Prophecies, predictions, Or where they abide, Stories and fictions, On this or that side, Allegories, rhymes, Or under the mid line And serious pastimes Of the Holland sheets fine, For all manner men, Or in the tropics fair Without regard when, Of sunshine and clear air, Or under the pole Of chimney and sea coal: Read they that list; understand they that can; _Verbum satis est_ to a wise man. BOOK OF RIDDLES. Luther's Table Talk is probably the earliest of that class of books, which, under the termination of _ana_, became frequent in the two succeeding centuries, and of which it may be questioned whether they have been more serviceable or injurious to literature. For though they have preserved much that is valuable, and that otherwise might probably have been lost, on the other hand they have introduced into literary history not a little that is either false, or of suspicious authority; some of their contents have been obtained by breach of confidence; many sayings are ascribed in them to persons by whom they were never uttered, and many things have been fabricated for them. The Collection concerning Luther bears this title in the English translation: “Doctoris Martini Lutheri Colloquia Mensalia: or, Dr. Martin Luther's Divine Discourses at his Table, &c., which in his lifetime he held with divers learned men, (such as were Philip Melancthon, Casparus Cruciger, Justus Jonas, Paulus Eberus, Vitus Dietericus, Joannes Bugenhagen, Joannes Forsterus, and others:) containing Questions and Answers touching Religion, and other main Points of Doctrine; as also many notable Histories, and all sorts of Learning, Comforts, Advices, Prophecies, Admonitions, Directions and Instructions. Collected first together by Dr. Antonius Lauterbach, and afterwards disposed into certain Common-places by John Aurifaber, Doctor in Divinity. Translated out of the High German into the English tongue, by Captain Henry Bell. John vi. 12. Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost. 1 Cor. x. 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God. Tertull. Apologet. cap. 39. The primitive Christians ate and drank to satisfy nature, and discoursed at their Tables of the Holy Scriptures, or otherwise, as became those that knew God did hear them, _ut non tam cœnam cœnaverint, quam disciplinam_. Ancient Writers, Councils, and our University College Statutes require _sacra ad mensam_. Luther in Gen. 2. _Sermones vera sunt condimenta ciborum._ Melchior Adamus in Vita Lutheri. _Inter prandendum et cænandum non rarò conciones aliis dictavit._ London, Printed by William Du Gard, dwelling in Suffolk-lane, near London-stone, 1652.”