic effect, this: to add dignity and distinction.

The Celt's quick feeling for what is noble and distinguished gave his poetry style; his indomitable personality gave it pride and passion; his sensibility an nervous exaltation gave it a better gift still,- the gift of rendering with wonderful felicity the magical charm of nature. The forest solitude, the bubbling spring, the wild flowers, are everywhere in romance. They have a mysterious life and grace there; they are Nature's own children, and utter her secret in a way which makes them something quite different from the woods, waters, and plants of Greek and Latin poetry. Now of this delicate a mistress, that it seems impossible to believe the power did not come into romance from the Celts. Magic is just the word for it,- the magic of nature; not merely the beauty of nature,- that the Greeks and Latins had; not merely an honest snack of the soil,- that the Germans had; but the intimate life of Nature, her weird power and her fairy charm. Magic is the word to insist upon,- a