631 Literary Institution recommended. 632 Literary Institution recommended to the Answer to a Question, on the Re-union Inhabitants of Liverpool. of Married Persons who had separated. MR. EDITOR. SIR, It is much to be lamented, that amongst the many associations, formed by young people in this town, there have not been some for the promotion of science and literature. The Philosophical Society is a public institution, and beyond the efforts of juvenile genius. However excellent it may be for the purposes intended, its establishment we think cannot in the least promote the early emulation, or foster the clever but crude attempts which private societies would be enabled to do. Now, a Literary Club, composed of young men, from the ages of 16 or 17, to 25, or upwards, would be a great advantage. Several little societies of this kind might be formed among friends and acquaintances, which, without interfering with more important avocations, would give a spirit to the society, and a tone to the pursuits of our young men, which would completely raise the character of our town. A year or two since, indeed, we believe it was in one instance attempted, and a plan adopted of meeting together, at their respective houses. But it was of no long continuance, while a Chess club established about the same time has long survived it. This is certainly an agreeable and innocent recreation, and as far as it engages the attention of the mind, may be called useful. In exercising the faculties of man, and promoting habits of patient thought, as an amusement it is unequalled,-but why are literature and science to be excluded! Frequently, through societies like the latter, great minds have been produced, and latent talents called into action. But where this is not the case, they at all events improve and refine the taste, and give a stimulus to the ambition of the members, which is sure to produce a beneficial influence on their future lives. Elevated with such views, and such pure and delightful amusements, consecrating the hours of leisure to the cultivation of talent, and the pursuits of literature, there can be no character more noble and estimable, than that of a British merchant. "MR. EDITOR. "SIR,-I think there can be no doubt that the characters described in the question inserted col. 374, are at liberty to return; for while they remain by their second engagement, they are in a state of adultery, (Matthew xix. 9.) But by a re-union, they return to perform their first marriage vow. Such act may also be considered the fruit of repentance, if their moral deportment admit such construction. And referring to John vi. 37. we find our Saviour will not on any account reject the coming sinner ; therefore, no religious society has a right to do so.. "With reference to the four first verses of the 24th chapter of Deuteronomy;-the separation there, is the result of a lawful determination on the part of the husband alone, and put in force before the wife found favour. Whereas, according to the present query, we may suppose the agreement to separate was mutual, by each choosing a new spouse; and moreover, prior to the first separation, we may also suppose the parties to have cohabited; from both of which particulars I conclude, the chapter of Deuteronomy, referred to, is not applicable to the characters in question. Besides, the second marriage, as in Deuteronomy, is lawful, and not the first: but with the case in hand, it is the first marriage that is lawful, and not the second; see 19th of Matthew, just quoted. "I am Sir, "Your's, most respectfully, "JOSEPH WILLIAMS." Bridge-End, Cornwall." Reply to a Query on Ringworms. IN col. 374, a Question was inserted respecting this singular complaint, to which two replies were given in col. 477. Since the above appeared, we have been favoured with the following, which we also insert, from a hope that they may likewise prove beneficial. MR. EDITOR. SIR,-In your Magazine for April, 1821, a Correspondent inquires for an 633 Replies to Queries.-Epitaph. efficacious cure of the Ringworm. I am induced to offer the following, because I have experienced its value. When a child, of about 10 years of age, I had the complaint, and by a persevered application of the following | prescription, was completely cured, and have never since had any return of the disorder. The trial has proved equally successful in several other instances, to my own knowledge, of which two or three have taken place among my own brothers and sisters. One admonition will be necessary, before I state the recipe, and that is, to persevere in the application; for the Ringworm, like the Wart, requires a considerable time to remove. Recipe. Let the head be shaved, and that every week. Wash the head morning and evening with soap and water, after which, apply the following ointment, by rubbing a small quantity into the part affected. Ointment.-two Scruples of White Precipitate; eight Grains of Sublimate;—mixed up in two ounces of Hog's-lard. As the particles of this ointment are a rank poison, I beg to caution persons against leaving it in the way of children or servants. Your's, &c. B. B. London, May 15, 1821. Mr. Joseph Williams, master of the Free School, Bridge-End, Cornwall, observes, that about three years since, the above disorder appeared among a few of his pupils. Fearing the complaint would prove infectious, the lads were taken home by their parents respectively, where they remained until they were cured, which was effected in a few months. Among the different applications which were made, he knows of none that proved more speedily efficacious than, first, Black Ink without any other mixture; and secondly, a preparation made from Chalk. Answer to a Query on Screw-Drivers. MR EDITOR. SIR,-If you think the following remarks on a question proposed (col. 375,) by Mr. W. Smith, of Camborne, Cornwall, worthy a place in your very valuable Magazine, they are at your disposal. No. 29.-VOL. III. 634 If the person that W. Smith has heard make the assertion concerning Screw-drivers, means only to say, that a screw-driver with a long handle, to which you can apply both your hands, will turn a screw with greater ease than one with a short handle, to which you can only apply one hand, I grant the assertion is true. But if he intends to have the same wood handle to each iron screw-driver, the experiment will prove that both the screw-drivers are powerful alike; and like powers produce like effects in common levers. When the screwdriver is reduced to a common lever, and we make an experiment with one, say 21 inches long, placed horizontally, and resting upon a circular step, and a weight applied to a lever upon the handle of the screw-driver, it will raise a certain weight upon the extremity of the flat part of the screwdriver. Now if you make an experiment with a screw-driver, say 15 inches long, you will have the same result, admitting you make the experiment with the same handle, lever, and weight; which is demonstrable to every intelligent mind. But if you apply your hand to the wood handle of a screw-driver, and cause it to pass through a much larger circle, most certainly it will have more power than the screw-driver with a small handle, because the radius of the large circle is greater than the radius of the small circle; therefore the ratio of the power will be as the difference of the radius of these circles. Yours, &c. A SUBSCRIBER. 635 Life of Martin Luther. LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER;-LATELY GAZINE. NOT only as a reformer of the church doctrine, and religious discipline, but likewise as a German writer, has Luther acquired immortal honour. He wrote his mother tongue more perfectly and elegantly than any other author of his time. In his translation of the Bible, he has left a pattern of a proper, just, and clear, nay of an harmonious, expression. He translated with true feelings of its great and noble contents, and learned to exchange many of the peculiarities of the Scripture language with the German. Nevertheless he let many remain, and not without reason; and so incessantly improved his work, that, with the exception of some particular passages, it has not since his day received any improvement. In his spiritual songs, he was not so much engaged in narrowly observing the rules of language and art of poetry, as to express free and lively Christian feelings; and we perceive at the present how well he succeeded. The fine, and the exalted sentiments, with which many of them are composed, express his mind, his heart, and representations, more naturally than all which history can add upon the subject. The man who could compose that hymn "Euie feste Burg ist unsa Gall," and treat it in such a manner, must be far exalted above the common sort of men of his day. In his controversial writings, there reigned much solidity, strong wit, and genuine humour, notwithstanding the bitterness and passion, which must be forgiven in a man of his stormy and fiery soul. In his sermons, Luther shews himself as the great, thinking, honest, and candid man, which he was in all his enterprises; and his religious expositions were entirely different from the then common way, in substance, form, dress, and expression. Even here he pursued his own path, which he considered the most proper to promote in the best manner the result of preaching, instruction, and improvement. The ancient, and, in the first days of Christianity, usual form, of homilies, appeared to him the most natural and useful. Without exordium, theme, or division, he delayed not by one sub 636 his text, and formed as many conject matter, but went through or over siderations upon it as he found occasion, and his fruitful genius pointed out to him. The usual application had no particular place, as all his moral representations were brought forward in immediate application to all the hearers. All this, and the spirit which pervades his sermons, and the often unexpected and lively thoughts, the affecting representations, the candid and powerful tone with which he speaks, combined with the great simplicity, popularity and artless manly eloquence, give his sermons a particularly original value. The common and low expressions will be readily pardoned, if viewed according to those times when they were not then, what they are now. Luther belongs to those rare men, who with proportionately small means to effect great matters, are able to produce incredible changes. He was, and became, every thing through himself; and humanity, debased under the yoke of superstition and spiritual despotism, has to thank him for ennobling and reinstating her in her, through many centuries, disallowed and oppressed rights. In an age when no one was accustomed to think or to inquire, he profited of the fragments of budding literature, which with unwearied diligence he collected, partly at school, and partly in his academic years, for a solid exposition of holy Scripture, and for a regular improvement of the entire religious instruction in the pulpit, as also upon the spiritual teacher's rostrum. Possessing too great a mind to feel the sensations of envy or jealousy, he willingly did justice to others' merit, yet pursued his own path; and the happy ideas of the best heads of his age, of an Erasmus and a Melancthon, were only instruments in his hands, and not the sources of his farther progress in the elucidation. He exalted particularly (in his translation of the Bible) the German language from its former neglect and barbarousness: he taught princes and citizens their mutual rights and privileges, more solidly and justly than the most penetrating lawyers, long before, or until his time, had done; in short, he seized and made use of every opportunity to overcome prejudices, to spread useful truths, and would certainly have pro 637 Life of Martin Luther. 638 ceeded much farther, if various theolo- | fulfilment of our duties, and which gical controversies, and other avoca- no accidental change of our external tions, had not robbed him of the circumstances can add to or diminish. greatest part of his leisure. In himself alone he sought and found the sources of true happiness, the possession of which his ever active mind, as well as heart full of sentiments for general good, assured him. He therefore set no value on the advantages or gifts of fortune, the possession or loss of which depend upon the temper of human favour, or human hatred. From hence arose his unmoveable stedfastness, his heroic undauntedness in threatening dangers, his incorruptible love of truth, in his bold judgment of others' failings, the baneful influence of which he remarked on the welfare of man, and the interest of religion. No eminence of person was available to soften or turn aside his loud and severe reproaches, and which he sufficiently evinced in his often-repeated declarations against two of the most open enemies of the ReformationAlbreckt of Brandenburg, cardinal and elector of Mainz, and George Duke of Saxony. With equally impartial boldness he reproved the failings of those persons, whom he otherwise loved and esteemed on account of their virtues, and their favourable sentiments of the unadulterated doctrine. Thus he reproached the Elector Frederick the Wise, with his shy lukewarmness at the commencement of the Church reformation, and his very extreme carefulness; the Elector John the Constant, with his too great mildness and his too yielding goodness to the pride of the nobles; the Elector John Frederick, with his obstinacy and the boundless confidence placed, in his council, and with his love for hunting, pursued without proper moderation, at the expense of the poor country people. If Luther be viewed on the side of his comprehensive mind, he deserves our wonder; he likewise becomes amiable through his character, and an object of just veneration: He was content, temperate, bold, undaunted, disinterested, and beneficent, magnanimous and discreet, a zealous worshipper of God, and an active friend of mankind. The contentment to which he had accustomed himself from early youth, and during his severe life in the cloister, may be considered as the foundation of the great part of his other virtues. It was this which made him moderate with respect to every kind of enjoyment, and also created that serenity of the soul, which is the daughter of temperance, and the parent of great ideas and actions. Confined to a small circle of wants, he was an enemy to all excess; and the voice of revengeful calumny | alone, and which he sufficiently confuted by his simple manner of life, could ever accuse him of intemperance. Far removed from permitting his body to usurp dominion over the nobler part of the man, he often renounced the reasonable enjoyment of proffered comforts, and appeared at times, for whole days together, quite to forget all bodily wants. Equally removed from a complaining humour, and proud contempt, of the extended invitations to enjoyment spread through all creation, he was animated and lively in the companiable circle of friends and acquaintances, and he taught by his example the great art to forbear the innocent comforts of life, as also to use them to the collecting of new powers, and to the awakening of joyful thanksgivings to the over all apparent goodness of the great Creator. Even this art of forbearance, which in so great a degree he made his own, raised him above all fear of man, and over the mean necessity of concealing his sentiments under the complaisant garb of flattery. Free from the reproaches of an accusing conscience, and unacquainted with the seducing charms of excessive desires, he enjoyed that exalted tranquillity of soul, which accompanies the consoling consciousness of the exact The noble disinterestedness of Luther, as well as his beneficence, was the effect of that satisfied contentment, by which he so favourably distinguished himself. He never submitted to immoderate desires after riches and greatness, and, accustomed to a happy mediocrity, he deigned no attention to a possible and shining beautifying of his natural situation. The Roman court, as well before as after the excommunicating bulls directed against him, offered him considerable sums; and, if some not im 689 Life of Martin Luther. probable reports are to be credited, even promotion to the highest spiritual ́dignities, if he would only consent to the recal of his doctrines. With the same abstinence he often renounced such extraneous advantages, the possession of which he might have permitted, without doing any violence to his conscience. More than once he declined considerable presents, which were offered him by the Elector John the Constant; and, generous and disinterested, he distributed among the necessitous not only what presents he received, but also supported many helpless and indegent persons from his own moderate income. 640 more prejudicial than profitable to the wholesome work of reformation. On this ground, every distinction of his person displeased him: to mention here an example or two ;—he did not approve, that the adherents of the purified doctrine should be called after his name; nor was he pleased with Melancthon, who ordered the students at Wittenburg to shew him more external honours than to the other academic tutors. It was this modesty which made him unceasingly industrious, because he never thought he had done enough. Even the few hours of recreation, in which he reposed from his various labours, were employed in various useful employments. The lathe, music, and horticulture, afforded him that recreation, which he used for the collecting of new powers, and for the maintenance of the serenity of his ever active mind. Particularly, he amused himself with gardening and music, because the former appeared to him to represent the picture of the fruitfulness of his popular endeavours, and the latter raised his heart to a foretaste of heavenly joys. He affirmed also from hence, that (much to the beneficial influence of religion) music could contribute the most to the moral improvement of man; because, before the enchantment of her harmony, dissatisfaction and heaviness of mind, as well as bad and dangerous thoughts, must give place. In short, we meet in him, even in bis hours of recreation, and in his innocent amusements which he permitted to himself, the great man again, who, in every one of his seemingly unimportant actions, had reference to the high object to which he had devoted all his industry. His magnanimity was a consequence of his active love of mankind. Full of the sublime thought, that nothing less than unwearied activity to promote the true welfare of mankind would bring him nearer to his object, he did not need any external motives to undertake good and general useful actions; neither the indifference nor the ingratitude of his contemporaries,could drive him from his honourable career, because he did nothing for himself, but every thing for the good cause of religion. He therefore willingly forgave personal insults, and what only concerned himself, and evinced this placability sufficiently, by his behaviour towards the visionary Carlstadt, and the malicious Agricola. With a zeal never to be cooled, he withstood the enemies of the purified doctrine, and the authors of the dangerous divisions amongst the adherents of the Reformation, because he considered both the enemies of God, and, according to his own conviction, was obliged to refrain from all connection with them, and from all regard in his conduct towards them. With Luther's All these beautiful and exalted magnanimity, and active love of man- traits in Luther's character, received kind, his discretion stood in the exact-new lustre from his undissembled fear est connection. He never made a merit upon the strict fulfilment of the duties of his calling; he never imagined himself at the mark, which he endeavoured to reach by his honourable endeavours; and by the greatest efforts of his popular activity, he always believed much remained to be done. Hence his indifference to the equivocal praises of short-sighted men; his noble displeasure at the external testimonies of honour, which had no value for him, and, in his eyes, were of God. He was pious; but his piety was not that something, which often is the case with the common man, the work of mean fearfulness or foolish superstition; both infirmities which found no place in his (for the age in which he lived) great and unprejudiced mind. A childlike confidence in the paternal goodness of his Creator, sentiments of thankfulness and love towards the eternal Benefactor of the human race, raised him above all earthly circumstances, |