dull, melancholy effort; thus it could still serve to bring about that ecstatic moment when he experience the"triumph of grace" and the moral miracle. But this striving after morality is not necessary, for that miracle frequently happens to the sinner at the very moment when he, as it were, is weltering in the pool of sin; nay, the leap from deepest and utter sinfulness into its reverse seems to be even easier and, as a perceptible proof of the miracle, even more desirable. But what may be thepsychological meaning of such a sudden, irrational, and irresistible revulsion, such a change from utter misery into utmost happiness? (is it perhaps a disguisedepilepsy?)—this should certainly be taken into consideration by the physicians of the mind, who frequently have such miracles (for instance, the mania of homicide and suicide) under observation. The comparatively "more pleasant effect" in the case of the Christian does not make an essential difference.
88
‘’Luther, the great benefactor.’’—The most important outcome of Luther's efforts lies in the distrust which he has aroused against the saints and the whole Christian "life contemplative": only since his time an unchristian "life contemplative" has once more become practicable in Europe, and has put it limit to the content for worldly and lay activity. Luther, though shut up in a monastery, remained an honest miner's son, and there,
