There was something chivalrous, I
could almost say adventurous, in his whole personality, in his whole way
of beginning and prosecuting an enterprise. He put upon whatever he did
the stamp of an almost inconceivable greatness--of an almost
overwhelming force. His mere word was half a battle, his deed was a
whole one. He was one of those mighty souls which, like certain trees,
can only bloom in a storm. His whole great, rich, marvellous life has
always seemed to me like an epic with its battles and its final victory.
Such a spirit must of necessity make room for itself, and decisively
assert itself in history, in whatever direction its activity may be
turned, under whatever circumstances and at whatever time it enters upon
its career. The time when Luther came was one of those great historical
epochs when the world-serpent sheds its skin and reappears in
rejuvenated shape.... A great man, even the very greatest, is always the
son of his age--only he is the eldest son; he is the deputy and executor
of the age.
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