apt allusion to Homer, Plato, Cicero, and Pliny, while Christ is always brought forward as his master and his God. Spalatin had asked him for an explanation of our Saviour's words--"_Without me ye can do nothing_," (John, xv, 5). Melancthon refers him to Luther--"_Cur agam gestum spectante Roscio?_ as Cicero expresses it;[233] and then continues, "This passage means that we must be absorbed by Christ, so that it is no longer we that act, but Christ that liveth in us. As in his person the Divine has been incorporated with the human nature, so must man be incorporated with Jesus Christ by faith." [230] Videres in ædibus illis perpetuo accedentes et introeuntes et discedentes atque exeuntes aliquos. (Camerar. Vita Melancth. p. 40.) In that house you would constantly see persons approaching and entering, or coming out and going away. [231] Ea domus disciplina erat, ut nihil cuiquam negaretur. (Ibid.) [232] Sed dedisse nihilominus illos. (Camerar. Vita Melancth. p. 43.) [233] Why should I play a part and Roscius be a looker on? (Corp. Ref. Ep. April 13, 1520.) The distinguished scholar's habit was to go to bed shortly after supper, and get up to his studies at two or three in the morning.[234] During these early hours his best works were composed. His manuscripts usually lay on his table exposed to the view of all who came and went, so that several were stolen. When he had a party of his friends, he asked one or other of them, before they sat down to table, to read some short composition in prose or verse. During his journeys he was always accompanied by some young persons with whom he conversed in a manner at once instructive and amusing. If the conversation flagged, each of them had to repeat in his turn some passage taken from the ancient poets. He often had recourse to irony, but always tempered it with great gentleness. "He stings and cuts," said he of himself, "but still without doing any harm." [234] Surgebat mox aut non longo intervallo post mediam noctem. (Camerar, p. 56.) The acquisition of knowledge was his ruling passion. The aim of his life was to diffuse literature and instruction. Let us not forget, that with him the first place in literature was given to the Holy Scriptures, and only a secondary place to the ancient classics. "My sole object," said he, "is the defence of literature; we must, by our example, inspire youth with an admiration of literature, and make them love it for itself, and not for the pecuniary profit which it may be made to yield. The downfall of literature involves the destruction of all that is good--of religion and morals--of things human and divine.[235]... The better a man is, the more ardently does he exert himself in favour of learning, for he knows that the most pernicious of all pests is ignorance." [235] Religionem, mores, humana divinaque omnia labefactat literarum inscitia. (Corp. Ref. i, 207, July 22, 1520.) [Sidenote: LUTHER'S DISCOURSE.]