® 
1895. ] 
the Eftimate of Heads, originally printed 
im 1566, which feems to have lsid the 
foundation of fome recent {pecufations on 
‘eraniolegy.” He alfo began a Latin ver~ 
- fion of the Meffiah of Klopftock, of which 
the five rt books were then nearly pub- 
lithed, defirous of ftimulating his younger 
biother tocamplete a tafk fo adapted to his 
profeflion. He undertook corrections and 
aditions to Jocher’s Dictionary of Learned 
Men; and after he had made fome pro- 
erefs, wrote to Jécher, that he would 
either transfer to him for a given fum the 
new materials, or publifh them apart in 
the form of hoftile criticifms. ‘The threat 
availed more than the defire of help, and 
jocher agreed to purchafe the manu'cript 5 
but the proceeding cannot entirely be ac- 
quitted of the charge of literary bullying ; 
it is fymptomatic of a degree of poverty, 
which ufually ceafes to be nice. i 
In 1753, Leffing returned to Berlin, and 
undertook, in the room of Mylius, to lend 
regular afli@ance to a political-and litera- 
ty journa] printed for Vols. Healfo pub- 
:fhed a third and fourth part of bis leffer 
writings, including poems, letters of lite- 
rary criticifin, and di!quifitions, called apo- 
logies, which defended the dead and at- 
tacked the fiving, with a freedom more 
favourable to his reputation than to his 
peace. « Several of his comedies were alfo 
collested in neat editions, and made an im- 
preffion fo favourable, that ‘his father’s 
hoftility to the thratre was fenfbly foftened:. 
ghenceforth he inveighed only againft the 
ancient licentiouscomed ys 
A tranflation-of Marigny’s Hitory of 
the Arabs, was executed by Lefling: he 
condenfed the four French volumes into 
three: he ‘compofed a critical preface, 
figned with fictitious initials, and made 
preparations for a continuation, which was 
to chronicle the Arabian dynafties of Spain: 
but this hé never completed. 
He tranflated into German, three letters 
of the King of Pruffia. He edited the 
works, or at leaft the better works, of his 
friend Mylius, who died in London, on 
the psint of embaiking for America, whi- 
ther Haller, and otheis, trad fubferibed to 
transfer him, under pretext of obtaining 
information concerning objcéts of natural 
hiftory; but, as Leflirg thought, in order 
to deprive infidelity of a zealous apofle. 
In 1754, be printed the two fird parts of 
his Theatrical Library. ; 
- At this period, he boiled over with lite- 
rary projects; offered to edit, with addi- 
tions, Becker’s Enchanted World ; to un- 
dertake- a weekly paper entitled, The 
Memsirs of Gotthold Ephraim Leffing, 4 
975 
Blind Man; to publifh his Port-folio ; to 
colle& or compofe Short Tales and Ro- 
mances; to provide Monthly Mifcellanies 
ef Mifcellaneous Authors, and Mifcellane- 
ous Contents ; and, in concert with Men- 
delfobn, to extra&t The Beit from Bad 
Books. For this laft enterprife, many pre- 
parations were made, and the writings of 
Jordanus Brunus, of Hieronymus Car- 
danus, and of Thomas Campanella were 
read. and gutted for the purpofe. There 
is no literary aétivity more ufefal than thac 
which renders ulelels the voluminous 
writers of a former age, by feleSting their 
information, condenfing their arguments, 
aad picking out their characteriltic paf- 
faces. Legimus aligua ne legantur was 
the motto he had chofen frem Ambrofius. 
Lefling’s circumftances were bettered by 
theie efforts, and he invited the brother, 
with whom he had houled at Witrenberg, 
to be his gueft in Berlin, The father in- 
terrupted the vifit, leait this fon thould be 
detached from the theolegical profeffion; . 
but he permitted a younger brother to.go, 
a lad too young for a metropolis, and for 
‘the liberal tutorfhip of philofsphy. Plea- 
fare was in Leffing’s creed a duty ; to be 
beftowed on one’s felf, as on every other 
fentient being, with no other reftriftions, 
than thofe which nature, fortune, and opi- 
nion impofe on prudent gratification, Hut. 
habits of induttry are feldom fuperinduced, 
without obffinate coercion, where thé 
means of amufing leifure abound, —. * 
Leffing’s excellence in chefs brought him 
acquainted with Mofes * Mendelfohn, a 
Jew of literary eminence; Mendelfohn in- 
trodueed him to Nicolat, a printer and 
bookfeller of literary ambition, whofe Dii- 
fertation on the Templars, and whofe Se- 
baldus} Nothanker have a permanent ya- 
lue.’’ This intelligent trio became very 
intimate. They fenfibly influenced each 
other’s opinions: when together they con- 
verfed, when apart they correfponded ; and, 
in concert, they moulded into fhape many a 
fragment of ingenious and of jiberal in- 
ftruftion. The eftimate of Pape as a meta- 
phyfician was one of their earlielt joint pro- 
produ@tions. Mendelfchn was: of the 
{chool of Leibnitz, and, like his mafer, 
wanted clearne/s: but the tolerant fuavity 
of his temper, was an idea which remain- 
ed to be inferted in the mind of Leffing. 
. ~ "ye hd 
Nicolai had attended to the materialitts’; 
* Author of the Phecon, fo well Eaglifhed 
by Mr. Cullen; and of fome fezbler works, 
Letters on Sentiment, Morning Hours, &c. 
+ A novel well tranflated by Mr. Dutton. 
. 4B2 “gate i pepheps, 
4 > 
