for books. to attract a person with Lessing's fondness | lator of Shakspeare, Ebert, and especially the Protestant Abbot Jerusalem, a highly popular preacher and divine, but of a somewhat mystical tendency, now only remembered as father of the unfortunate youth believed to have been the prototype of Goethe's Werther. An undeniable spirit of culture pervaded the Brunswick family. The young Princess became that remarkable woman, Duchess Amalia of Weimar, mother to Duke August, and Goethe's early admirer and steady friend. The Hereditary Prince, Ferdinand, is now best known as the unsuccessful commander of the Coalition army that was foiled by the cannonade at Valmy, and as the old blind man who rode into the thick of the fierce carnage at Jena to seek a soldier's death. He was, however, by no means a mere soldier: he had been educated in the eighteenth-century culture; he was the friend and correspondent of Voltaire and D'Alembert, and he coquetted, as many princes then did, with the edge tools of a spirit which, when developed to practical re Amongst the numerous princely houses of Germany none can boast a longer roll of names illustrious for deeds in the battle-field and in the Cabinet than that of Brunswick; nor can any Court (excluding even the prolific house of Saxony) show a larger number of branches thrown off at various times from the parent stem, of which most grew into goodly and independent positions. This lineage of Brunswick evinced a most remarkable succession of vigorous qualities, and produced from generation to generation men who, as soldiers and as princes, thoroughly held their own, and something more, in the political conflicts that permanently rent the ill-organized body of the Germanic Empire. By that natural process of extinction inseparable from human existence, several collateral principalities including that of Brunswick itself-merged, in the seventeenth century, in the branch which till then had its seat at Wolfenbüttel, and was not the least distinguished for its members. In 1635 it was represented by Duke Au-sults, their nature shrank from. Ferdinand gust, whose qualities earned for him the surname of Senex divinus,' and whose administrative capacities were shown by the admirable order into which he brought a State reduced to the verge of ruin by the devastations of the Thirty Years' War. It was this Prince who, having a strong taste for letters, profited by the suppression of monasteries to bring together the marvellous Library which is still at Wolfenbüttel. It is his line that still reigns over Brunswick. It cannot be said that the ancestor's spirit of frugality characterized the Duke in possession at the time of which we write, though he too was by no means without remarkable qualities. Duke Charles participated in the taste for glittering extravagance that many German princes of that day indulged in, from imitation of the Grand Monarque's style. This he did to such an extent that, even under the lax system of the Aulic jurisdiction, he was mennaced with being put under sequestration. The Marchesa Branconi, publicly recognised as his Highness's favourite, was as absolute at Court as Madame de Pompadour at Versailles; and, under her auspices, the Ducal pomp was lavishly profuse. Still, alongside this reckless dissipation the nobler instincts of the house also showed themselves. The Duke created the Collegium Carolinum, an educational institution which became famous throughout Germany; and he drew to his capital men of literary renown from all parts, amongst whom may be named Zacharia, Eschenburg, the trans was disposed to smile on men of letters as becoming ornaments for a grandee's court, just as he would have a well-appointed theatre and an art gallery; but he does not seem to have ever realized the force of independence and of dignity inherent in intellectual merit, quite apart from the trappings of honour conceded by the grace of sovereign favour. Moreover in him there existed, in marked degree, a feature then by no means rare in Germany-the belief in mysteries of superior wisdom, enshrined in rites to be learnt only through the medium of initiation and affiliation. He was Grand Master of German Freemasonry, a body which then comprised an extraordinary number of distinguished men, who were seriously moved by a notion that in its ritual might be found the expression of a recondite teaching that would carry humanity to a higher level. This very general taking au grand sérieux' the mummeries of a pantomime by men of intellectual vigour is a most curious chapter in the history of the development of German mind. It will hardly be possible to point out one amongst the great men of Germany of this period who entirely escaped the temporary hallucination, that lore of deep import and ancient tradition lay embalmed in the rites of Masonry, with the exception of Lessing. At Hamburg he had indeed allowed himself so far to fall into the prevailing fashion as to get initiated into the craft; but his clear penetrating mind never treated the matter as a serious one. His sponsor on the occasion having anx It was from this Brunswick court that the proposal came, which induced Lessing to drop for the present his Italian project. Ebert had interested the Hereditary Prince in his behalf, and transmitted an offer of the Keepership of the Library at Wolfenbüttel, with a salary of 600 thalers and a residence, together with an intimation that the salary should shortly be raised. Had Lessing been free from pecuniary encumbrances, this sum would have been a very fair provision. After some delay, in part due to difficulties as to getting away from creditors, but in part also to that inflexible characteristic which never would permit him to adopt the courtier's ways, Lessing was installed, in April, in what was to prove his home for the remainder of his days. iously, after initiation, "expressed a hope | ing sovereign of Brunswick, who came to that Lessing must be now satisfied that Ma- the throne as long ago as 1831, has not sonry nowhere offended against Morals, Re- once had the curiosity to visit an institution ligion, or the State, was unpleasantly met so closely identified with the glorious names with the caustic reply, Would to Heaven of Leibnitz and Lessing. A lavish expenI had found something of the kind; for diture provides for a theatre of proverbial then, at all events, I should have found gorgeousness in Brunswick; 800 thalers, something!' a trifle over 1007., is all that is allotted for the maintenance of the library. In consequence the building is actually falling to pieces. One portion of the wall now consists of a timber hoarding, within a few feet of which is a wooden shed filled with inflammable materials. In the central hall the heavy plaster ornaments are dropping down, so that the librarian, by his own exertions, has had a netting spread across the dome, for the protection of life. A spark falling on the neighbouring shed, or a stroke of lightning, might ignite this decayed storehouse of priceless treasures like so much tinder, for it should be known that this Library comprises 300,000 volumes and 12,000 manuscripts, and that practically it may be said to be an unused and even but superficially explored mine. Two facts will attest the rarity of its contents. The bibliographer Brunet, speaking of that rarissima avis for collectors, the treatise De Tribus Impostoribus,' with the fabricated date 1598, so rare that its existence has been doubted, says that only three copies, which he specifies, are beyond question. The Wolfenbüttel Library actually possesses three specimens, one with a curious manuscript indication of whence it came. Amongst the choicest rarities is the Bible in Plattdeutsch, printed at Cologne before Luther. A copy belonged to the Duke of Sussex, another is in the possession of the eminent philologist, Prince Lucien Bonaparte. Again there are preserved three copies in Wolfenbüttel of this rare edition. That literary treasures of this order should be thus neglected, aye, and exposed to all the chances of haphazard destruction (for not even the semblance of protection against fire is provided), amounts to a scandal which it is hoped that educated Germany will lose no time in putting a stop to. Wolfenbüttel presents now to the rare visitor as striking a specimen as it is well possible to conceive of grandeur departed, of that most melancholy dilapidation where the process is actually visible how, bit by bit, everything is dropping to pieces. Broad streets, flanked by massive houses with quaintly picturesque gables, stretch before the eye in spectral silence, broken by no sound of footfall, like avenues of tombs. At one end of the town stands a sumptuous pile of buildings, a palace of vast dimensions, in that rather fantastic yet imposing style common in Germany in the sixteenth century, with numerous pinnacles surmounted by as numerous statues; a striking example of Rococo architecture. In its halls Duke August, Senex divinus, once held court; now bats and owls are the only tenants. All is ruin, just as time has had leisure to make it; bit by bit the statues are crumbling into shapeless fragments, windows have disappeared, and decay has it all its own way. In close proximity to this monument of desolation rises a circular structure crowned by a cupola. It is there that the Senex divinus deposited his precious library, and the internal arrangements testify to the judgment of the builder. But here likewise dilapidation has been given wellnigh the same unchecked play-room. Incredible as it sounds, in Germany, that boasts to be, par excellence, the land where learning is held in honour, this marvellous, in some respects unique, library has been left all but utterly uncared-for. The reign * Lessing's first sensation on taking a view of what he had to preside over was somewhat like that of a spirit called upon to bring light and order into chaos. The want of arrangement, of catalogues, of all guidance to the contents of the library, was *Ce livre est fort rare et nous n'en connais sons avec certitude que trois exemplaires, le prele duc de la Vallière, et le troisième dans la mier dans le catalogue Crevenna, le second chez vente Renouard.'-G. Brunet, Manuel du Li braire,' vol. v. p. 943, ed. 1864. lamentable. The second feeling that rose in him was keen delight at the rare prospect of literary curiosities he might expect to unearth. With the full impetuosity of his ardent nature, Lessing flung himself upon the disordered piles of volumes committed to his charge, and vehemently began to ransack them. The eagerness he displayed was more remarkable than the efficiency of his attempts at arrangement. Plans, indeed, he entertained, but what he did towards their realization is said not to have gone much beyond removing volumes wildly from their place, and substituting another confusion for that which had previously prevailed. But if the Librarian proved at fault, the investigator was soon heard of. As might have been expected in a collection mainly brought together from monasteries, the Library was specially rich in medieval manuscripts. Lessing accidentally found among these a previously unknown treatise by the great Schoolman and Heresiarch, Berengar of Tours, which went to disprove a statement universally current about him. It had been hitherto an uncontradicted belief, that Berengar, after the condemnation of his views on Transubstantiation, had himself ultimately recanted before Lanfranc. Luther, in one of his writings, expressed himself emphatically against Berengar's opinions, and so he had come to be held up by orthodox Lutheran divines in Germany as an arch-heretic. From this treatise it appeared, not only that he never recanted, but that the opinions he held on Transubstantiation were virtually identical with those of Luther himself. Here there was everything calculated to command Lessing's interest: a literary discovery, the rehabilitation of a character from the imputation of having weakly denied his opinions, and an occasion to prove that the confident assertion even of Protestant divines is not infallible in matters of history. Instead of merely editing the text, Lessing wrote a tract, in which, taking up the thread already apparent in his Vindications,' he strenuously sought to clear the traduced memory of Berengar, and to present him as a martyr to conscientious enquiry. It is the vigorous language with which he incidentally defended the spirit of theological enquiry, that gives perinanent importance to this publication. On the clergy this treatise produced a decidedly unfavourable impression. The Lutherans were vexed to find their prophet convicted of historical inaccuracy-the Calvinists were angry at being despoiled of a distinguished fellow-believer-while both were in common ruffled at a tone which vi | brated with an accent apparently little disposed to regard with deference the barriers within which theological discussion had been hitherto, as a rule, confined. Lessing's intimate friends, on the other hand, hardly concealed their surprise at his having expended so much labour on what seemed to them a sterile and purely scholastic question. Even the gentle Mendelssohn could not repress the sarcasm, that he supposed a discovery of any manuscript must be a subject for congratulation, though he was not in a position to judge what good was likely to result to the human race from the recovery of this particular treatise. Lessing was not discouraged by this indifference. Continuing his researches in the Wolfenbüttel mine, he dragged to light several more unknown writings, which he published as a Miscellaneous Collection. They ranged over the most varied subjects; but the most remarkable were, again, vindications of individuals labouring under charges in reference to religious opinions-as, for instance, one Adam Neurer, who in the sixteenth century had been expelled from the Lutheran fold; so that these publications, while attracting notice, also whetted the feeling already kindled in orthodox circles. These labours, however, before long lost their zest. Lessing was a student and a thinker, but he was never a confirmed bookworm; still less could he resign himself placidly to mechanical occupation. The deadness of Wolfenbüttel smote with the chillness of a charnel-house atmosphere on a nature so craving after human intercourse for its recreation. Books, musty books, in countless array, were there for silent companionship, but the ring of the living voice was wholly absent. After a year we find him exclaiming to Gleim, 'More and more does the dust of books fall on my nerves; soon these will be wholly incapable of delicate sensation.' At intervals, indeed, he would run away for a day or two from this sepulchral loneliness to the neighbouring Brunswick, but such rare snatches of distraction could not dissipate a discontent that had other causes besides a merely general desire for society. For the first time his health began to give way. Vertigo, spasms, cough, rheumatism, attacked Lessing-the fruits of a well-liked habitation in unison with the mouldering character proper to all Wolfenbüttel. And along with these troublesome guests there forced themselves relentlessly upon him no less harrowing visitors-the Hamburg creditors, who would take no denial in their pressing demands. It had become known that Lessing had a promise of increased salary. Driven by those who knew no mercy, he caused his distressful situation to be stated in official quarters, with an application that the promise might be graciously fulfilled. The promise was not disputed, but was also not observed. For two whole years Lessing was kept in suspense-being told neither one thing nor the other-neither turned away as asking for something undue, nor assured that he should have what he applied for. Yet, with all his faults, Duke Ferdinand was not a man who naturally took a miserly pleasure in squeezing his dependents. The only explanation of his conduct that suggests itself is that the haughty temper of the Prince took umbrage at the uncourtier-like tone in which Lessing made his applications, as it were by message through third parties, instead of addressing himself in an humbly expressed petition to the Duke directly. Bitter with the bitterness of gall and wormwood were the feelings that overcame Lessing in the course of these two wretched years, during which the grim form of imprisonment for debt was ever hovering by his side. His letters but too painfully reveal at times an all but frantic state of mind. in the interest of her children devoted herself to the disentanglement of her husband's concerns. The correspondence between her and Lessing affords ample means of estimating Eva König. She was a woman of superior qualities, combining almost masculine firmness and business aptitudes with a woman's feeling for what is noble and tender; the whole being set off by an unmistakable fund of humour and pleasant sarcasm. Her letters teem with sound and sprightly good sense, expressed in easy language. That Lessing, when he went to Wolfenbüttel, already entertained much admiration for the lady, is beyond question; but then and later she objected to enter into any engagement, before having brought to an issue the complicated task she had assumed as a duty. The task obliged Eva to take up her residence at Vienna, and for four years a correspondence went on, which is the record of the anxieties, the sufferings, the despondencies, as also of the flashes of elation and of hope which made up the phase of this Wolfenbüttel servitude. At last, in the end of 1774, there came from Eva a letter an'Better go a-beg-nouncing that, though there would still be work for a little time, yet such recovery of fortune as could be expected was assured, and that her hand would then be free. This announcement coincided with the advance of salary just obtained. Claiming now a furlough to which he was entitled of right, but without stating any destination, Lessing decamped from Wolfenbüttel. After a few days spent at Berlin and Leipzig, he hurried on lover's wings to Vienna. 'How greatly I am seized with delight at last again to meet thee, O my darling! that I have no need to say. God grant only that I find thee in thorough good health!' ging than let oneself be thus dealt by,' Lessing once cries out. His independent nature, however, had at last to bend under the dire goad of relentless Hamburg claimants. He was driven to put his hand to a pitiful supplication, though all he brought himself to ask for in this direct appeal was a mere. forestalment on his existing salary. 'Humbly do I venture to have recourse to your Serene Highness in my insignificant concerns. Without fault of mine, I find myself in such embarrassments, that I am at a loss how to help myself, unless I beseech most humbly your Serene Highness to let me have paid.in advance three-quarters of my salary.' This was accorded, but even now the Duke preserved silence in regard to the promised increment. The accorded advance, however, afforded temporary relief from odious pressure, and that restored Lessing's elastic energies enough to let him bound eagerly in a direction where lay prospects that had paramount attractions for his heart. For some time Lessing had been thoroughly in love. The object of his affections was Eva König, the widow of a Hamburg silk merchant, whose house Lessing had been in the habit of frequenting while he resided in that city. On a journey to visit his factories in Austria, the husband died, when his reputed large fortune was found to be grievously embarrassed. With admirable perseverance and equally admirable judgment, the widow The reception Lessing met with in the Austrian capital is an extraordinary testimony to the high renown in which he stood. Notoriously the pride of aristocratic prejudice nowhere prevailed more than in the society of Vienna, and this prejudice was equally notorious for its stolid indifference to the worth of mere intellectual merit. Yet in this exclusive world, high and low, noble and gentle, in private and in public, combined to bow before the genius of Lessing, and to acknowledge his superior nature by unprecedented demonstrations. During his residence at Wolfenbüttel only one original creation of his Muse had been given to the public, the tragedy of 'Emilia Galotti.' It is an adaptation of the legend of Virginia,' the scene being laid in an Italian court, where rules a prince of profligate morals. The immediate success of 6 the piece may have been partly due to a covert meaning which some ascribed to it. The idea suggested itself that, in the doings of the Italian Prince, Lessing aimed at satirizing the tone of some German courts. In Brunswick, before the piece could be presented, the author had to give explanations that he did not mean to reflect on living persons. Still this did not remove all suspicion, and in Gotha the Duke prohibited a performance that might lend itself to inferences unfavourable to august personages. In spite of so much calculated to give umbrage to censorships less exacting than the Austrian, Emilia Galotti was given at the Vienna Court Theatre as a homage to Lessing. On his entering the house the audience rose and welcomed him with ringing applause; it was an ovation that reminds one of that given to Voltaire in the Théâtre Français. Never has any German savant been received here with such distinction as our excellent friend, and that from our Sovereign down to the general public,' writes to Nicolai an Aulic Councillor von Gablenz, who hoped to secure Lessing for the Academy which Joseph II. designed to establish. The crowning honour, however, came from Maria Theresa. That illustrious lady, deviating altogether from her customary habits and from Court etiquette, twice admitted Lessing to an interview -an exceptional grace shown before to Winckelmann. On one occasion his courtiership was put to an awkward test by the Empress asking his opinion of the Vienna Court Theatre, which was then at the very lowest. Lessing tried to escape by a vaguely general answer; but the Empress quickly observed his drift, and said, I think I understand you; I know well good taste makes no progress with us as it ought; won't you say where lies the fault? I have done whatever my power and insight permit, but,' added she with kindly simplicity, I am but a woman, and in such matters a woman can't do much.' Lessing had thought at times of seeking his fortune in Vienna, but if he felt disposed now to listen to proposals, the idea was driven out of his mind by a quite unexpected intimation. Duke Ferdinand, in whose service he was, desired him to accompany his second son forthwith to Italy. Here came, at a moment least anticipated, the proffered realization of a wish, the daydream of a life! He was at last put in a position to feast his eyes with the sights they had been longing to gaze upon. But there were difficulties about closing with the offer, the chief being that the journey would again take him away from his be trothed. She, however, declared that for some months she could not hope to conclude her affairs, until which time the union must be perforce postponed; and in April 1775 Lessing accordingly left Vienna with the Prince for Italy. The trip was to have been for eight weeks; it lasted eight months. The travellers visited the principal cities, made a lengthened stay in Rome and Naples (where Lessing much enjoyed the society of Sir William Hamilton), and pushed their peregrinations even to Corsica. It must be greatly regretted that of this Italian journey only very scanty and quite fragmentary notices are preserved-some letters to his bride and some jottings in a scrap-book. It seems that his regular correspondence went astray, and that the diary kept on the journey has been lost. That Lessing's naturally great powers of observation did not go to sleep, is sufficiently shown from the curious jumble of multifarious remarks-evidently mere notes for the memory-in the leaves of this scrap-book. It is however also clear, that he was not as happy as might have been expected during the journey; the same bad postal arrangements which made his letters miscarry deprived him of tidings from his betrothed, and it was with feverish eagerness he hurried home to Wolfenbüttel, there finally to arrange for his speedy union with Eva, who was then at Hamburg, having at last been relieved from her protracted charge. Lessing's immediate purpose was to get a settlement of the long-promised addition to his salary. A formal application led to an intimation that the Duke would like to discuss on an early occasion what could be done to satisfy his wishes. Weeks having elapsed without further notice, Lessing took the bull by the horns. In a letter which, to use his own expression, must have piqued' the Duke, he recounted the treatment he had experienced for the last three years, and expressed his firm resolve to resign his post unless the promise of increased pay were at once made good. This had its effect. The Duke shrank from losing the services of one so eminent. Two hundred thalers were added to his salary, free from all deductions; those that had been previously made were returned in full, and a special grant of a thousand thalers was given to meet pressing calls. Without loss of time Lessing now sped to Hamburg. There, on October 8, 1776, the marriage took place at a friend's villa, and some days later the couple were settled in that tumble-down Wolfenbüttel abode, once to Lessing so dismal, but now in his eyes a palace radiant with sunshine. Short as a Martinmas summer did this |