neatest manner, full of spirit and doctrine, so that his every
word gives outright a sermon of his own, or at least a
singular reminiscence. There is nothing forced, nothing
foisted in or patched up, nothing fragmentary. The rhymes are
easy and good, the words choice and proper, the meaning clear
and intelligible, the melodies lovely and hearty, and _in
summa_ all is so rare and majestic, so full of pith and power,
so cheering and comforting, that, in sooth, you will not find
his equal, much less his master."1

The following words have often been quoted from Samuel
Taylor Coleridge:

"Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as
by his translation of the Bible. In Germany the hymns are
known by heart by every peasant; they advise, they argue from
the hymns, and every soul in the church praises God like a
Christian, with words which are natural and yet sacred to his
mind."

A striking passage in an article by Heine in the _Revue
des Deux Mondes_ for March, 1834, is transcribed by Michelet
in his Life of Luther:

"Not less remarkable, not less significant than his prose
works, are Luther's poems, those stirring songs which, as it
were, escaped from him in the very midst of his combats and
his necessities like a flower making its way from between
rough stones, or a moonbeam gleaming amid dark clouds. Luther
loved music; indeed, he wrote treatises on the art.