On the Restraint of the First Electors of Saxony in Adopting and Establishing Luther's Doctrine, Volume 2

pragmatic judgments, so that readers may judge more gravely and justly regarding the nature and condition of the events that occurred. Moreover, he depicts everything in almost living colors, and skillfully and ingeniously expresses thoughts elegantly, eloquently, and sublimely. By the very variety of the matters, than which nothing more refreshes and delights the mind, he holds the minds of the readers so attentive and fixed that they burn with total desire, beyond the beginnings of the deeds and the explanation of the undertakings, to know immediately also their progressions and outcomes. Finally, what he can accomplish in the history of the Brandenburg house, which is quite copious, by restricting and contracting it with the highest artistry, he seems to have experienced, since not rarely does he pronounce a certain brief statement, or indeed by a single word, narrates the whole matter with more fortunate care than others, even with the application of great flourishes and ornaments of words, are accustomed to express. What need is there of many words? That he holds an exceedingly excellent place among recent writers, who have acquired authority and grace for their books by the elegance and abundance of their oratory, and at the same time by the choice of their subjects, let the SOCIETY OF SCIENCES speak—the happy judge of true erudition, which flourishes in Berlin under the protection of the best Leader of the Muses, THE MOST POWERFUL KING OF THE PRUSSIANS, where, as mentioned above, the writing was received with incredible applause and even inserted into the second volume of the proceedings. Furthermore, how eagerly these Brandenburg commentaries have been read by others, let—