bape a 
i ball 
net to the fweét fine days of his former 
joys. Madam Neuberin was become inac- 
ceflible, either becaufe fhe had contraéted 
a anore profitable a:tachnient with a gentle- 
man of Obfchatzs cr, becaufe her natural 
good fenfe and fecling led her to affitt 
Lefling’s friends in endeavouring toreclaim 
him to the habits of praétical life. A 
younger aétrefs, named-Lorenzin, was the 
Eucharis who fuperfeded this Calypfo. 
Leffing tock an excurfion with her to 
Vienna, under a feigned name; Jt was 
whifpered that he incurved the moriifica-— 
tien of not making any impreffion as a 
perforiter, The exaét courle of his ano- 
nymous tour is unknown; but when his 
finances and refources- were exhaufted, he 
itopped at Berlin, offered his literary ta- 
lents to'the bookfellers, and wrote home 
to ftate his neceflity, which of courfe was 
extreme. The tollowing. portion of a let- 
ter to. his father written at this period 
paints the ftare of his projedts. 
. You require me abfolutely to come 
home. You feem to think I -wanted at 
Vienna the place of play-writer to the 
court. ‘You pretend to know that I am 
Mylius’s journey-man, and earn only rye= 
bread by fcurnlity. You tax me with af- 
figning falie pretences for coming hither. 
You ought to know me better than te 
furmife all this.’ : | 
«© What moft furprifes me is your recur- 
ring to the ald reproach about my come- 
dies. I have never promifed to read or 
compofe no more: and you are too rational 
to. exact 't.. You fay that at Wittenberg 
I {pent my money in buying plays, and 
that all my correfpondents are merely 
players. At Vienna, I wiite to Baron 
Seiller: he is the direétcr of all the Auf- 
trian theatres ; bat he is a man whofe ac- 
quaintance is an honour and may be an 
advantage. At Copenhagen, at Dantzig, 
I correfpond, and am about to write to 
M. Crebillon, at Paris, whofe Cataline I 
have been tranflating: is it a crime to 
be known beyond the wallsof Kamenz? | 
© You fay that I begin many things and 
complete nothing. Is this a wonder? 
Mufe fecefum feribentis et otta quarunt : 
but .zondum Deus nobis bac otia fecit. And 
yet if I were to recapitulate the different 
finifhed things, which in one form or 
other I have turned to fome account, they 
would not appear fo very few: but I will 
not give you the catalogue, for you would 
diflike the reft flill more than the plays: I 
with I had-never written any thing. but 
plays, L fhouid now he in better circum- 
flances: thofe I difpofed of at Vienna and 
at Hanover, aniwered to me well. 
a‘a.t 
Memoirs of Gitthold Ephraim Lefing. 
(July ty 
“© As tothe place in’ the philological 
feminary at Gottingen, it would {uit me +, 
do not Jofe fight or it, I befeech you. If 
yeu obtain it, I will immediately return 
ome. 
pect for me, it is better I thould ftay here 5 
where T may get known, noticed, and ad- 
vanced. 
<< Allow me to quote from Plautus the 
fpeech of a father who alio was not quite 
fatished with his fons 
‘Non optinte h#c futit, neque ego ut 
zquum cenfeo ; 
Verum meliora funt quam qu deterrima. 
Sed hoc unum confolatur me atque animum- 
/meum , 4) pelted 
Quia qui nibil aliud nifi quod fibi foli placet 
Confulit, adverfum filium nugas agit 5 
Mifer ex animo fit, fecius nihilo facit, 
Suz fenedtuti is acrierem hyemem parat, &c.’ 
« Thefe thoughts are fo rational that you. 
WwW hy: 
cannot but fympathife with them. 
muft my dear mother make herfelf fo very 
uneafy : it ought to be all one to her where, 
I thrive, provided I thrive. How fhe could. 
fancy that I meant to change my religion 
at Vienna, IT cannot. guefs: but the very, 
opinion fhews to what a pitch your preju-, 
dices againft me have arifen. But God, I 
truft, will yet give me opportunities of 
fhewing that I neither want the eflentials: 
of religion, nor of filial affeétion.”” - 
Another of his letters throws light om 
the colour of his purfuits and fentiments. °, 
*¢ T bee you will fend hither the manu- 
fcripts in my drawer: and not keep back 
thofe. fheers 
can blame. td Hi * 
‘* Vita verecunda eff, Mufa jecofa mibiy, 
was Martial’s excule in a fimilar cafe; but, 
thofe know me little who rank my turn of 
fentiment along with his: the epithet which: 
your theological feverity beltows, is not, 
deferved. What. would become of Hage~ 
dorn’s reputation, if it were? 4 
«© In fat, the only caule of theinex- 
iftence, is the defire of trying my hand at 
all forts of poetry.. Unlefs one makes. many- 
experiments, one cannot afcertaily exaétly 
one’s natural {phere of aétion ; and one 
rifks by moving in the wrong line to pals. 
for middling, when excellence might have 
been attained in the right. Seneca advilés 
Omuem operam impende, ut te aliqua dote 
notabilem facias.. 
“s If the title of the German Molicre ~ 
could juftly be given to me, I thould have 
fecured an eternal name: ‘To fpeak out, 
I heartily covet to deferve it; but I am 
fully 
But if you have no fpecific prof=_ 
It is not a matter of indifference, 
where a man waits. 
inferibed Love and Wine.. 
They are chiefly free imitations of Ana-, 
creon,and not fuch as an equitable moralift; 
i 
