Theolof/ical Position. — We here consider Lessing as a writer and thinker of the 18th centuiy, but in so far only as the works which he published, both his own produc- tions and those that were sent forth with his approval, affected the theological world in his day and since, more especially in Germany. Originally intended for the pulpit, Lessing suddenly came to entertain the belief that morality, which to him was only a synonym of re- ligion, should be taught not only from the puljiit, but also on the stage. Germany, in his day, was altogeth- er Frenchified. " We are ever," said he himself, '• the sworn imitators of everything foreign, and especially are we humble admirers of the never sufficiently ad- mired French. Everything that comes to us from over the Khine is fair, and charming, and beautilul, and di- vine. We rather doubt our senses than doubt this. Rather woidd we persuade ourselves that roughness was freedom; license, elegance; grimace, expression ; a jingle of rhymes, poetry; and shrieking, music, than entertain the slightest misgiving as to the superiority which that amiable people, that first people in the world (as they modestly term themselves), have the good fortune to possess in eventhing which is becoming, and beautiful, and noble." Such had been the doctrines taught by the great rider Frederick II himself, and no wonder the peo- ple soon fell into the frivolous ways of the French ; and, as the literature is said to be the index of a people, we need feel no surprise at Lessing's great onslaught on Gottsched and his followers while yet a student of the university in which this leader of the school of French taste held a j n.f^ssorship. Nor must it be for- gotten that the history of literature stands in unmis- takable connection with the history of the thinking and struggling intellect generally, and consequently, also, with the historj' of rehgion and philosophy. One is reflected in the other. The uifluence of the vapid spirit of French literature of the age of Voltaire was transferred to (ierman ground, and soon the fruits be- came apparent in the general spread of French illumin- ism (q. V.) and a sort of hmnanism. See Rousseau. The great German philosopher Wolf, following closely in the footsteps of Leibnitz, had sought to check this rapid flow of the Germans towards infidelity by a sys- tem of philosophy that shoidd lay securely the foiuida- tions for religion and moralitj', '-fully persuaded that the so-called natural religion, which he . . . expected to be attained by the efforts of reason, and which related more to the belief in God and in immortality than to anything else, would become the very best stepping- stone to the temple of revealed religion" (Hagenbach, C/i. Ilist. IHth and 19th Cent, i, 78). Indeed, the theolo- gians themselves sought to prove, by the malhcmatioal, demonstrative method, the truth of the doctrines of rev- elation, and the fiilsity of infidelity, forgetting altogether the great fact tliat '"that sharp form of thought which bends itself to mathematical formulas is not for every man, least of all for the great mass ;" and had it not been for the influence which pietism was exerting in the 18th century upon orthodox Christianity, the latter must have suffered beyond even the most ardent expectations of the most devoted German Yoltaireans. As it was, even, there gradually arose a shallow theology, destitute of ideas, and limited to a few moral commonjilaccs, known under the name of neoloyy (q. v.), which, at tlie time of Lessing's appearance, controlled the German mind. Sec Semleu. An active thinker like Lessing. who, when yet a youth, could write to his father that " the Christian
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religion is not a thing whioli one can accept upon the word and honor of a parent," but that the way to tlie possession of the truth is for him only '-who has once wisely doubted, and by the ]iiUh of inquiry attained con- viction, or at least striven to attain it," such a one was not liicely to remain passive in this critical period of the history of thouglit. Unfortunately, however, the mature Les.sing had sliifted from the position of the youthful in(iuirer, and, instead of accepting the truth when at- tained by conviction, he had come to believe that truth is never to be accepted. " It is not the truth of which a man is, or thinks he is, in possession that measures the worth of the man, but the honest eftbrt he has made to arrive at the truth ; for it is not the possession of truth, but the search for it, that enlarges those powers in which an ever-growing capacity consists. Possession satisties, enervates, corrupts." " If God," he says, " held ail truth in his right hand, and in his left hand nothing but the ever-restless instinct for truth, though with the condition of forever and ever erring, and should say to mc. Choose, I Avould bow reverently to his left hand and say, Father, give; pure truth is for thee alone!" Thus, forgetting altogether that Christianity is not a striving after truth, but possession of the truth, Lessing became unconsciously one of the greatest promoters of liationalism in its worst form (corny). lluTSt,IJ istori/ of Ihitioiudisiii, p. 147, 149). We say Lessing imconsciously became the promoter of Uationalism ; for, with Dorner (^Gesch. (/. Protest. Theol. p. 731), we believe that his ob- ject was not to write against religion, but against theol- ogy ; not against Christianity, but onlj' against the poor proofs that were advanced in its behalf. Indeed, his own words on Diderot's labors condemn the charge so often brought against Lessing, that he was an outright opponent of Christianity, a pure deist, and nothing more. In reviewing one of Diderot's works, he says : "A short- sighted dof/matisf, u-ho avoids nothing so carefully as o doubt of the niemorial maxims that make his system, will fjather a host of errors from this worh Our author is one of those philosophers who give themselves more trouble to raise clouds than to scatter them. Wherever the fatal glance of their eyes fall, the pillars of the firm- est truth totter, and that which ^ve have seemed to see quite clearly loses itself in the dim, uncertain distance ; instead of leading us by twilight colonnades to the lumin- ous throne of tnith, they lead lis by the ways of fancied splendor to the dusky throne of falsehood. Suppose, then, such philosophers dare to attack opinions that are sacred. The danger is small. The injury which their dreams, or realities — the thing is one with them — inflict npon society is as small as tliat is great which they in- flict who would bring the consciences of all imder the yoke of their own."