1805. ] 
fully confcious of its compafs, and of my 
impotence. Am I wrong for felecting a 
line of purfuits, in which few of iny coun- 
trymen have hitherto excelled? Am I, 
wrong for determining not to leave off pro- 
ducing, until fome mafter-picce of mine 
fhall exit? Your demonftration, that a 
good play-wright makes but a forry chrif- 
tian, weighs little with me. A comedy- 
writer is one who turns vices into ridicule. 
And has vice claims on our refpeét, or 
may not a chriftian hoot at it and {corn it ? 
What if I were to writeva comedy fuch as 
you theologians would praife—you think 
it impoflible—not if I were to turn into 
ridicule the defpifers of their. ptofeffion. 
Own that this would blunt a little of your 
fharpnefs.”” ia Ri 
Another of his letters concludes thus : 
«6 Shall I never: hear the lat of my. 
Keeping up, an acquaintance with my old 
playfeliow, Mylius? Sed facile ex tuis 
querelis querelas matris agnofeo, que, licet 
alias pia et integra, in hune nimio flagrat 
odio. Noftra amicitia nihil unquam aliud 
fuit, adhuc eft, et in omne tempus erit 
quam communicatio fludiorum. © Hane 
culpari pote? Rarvs immo nullus mihi 
cum ipfo fermo’ intercedit de parentibus 
meis, de officiis que ipfis vel przeftanda, vel 
deneganda fint, de cutu Dei, de pietate, 
de fortuna vel hac vell illa via amplificanda, 
ut-habeas, quem in illo feductorem et ad 
minus jufta: inftigatorem meutn timeas. 
Cave ne de muliebri odio nimium partici- 
pes. Sed virum te fapieatem fcio, juftum 
zquurque: et fatis mihi conftat, te illud 
quod fcripfifli, amori in uxerem, amore 
tuo digniflimam, dediffe. Veniain mi dabis 
hec paucula Latino fermone literis man- 
daffe ; funt enim qua matrem ad fufpicio- 
nem nimis offendere pofint. Deum tamen 
obteltor, me illam maximi facere, arnare 
et omni pietate colere.”’ 
In O&tober, 1750) Leffing and Mylius 
undertook a quarterly publication, which 
was to appear at Sturgard, entitled ¢* Con- 
tributions to the Hiftory and Improve- 
ment of the Theatre.”"’ The plan was to 
include reviewals of all the dramatic litera. 
ture of Europe; to colleét notices concern- 
ing the more eminent artilts and theatres, 
and to provide original difquifitions on the 
different branches of dramatic art. Mylius 
was not the beft poffible affiftant for a work 
of this kind; nor was the German. public 
fo anxious as the Parifian about the amelio- 
ation of its fpectacles. Four numbers ap- 
peared, after which the work was defifted 
from, probably for wayt of fale. He alfo 
publithed for the fame printer, a collection 
of his early poems, which were moye flat- 
Monruty Mac. No. 139. 
Memoirs of Gotthold Ephraim Leffing. 
a3 
teringly received. A propofil was made 
to him to edit a Latin verfion of Herbelot’s 
Bibliotheque Orieatale, which required per- 
petual amendment; but he wifely declined 
the undertaking,’ confcious of a fickl-nefs, 
which would nave deferted the tafk (as he. 
modeftly fuggefted), or too proud to watte 
on praifelefs tranflation a labour fo exten- 
five. ; Re 
At this period he applied to the Spanith 
language, expecting, from it a mine of plots 
of plays, which had been little founded : 
he notices in his Dramaturgy the Virginia 
of Montiano, and the prefixed Difcourée 
on Spanith Tragedy; but he appears not 
to have dete&ted ought worthy of tran!- 
plantation. Mylius joined and rivalled 
him inthe acquirement; but one day, as 
they were firiving to talk Spanith together,: 
a Spaniard, who overheard fome words of 
his native tongue, accofted them, and foon 
convinced them that they could not under- 
fiand the idiomatic dialect of the country. 
At Berlin, Leffing became acquaint- 
ed with one Richier, of Louvain, with 
whom he freely difcuffed the merits of 
the. French tragedians, and whom he 
furprized nota little by putting Corneille 
below’ Racine, and both below Shak‘pedre. 
Richier was occafionally employed by Vol., 
taire as an amanuenfis. He {poke of the 
heterodox, but cultivated tatte, of the lite- 
rary German. Voltaire defired to fee him, 
and received him repeatedly at his table. 
He wifhed to iaduce .Leffing to tranflate 
for him a Memozre concerning his Jaw-fuit 
with the Jew Hirfch. Leffing difliked the 
caufe, and declined the job: he eveawrote 
an epigram on the fubject, which .came to 
the ear of Voltaire, and -put anend to their 
intereourfe. Leffing oblerved that Voltaire 
treated authors as his inferiors, and the , 
great as his equals, which was an inverfien 
of literary honour. 
Voltaire’s Siecle de Louis XIV. was at 
this period printed at Berlin, and Richier 
was ordered to collate twenty-four large. 
paper copies fot prefents to the royal fami. 
ly: great precautions were taken that the 
work fhould not get abroad betere thete 
copies were delivered. Leffing called on 
Richier while he was bufy ia the (election. 
A copy, of which fome leat was torn, had 
been thrown afide, as unht ter prefentation. 
Lefling’s curioity. begged to borrow; 
Richier’s good nature granted the loan. 
~A friend of Leffing found him reading, 
ran off with the firt fheet or two, and 
carried them in triumph to. Madame Ben- 
tinck, a literary lady of rank. Unluckily 
the had folicited Voltaire for a peep, and. 
was eager to pin fl, his ingslantry bya 
qk quota. 
