The Anglo-Saxons likewise pos.sessed in their native idiom this pseudo-gospel. Probably it was considered a valuable supplement to the inspired records of the blessed Saviour's life. See Soames, .1 nrjlo-Sax. Church, p. 252; Pressense, Early Years of Christianiti/, vol. iii (Heresy and Doctrine), p. 175 sq.; Fabricius, Cod. Apoc. N. T. i, 213 ; Tischendorf, Eeanr/elia Apocrypha, p. 293. The best edition is by Thilo, Cod. Apocr. i, 478. See Gospels, Spurious. (J. H. W.)
Nicolai, Christoph Friedsrich, an eminent German Rationalist, noted as a writer on aesthetics and other branches of philosophj^ was born March 18, 1733, at Berlin, Germany, where his father was a bookseller. At the age of sixteen, just as he was beginning to make some proticiency in his studies, he was obliged to aban- don them, being sent to Frankfort-on-the-Oder for the purpose of learning the bookselling trade; yet such was his eagerness for information, his love of reading, and his perseverance, that he employed every moment of leisure, his evenings and the early part of every morn- ing, in study, and, without other assistance than that of books, made himself a proficient in Greek, Latin, and English, and likewise acquired a knowledge of some parts of mathematics and philosophy. On his return to Berlin, in 1752, his attention to business did not in- terrupt his self-imposed studies, of which both English and German poetry then formed a considerable part; and in 1755 he produced his Brkfe iibe.r den jefziyen Zustani der Schijiicn Wlssenschiiflen, wherein he impar- tially discussed the pretensions of the two literary sects headed by Bodmer and Gottsched, the former advocating pure German, and the latter favoring a dependence on French taste and influence. Nicolai exposed the errors of both schools, and surprised the literati of the country by his keen criticisms. Indeed the work excited con- siderable attention, and led to his intimacy with Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn. After the death of his father he retired from business, leaving it to his brother, and determined to content himself with his own slender means in preference to the pecuniary advantages to be reaped by sacrificing his literary leisure and enjoyments. The unexpected death, however, of his elder brother, in 1758, put an end to this short interval of tranquil study, he being obliged to carry on the business for the bene- fit of the family in general. But this only increased his diligence and economy of time, and led to his connec- tion with several literary enterprises, which he had be- fore projected. In conjunction with Mendelssohn he had already commenced (1757) the BiMio/hek der Scho- nen WU-n'nschaften, one of the earliest and best belles- lettres journals in the language, which was afterwards continued, till the end of 1805, under the title of the Neue Bibliothek, etc. With Lessing and Mendelssolin, he established, in 1759, the Briefe. der Neuesten Litera- tur; and in 1765 projected the Allyemeine Deutsche Bih- liothek, of which periodical he continued to be editor till it reached its 107th volume. At the head of this peri- odical Nicolai played no unimportant part in that epoch of (Jerman history known as " the jjeriod of enlighten- ment," The truth is, Nicolai possessed great abilities in
certain directions. He was an able executive, and knew how to gather about him the best of his country's tal- ents. The appliances of the " Universal German Li- brary'" are conceded even by his severest opponents to have been remarkable. It by no means confined itself to home talent. It commanded a survey of the litera- ture of England, Holland, France, and Italy. Whatever appeared in these lands received its immediate atten- tion, and was reproached or magnified according to its relations to the peculiar creed of Nicolai and his co- laborers. And what was this peculiar creed? The sun- dering of humanity and Christianity. Not the making of Christians in order to have men, but the making of men to become Christians or anything else they chose; and all this was claimed in the name of libert}' of thought and of Protestantism. By appealing to the people in the name of the latter Nicolai betrayed an interest in Christianity, but it appears that he sim- ply sought the moral development before he desired the religious training. So long as the work of purify- ing the public mind from the tilth of superstition, and emancipating it from prejudices remained to be done, he labored with most salutary effect for the good of his countrymen in ethical and ffisthetical directions; but when the victory over traditional absurdities had been gained, and the positive replenishment of the public mind with a nobler content became the main problem, his influence was most pernicious. An adept of illu- minism, his unphilosophical mind was the skilful mas- ter of bold and unscrupulous arguments, which he used with great and umlue acerbity against all ^vho woidd oppose him or reject his plans. He was especially vio- lent against the heroes of German philosophy, the very men who labored for the solution of the great problem then before the German people, the substitution of a positive for a negative principle, the part in which, as we have already said above, Nicolai failed. He was op- posed by such men as Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Lava- ter, and Fichte. These men were laboring for the so- lution of a problem which he misunderstood. Of course they wrote simply in defence, yet they grew hot in the contest; and in determining the historic estimate of Nicolai, thes^ writers should be granted no greater influence than the hostile criticism by Plato and Soc- rates of the Sophists should have in determining the usefulness of the litter. But let us hear Fichte on Nic- olai's view of Protestantism, making due allowance for acerbity of tone in an opponent so decided as Fichte : "His (i. e. Nicolai's) Protestantism was a protestation against all truth which pretended to remain truth ; against all that is above our senses, and against every religion which by faith put an end to dispute. To him religion was only a means of education for the head, in order to furnish materials for never-ceasing talk, but by no means a matter of the heart and the life. His liberty of thinking was freedom from all that was and is thought, the licentiousness of empty thinking, without substance and aim. Liberty of judgment was to him the right of every bungler and ignorant man to give his opinion about everything, whether he understood it or not, and whether or not there was either head or tail in what he said." As to the general influence of the Hiblinthck, the rationalistic Hase even goes so far as to declare that under Nicolai's management it " exercised an absolute sway as a tribunal of literature, and always exerted its secret influence in opposition to the ancient system of faith, and rejected everything which exceeded the lim- its of its own bald intelligence and morality, on the groiuid of a liability either to the reproach of sujicrsti- tion or the suspicion of .k'suitism." The truth is, if we carefully estimate Nicolai's system, we find that it pro- fessed to regard Christianity only as a historical devel- opment of natural morality and religion, and a popular system of instruction as to the best way to become hap- py in tills workl and the next. In consequence of the power possessed by the opposition among the influential classes, and its continued adherence to the general basis