1809.] ( 
£69.) ‘ ret 
MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
Some ACCOUNT of the LIFE and WRIT- 
INGs of GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LES- 
SING. 
PNHE erandfather of Gotthold Ephraim 
‘ Lefling, called Theophilus, was fet- 
tled as an au atiala at Kamenz in Pom- 
merania where he became mayor, and was 
defcended froma proteftant minifter, whole 
name Clement Lefling is attached to an 
early covenant of the year 1580. Theo- 
philus had been well educated, and was 
diftinguifhed for holding at the univerfity 
of Leipzig, in 1670, a dilputation, De 
Religionum Tolerantia. This thefis be- 
eame an heir-loom in the family, and. tn- 
fluenced fenfibly the turn of mind of his 
grand{on, 
The father, John Godfred, was a more 
voluminous wiiter. He onblithed Vindicig 
Reformationis Lutheri, Difquipiia Hiftorica 
de Confeffione Fidei. quam Proteftantes 
Tifpania eje4li 1559, Londini ediderunt ; 
Animadverfa Hiflorica in Crypto, Sacinian- 
orum Collegia Biblica; anid many vernacu- 
Jar theological ireatifes, tn@€tured, as is 
ufualin feéts. with political liberality, and 
‘doétrinal partiality. He married in 1725 
a Mils Feller, the daughter of a proted- 
tant miniiter at Kainenz, to whofe cure ‘he 
fucceeded. By ner ve had there tweve 
children, of whom. five furvived him : of 
thefe Gotihold Ephraim was the eNeft, 
and was born the 22d January, 1729- 
His education was indattrioufly religi- 
ous; his firit book was the bioie; in his 
fifih year he was already remarked for a 
complete knowledge of the catechifm ; for 
repeating with unufual propriety many of 
Luther's hymns ; and for having made 
much progrefs in Latin, which Mylius, a 
youth of fome {cholarhhip, was employed 
to teach him, 
The father was a worthipper of talent, 
and ftruggled for the honour of being hof- 
pitable to whateverartilts and men of let- 
ters vifiied Kamenz. This no doubt much 
predilpoted the fon to the purfuit of lire- 
rary diltinction. Among bis cuelts was a 
portrait-painter, who became very intimate 
in the family. He fketched a hikenefs of 
the child playing with a bird-cage. 
faid the b y, not with a bird cage, with 
a great heap of books I fhould like to be 
painted. Of this friend, Lefiing took lef- 
fons in drawing , both at that time and 
afterwards: Hove. dated his tafte for the 
fine arts, on which in maturer life he {pe- 
culated fo fuccelstully. 
it nine years of a 
age he was fent to 
No,. 
boar ding- fchool at Koniefbruck, where 
his teacher Mylius was become amen: or 
pro-rector : the mafter’s name was Keinze.. 
The progrefs made was fo rapid, that at 
twelve years of age he was pafled off for 
thirteen, and admitted, after a fevere ex- 
anination, to a free-fchool, at Meiffen, 
which was legally open only to lads of that 
age and of commenturate attainments. 
One hundred and tweaty boys wereaccom- 
miodated in this f-minary. 
Greek and Latin were. properly made 
the almoft exclufive objeés of purfuit, 
Without a foundation ot Greek, the terms 
of fctence and ot art, and che moft effeniial 
preprieties of compefition, cannot be under- 
ito d.- Without a walt of Latin, the 
modern languages, elpecially the fouthern, 
find notning in the memory to which their 
nomenclaiure can be attached, ard are 
with ditheuity acquired. French, geogra- 
p»y,and hiltory, »ave indeed alfo hei va- 
Jue; but they are comparatively eafy ftusies; 
the commen motives of {cial intercourfe 
are fufficient to prompt their acquifition : 
fo that he, who leaves {chool with only 
Latin and Greek, will at twenty five have 
acquired thef- befides,; but he, woo at 
fchool learns only the'e, will at twenty 
five be regretting his negleét of Latin and 
ot Greck. Ar Meiffen, Lefling pafled five 
years, and always lookea ba.k with fatis- 
faction on a period to which he owed the 
folidity of his claffic erutition. Perhaps 
a fpirit of detail (irom which Leffing was 
not exempt) and a falle fenfe of proportion 
as to the importance of things, is apt to 
accompany the inc umbered. memory of the 
profound fcbo'ar. He often attends more 
‘to accents than words, to words thao 
fentences: initead of Iceking in the hifto- 
rian for facts and maxims, ih the poet for 
burfts of fancy or of feeling, he watches 
for a doubtful reading, or an anomalous 
quantity. This is making language not 
the inttrument, byt the end of initruétion : 
as the negro worfhips his ketile for its own 
fake and not for its utility. 
Lefling had much of this na tural preju- 
dice of {cholarthip, and had imbibed the 
difinterelted love of Greek and Latin. 
While at {chooi he confirued ! Theophraftus 
by himfelf, although it formed no part of 
the public leffons. He tranflated, too, ag 
this period, feveral odes of Anacreon, 
which appear among his poems; and als 
ready difplayed a tondnels for Terence, 
omincus of his future taite in and for 
dramatic compehtion, 
; ee The 
