LESSING 371 celebrated drama Minna von Barrihelm. Re- turning to Berlin, he published there (1766) his Laokoon, oder uber die Grenzen der Ma- lerei und Poesie, a work which has exerted a permanent influence upon both literary and artistic criticism. In 1767 he became di- rector of a theatre at Hamburg, where he pub- lished his Dramaturgic (1167-69), a critical periodical, which played an important part in the strife then prevalent in Germany as to the relative merits of the French and English drama, He became intimate here with his subsequent antagonist the pastor Goeze. In 1770 he received from Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick the appointment of chief librarian at Wolf enbiittel, " rather that the library might serve him than he the library." He employed himself in exploring the literary treasures in the collection, and discovered the long lost work of Berengarius on the Lord's supper. In 1774 appeared the first of the Wolfenbut- telscJie Fragmente eines Ungenannten, a man- ifesto against the historical basis of Christian- ity, written by the Hamburg professor Rei- marus, but published and defended by Lessing. His principal opponent was his friend Goeze, against whom he directed his admirably satiri- cal Anti- Goeze. His love of intellectual inde- pendence and impatience of authority appear from his declaration that if God held closed in his right hand all truth, and in his left the eternal desire for truth, and offered him the choice between them, he would humbly fall on the left, as pure truth was for God alone. He gave his confession of faith in a poetical and dramatic form in his Nathan der Weise (1779), the principal characters in which are a Jew, a Christian, and a Mohammedan, who vie with each other, in tolerance, charity, and respect for the universal dogmas of morality. His last literary labor was the Erziehung des Menschen- geschlechte (1780), an important contribution to the philosophy of history. 'His later years were engrossed by theological, antiquarian, and literary controversies, in which he took an eager delight as long as the vigor of his mind remained. Exhausted by labor, grieving for the loss of his wife, whom he had married in 1776, and who died in giving birth to his first child, which died with her, his health and spirits began in 1779 slowly to decline, and toward the close of his life he struggled in vain against frequent fits of cheerlessness and som- nolency. He was an original and peculiar char- acter, and was better appreciated by the next generation than by his own. Perhaps no one man has done more to confer on German liter- ature its present many-sided character, or to strengthen German criticism by a study of art. His style is concise, simple, and equally lucid and vigorous. The spirit of independence which characterizes his writings also marked his entire life, and, in the words of Schlosser, " he neither made parties, cringed about courts, nor revelled in a little brief authority; he was neither the organ of an academy nor of a university." He has frequently been called the Luther of German literature, of the Ger- man drama, and of German art. The first complete edition of his works appeared in 1771-'94 (30 vols., Berlin), and an excellent edition was edited by Lachmann (13 vols., Berlin, 1838-'40). Concerning his life and character, see F. Schlegel, Lessings Gedanlcen und Meinungen (3 vols., Leipsic, 1804) ; Dan- zel, G. E. Lessing, sein Lebew und seine Werlce (1st vol., Leipsic, 1850 ; completed by Guh- rauer) ; and Adolf Stahr, G. E. Lessings Leben und- Werlce (1859 ; translated into English by E. P. Evans, 2 vols., Boston, 1866). The Lao- Tcoon has been translated into English by E. C. Beasley (1853), by Ellen Frothingham (Bos- ton, 1874), and by Sir Robert Phillimore (Lon- don, 1874) ; Nathan der Weise, by Dr. Reich (1860) and Ellen Frothingham (1867) ; Minna wn Barnhelm, by Wrackmore (Boston, 1866). An English translation of his Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts ("Education of the Hu- man Race") appeared in London in 1858. His fables and several of his comedies have also been translated. LESSIXG, Karl Friedrich, a German painter, grand-nephew of the preceding, born in War- tenberg, Silesia, Feb. 15, 1808. His father, an officer of the Prussian government, placed him when about 12 years of age in the gymnasium of Breslau, to study the natural sciences. Such was his backwardness in the ordinary academ- ical studies, that at the end of two years his teachers advised the father to allow the boy to follow his predilection for art, and become a painter. Hie was accordingly sent to the archi- tectural school of Berlin, to fit himself for an architect ; but the instructions of* Professors Rosel and Dahling aroused in him an invincible love for painting, and the production of his " Churchyard with Gravestones and Ruins " (1825) fixed his profession irrevocably. This picture produced a strong impression, and for a year or two the artist devoted himself to landscape ; but coming under the influence of Schadow, he established himself in Dtisseldorf , and studied historical painting with an enthu- siasm and success which soon caused him to be considered the most promising pupil of the new German school of which that master was an exemplar. Within a few years he produced a number of spirited works, including the cartoon of " The Battle of Iconium ;" " The Castle by the Sea ;" " The Mourning King and Queen," the head of the king being painted from that of Schadow; "The Robber;" "The Court- yard of the Convent, a Snow Scene," perhaps the most striking of all his landscapes ; a " Scene from Lenore," &c. Subsequent to 1832 he en- tered upon a new style of treatment, substi- tuting for the severe spirit in which his pre- vious works had been conceived an earnest re- alism and an affluence of fancy which severed him completely from the school of Schadow, Yeit, and their co-religionists. To landscape painting he also gave renewed attention, and
