It happened——I must say unluckily for Truth, because they were giving her a lift another way in so doing; that the two universities of _Strasburg_——the _Lutheran_, founded in the year 1538 by _Jacobus Surmis_, counsellor of the senate,——and the _Popish_, founded by _Leopold_, arch-duke of _Austria_, were, during all this time, employing the whole depth of their knowledge (except just what the affair of the abbess of _Quedlingberg_’s placket-holes required)——in determining the point of _Martin Luther_’s damnation. The _Popish_ doctors had undertaken to demonstrate _à priori_, that from the necessary influence of the planets on the twenty-second day of _October_ 1483——when the moon was in the twelfth house, _Jupiter, Mars_, and _Venus_ in the third, the _Sun, Saturn_, and _Mercury_, all got together in the fourth—that he must in course, and unavoidably, be a damn’d man—and that his doctrines, by a direct corollary, must be damn’d doctrines too. By inspection into his horoscope, where five planets were in coition all at once with Scorpio[12] (in reading this my father would always shake his head) in the ninth house, with the _Arabians_ allotted to religion—it appeared that _Martin Luther_ did not care one stiver about the matter——and that from the horoscope directed to the conjunction of _Mars_—they made it plain likewise he must die cursing and blaspheming——with the blast of which his soul (being steep’d in guilt) sailed before the wind, in the lake of hell-fire. The little objection of the _Lutheran_ doctors to this, was, that it must certainly be the soul of another man, born _Oct._ 22, 83. which was forced to sail down before the wind in that manner—inasmuch as it appeared from the register of _Islaben_ in the county of _Mansfelt_, that _Luther_ was not born in the year 1483, but in 84; and not on the 22d day of _October_, but on the 10th of _November_, the eve of _Martinmas_ day, from whence he had the name of _Martin._ [——I must break off my translation for a moment; for if I did not, I know I should no more be able to shut my eyes in bed, than the abbess of _Quedlingberg_——It is to tell the reader; that my father never read this passage of _Slawkenbergius_ to my uncle _Toby_, but with triumph——not over my uncle _Toby_, for he never opposed him in it——but over the whole world. —Now you see, brother _Toby_, he would say, looking up, “that christian names are not such indifferent things;”——had _Luther_ here been called by any other name but _Martin_, he would have been damn’d to all eternity——Not that I look upon _Martin_, he would add, as a good name——far from it——’tis something better than a neutral, and but a little——yet little as it is you see it was of some service to him.