m 
NICOLAI. 
arts and architecture, for which he conceived a tafte by 
reading the works of Winkelmann; and from his friend 
Marpurg he obtained inftruClion in the principles of mu- 
fical compofition. While living in this difengaged man¬ 
ner, indulging ideal fchemes of future employment, a cir- 
( cumftance happened which recalled him to common cares. 
His elder brother, who had fucceeded to the father’s bufi- 
nefs, died a bachelor in the autumn of 1758, and he was 
under the neceffity of undertaking the bufinefs himfelf, in 
order that he might conduCt it for the benefit of the fa¬ 
mily. At the end of the year 1758, he conceived, in con¬ 
junction with Leffing and Mendelfon, the idea of “ Letters 
refpefiring the neweft State of Literature,” which were 
publifhed from 1759 to I 7 ^ 5 > ^nd which produced a great 
effeft in Germany, in promoting bold and free difculfion. 
Nicolai, however, was not able perfonally to take much 
lhare in thefe letters, becaufe the bufinefs of his trade en¬ 
gaged fo much of his time, that little remained for writing. 
Having afterwards difengaged himfelf from an annual 
journey on bufinefs to Dantzic, which always occupied 
two months, and called in more affiftance, he carried into 
execution, in 1765, his long meditated plan of a “ Ge¬ 
neral German Bibliotheque,^for which he endeavoured 
to obtain writers in every part of Germany. This im¬ 
portant undertaking was attended with fuccefs, becaufe 
a great number of the mod celebrated of the German pro- 
feifors and literati took a (hare in it. By means of this 
journal the German provinces were more clofely con¬ 
nected together in a literary point of view ; many pre¬ 
judices were fuccefsfully combated, and a fpirit of free 
examination was diffufed. It may, therefore,with juftice 
be laid, that, during an exigence of more than forty years, 
it had a very beneficial influence on the progrefs of fcience 
in Germany. The care of editing this work, though la¬ 
borious, proved of great fervice to Nicolai, as it obliged 
him to turn his attention to every branch of fcience, and 
afforded him an opportunity of gratifying his ardent de- 
flre for knowledge. He became connected alfo, by its 
means, with a great number of perfons of eminence. 
When the arrangements for his Bibliotheque, which 
coft a great deal of trouble, were completed, and it began 
to have a confiderable fale, he employed all his leilure 
time, after the year 1770, in making himfelf better ac¬ 
quainted with the ftate of Pruflia, in regard to its finances 
and trade, and to ftudy the character and commercial 
maxims of Frederic the Great, who at that time fat on the 
throne; which afforded him an opportunity of becoming 
known to forne of the principal men in office, and others 
more immediately around the perfon of the king. By 
thefe means he was able, after the king’s death, to publifh 
fome numbers of a vvork entitled, “ CharaCteriftic Anec¬ 
dotes of that Prince,” and to contradict or reClify various 
tales injurious to his character. In the year 1770 he be¬ 
came known to the celebrated minifter of ftate, count 
Hertzberg, whofe efteem he gained by his fondnefs for 
the hiliory of Brandenburgh, to which the minifter was 
greatly attached. He obtained permiflion, therefore, in 
the year 1777, to confult the royal records, from which 
he procured materials to reCtify and improve his “ To¬ 
pographical and Hiltorical Account of Berlin and Potz- 
dam,” printed for the firlt time in 1769. For four years, 
notwithftanding his other occupations, he laboured feve- 
ral hours daily in the record-office, in order to colleft cu¬ 
rious information, not only for the hiftory of the capital, 
which before had been fo defective, but for the ancient 
hiftory in general, and the ftate of cultivation, induftry, 
and morals, in the electorate of Brandenburg. He re¬ 
ceived the like fupport from all the departments at Berlin, 
when he undertook, in the year 1791, to correCt the mif- 
reprefentations of Dr. Zimmermann in regard to the cha¬ 
racter of Frederic the Great. 
While endeavouring, however, to colleCl ftatiftical, 
hiltorical, and diplomatical, knowledge, he was often en¬ 
gaged with ideas of a very different kind. From his ear- 
lielt years he had difplayed great acutenefs, as well as a 
lively imagination ; and, when he began to travel and to 
mix more in fociety, it had always been one of his fa¬ 
vourite objeCts to ftudy mankind, and to obferve their 
different difpofitions. When he remarked Angular cha¬ 
racters, he immediately conceived the idea of a romance 
or a comedy, and fuch plans he retained in his mind fome 
time, with a defire to carry them into execution; but they 
were often fuppreffed by the dry occupations of bufinefs. 
In the year 1773 he produced the firft fruits of this incli¬ 
nation, in his “Life and Opinions ofSebaldus Nothanker,’” 
his objeCt in which was to expofe and ridicule perfecu- 
tion, and to recommend toleration and a free fpirit of en¬ 
quiry. In the year 1724 he printed his “ Hiftory of a 
Fat Man and in 1799 his “ Familiar Letters from Ade¬ 
laide B-to her Friend Julia S-.” He employed 
the greater part of the year 1781 in travelling through 
Germany and Svvifl'erland, in the company of his eldeft 
fon ; and he afterwards publifhed a voluminous account 
of his tour, which contained not merely a dry journal, 
but obfervations on the induftry, religion, and manners, 
of the people in the different places he vifited. In this 
work every thing is exhibited according to its real ap¬ 
pearance, with the mod fcrupuloiis regard to truth, for 
which, from his earlieft years, Nicolai had always fliown 
the ftrongeft attachment. The author, therefore, ex- 
preffed his ideas with the utmoft freedom, and on that 
account was involved in various difputes, which obliged 
him to write many polemical traCls, either to defend the 
truth or to vindicate his own chapafter. 
As no literary work efcaped his notice, in confequence 
of his connection with the German Bibliotheque, it was 
naturally attracted, in the year 1781, by Kant’s Criticifm 
of Pure Reafon ; and, though he always did juftice to the 
author, he never could be convinced of the truth of fome 
of the moft efiential principles of his philofophy, which 
was given out by its partifans as the only true fyltem. He 
therefore declared openly againft it, firft in the eleventh 
volume of his travels ; and he endeavoured afterwards to 
exhibit, in their natural ridiculous form, the childifh 
conceits of many of its adherents, and the mifapplication 
which they made of it, in his romance entitled, “ The 
Life and Opinions of Sempronius Gundibert, a German 
Philofopher.” He read alfo, in the meetings of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences, at Berlin, efiays on various phiio- 
fophical fubjefts, fome of which were printed. In the 
year 1794 he was eleCted a member of the academy. A 
umilar honour had been conferred on him in 1781 by the 
Academy of Sciences at Munich. In 1799 the philofo- 
phical faculty at Helmftadt fent him the diploma of a 
doftor of philofophy and mafter of arts ; and in 1804 he 
w r as appointed by the Academy of Sciences at Peterfburgh 
to be its correfpondent. He enjoyed the friendfliip of 
many eminent men of letters, as well as of refpeCtable 
perfons of all ranks ; and many who were at firft his op¬ 
ponents became afterwards his friends, and did juftice to 
the rectitude of his intentions. During his whole life he 
was never confined to his bed, and was always in a condi¬ 
tion to manage his bufinefs, though it required confi¬ 
derable activity. A violent giddinefs, however, in his 
head, occafioned by a fedentary life and overftrained exer¬ 
tion of his mental powers, added to fome unexpected 
caufe of chagrin, produced fuch an effeCt on his mind, 
that for fome weeks, though in the full poffeffion of con- 
fcioufnefs, he imagined that hefaw and heard apparitions 
orfupernatural agents. This circumltance, very remark¬ 
able both in a plychological and medical point of view, 
he communicated to the Royal Academy of Sciences in a 
diflertation, which was printed in the New Berlin Monthly 
Journal. In 1804, when in his feventy-firft year, he loft: 
the ufe of his left eye, and did not long furvive that mif- 
fortune. 
Nicolai, without difpute, rendered great fervice, in 
many refpeCts, to the German literature. The critical 
journals, to which the General German Bibliotheque 
gave rife, promoted freedom of thinking, and tended in 
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