Est naturæ quàm hominum;

Quod nec labor nec sumptus præparat,

Nec vetustas solvendo dissipat.

Ministrat homo diviti,

20

25

Angelus autem pauperi,

30

Ut hinc quoque constet cœlestia

Quàm sint nobis à Deo subdita.

17-24. Augustine: Plus est pauperi videre cœlum stellatum quàm diviti tectum inauratum.

LIV.' Mohnike, Hymnologische Forschungen, Stralsund, 1832, v. 2, p. 250.-This is a good translation, perhaps as good as could be made, of Luther's "Heldenlied," as it well has been called, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott:

the hymn, among all with which he has enriched the Church, the most characteristic of the man, the truest utterance of his great heart. It must be confessed that much of the heroic strength of the original has vanished in the translation; yet, beside its merits, which are considerable, it is interesting as shewing the great philologist whose work it is, in somewhat a novel aspect. It was first published in 1830, shortly after Buttmann's death, on the occasion of the third jubilee to celebrate the publication of the Confession of Augsburg. It is well known that the original hymn was probably composed in 1530, during the time the Diet was sitting.

LV. Bernardi Opp., ed. Bened., 1719, v. 2, p. 915; Rambach, Anthol. Christl. Gesänge, p. 281.

13. ab humo] Quintilian (Inst., i, 6, 34) throws scorn on this derivation-quasi verò non omnibus animalibus eadem origo, aut illi primi mortales ante nomen imposuerint terræ quàm sibi. But see Freund's Wörterbuch d. Lat. Sprache, s. v. Homo.