neux, on his Case of Irela His theological tracts 3. The Snake in the Gra 7 on the first D E Ar the dowolution of Charles's second puitment, in ment services and unshaken loyalty to the crown, in all ed, because, in November preceding, paper ever since. Heath's Chronicle, *The letter runs in these terms: married; his lady's name was Anne Doleman ; sue he had by her, besides the just-mentioned has not come to our knowledge. After the ree seems to have been left out of the commission ce; and, it is said, queen Mary shewed her conim by the following anagram she made upon his Ecclesiastial ying-Strange Roger:" and it is certain he met trouble, for the remainder of his life, on account g a disaffected person. others who attacked the character of sir Roger, oted Miles Prance, who was convicted of perjury ffair of the murder of sir Edmundbury Godfrey. in his History of England, gives us an anecdote of o worthies which seems characteristic of both parchard says that Dr. Sharp told him, when archof York, that while he was rector of St. Giles's in elds, L'Estrange, the famous Richard Baxter, and Prance, on a certain sacrament-day, all approached mmunion-table; L'Estrange at one end, Prance at ther, and Baxter in the middle; that these two by situation, were administered to before L'Estrange, who, it came to his turn, taking the bread in his hand, d the doctor if he knew who that man (pointing to ace) on the other side of the rails was, to which the tor answering in the negative, L'Estrange replied, hat is Miles Prance, and I here challenge him, and emnly declare before God and this congregation, that at that man has sworn or published concerning me is tally and absolutely false; and may this sacrament be y damnation if all this declaration be not true." Echard dds, "Prance was silent, Mr. Baxter took special notice of it, and Dr. Sharp declared he would have refused Prance the sacrament had the challenge been made in time." Sir Roger L'Estrange died Sept. 11, 1704, in the eightyeighth year of his age, during the latter part of which his faculties were impaired. His corpse was interred in the church of St. Giles's in the Fields, where there is an inscrip of the church of England, so I have P seech you, of this paper in my justification, which I deliver as a sacred truth. So help me God, "Roger L'Estrange. "Signed in the presence of us, John L'Estrange, "Richard Sure "To Sir Nicholas L'Estra phy; while Grabner, the rector of the academy, wrote to his father concerning them: "He is a colt that requires a double allowance of provender. The lessons that are found too difficult for others, are but child's play to him.— We shall hardly be sufficient for him much longer:" Being removed to Leipsic, he soon displayed his inclination to write for the stage, and likewise made great proficiency in the bodily exercises of horsemanship, fencing, dancing, and leaping. Mr. Weisse was his first and principal friend at this place; and their friendship was only dissolved by death. Lessing frequented the college-exercises but little, and that irregularly: none of the professors gave him satisfaction, excepting Ernesti, whose lectures he sometimes. attended; but he was himself an extensive reader, and was especially partial to the writings of Wolff in German. He kept up a great intimacy with Naumann, the author of "Nimrod," on account of his possessing many singular qualities, which were always more agreeable to Lessing, than the common dull monotony of character, even though mingled with some weaknesses and defects. Under Kastner he exercised himself in disputation; and here began his close connection with Mylius, whose works he afterwards published. His intercourse with this free-thinker, and with the company of comedians, however, gave great uneasiness to his parents. His first literary productions appeared in a Hamburgh newspaper. In company with M. Weisse, he translated "Hannibal," the only tragedy of Marivaux, into rhyming Alexandrines. His comedy of the "Young Scholar," which he had begun while a schoolboy, was finished at Leipsic, from an actual event that happened to a young scholar disappointed in his hopes of the prize from the academy at Berlin. His father about this time thought proper to recall him home for a time, in order to wean him from the bad company he was thought to frequent. In this interval, he composed a number of Anacreontics on love and wine. One day, his pious sister coming into his room, in his absence, saw these sonnets, read them over, and, not a little angry that her brother could so employ his time, threw them into the fire. A trifling burst of resentment was all he felt on the occasion. He took a handful of snow, and threw it into her bosom, in order to cool her zeal.-He now went back to Leipzig; which place he soon after quitted, going by Wittenberg to Berlin. This gave his father fresh uneasiness; and pro duced those justificatory letters of his son, which at least display the frankness of his character. At Berlin, in conjunction with Mylius, he compiled the celebrated "Sketch of the History and Progress of the Drama." The father of a writer who had been sharply criticised in this work, made complaint of it to Lessing's father. To this person he wrote in answer: "The critique is mine, and I only lament that I did not make it more severe. Should Gr. complain of the injustice of my judgment, I give him full liberty to retaliate as he pleases on my works." One of his first acquaintances in Berlin was a certain Richier de Louvain, who, in 1750, from a French teacher, was become secretary to Voltaire, with whom he brought our author acquainted. -From Berlin he went to Wittenberg, where he plied his studies with great diligence, and took the degree of master, but remained only one year, and then returned to Berlin. At Berlin he undertook the literary article for the periodical publication of Voss, in which employment he both wrote and translated a great variety of pieces, and formed several plans which were never executed. Among others, he agreed with Mendelsohn to write a journal, under the title of "The-best from bad Books :" with the motto taken from St. Ambrose, "Legimus aliqua ne legantur." "We read some books to save others the trouble.' In 1755, he went back to Leipzic, and thence set out upon a journey, in company with a young man of the name of Winkler: but this was soon interrupted, and brought on a law-suit, in which Lessing came off conqueror. He now, in order to please his sister, translated "Law's serious Call," which was finished and published by Mr. Weisse. At the beginning of 1759, Lessing went again to Berlin, where he very much addicted himself to gaming. This has been attributed to his situation at Breslaw, where he was in the seven years war for some time in quality of secretary to general Tauenzien. Even the care for his health was conducive to it. "Were I able to play calmly," said he, "I would not play at all; but it is not without reason that I play with eagerness. The vehement agitation sets my clogged machine in motion, by forcing the fluids into circulation; it frees me from a bodily torment, to which I am often subject." His intimate friends His intimate friends among the learned at Breslaw were Arletius and Klose. Here he was attacked by a violent fever. Though he suffered much from the disease, yet he declared that his greatest torment arose from the conversations of his physician, old Dr. Morgenbesser, which he could scarcely endure when he was well. When the fever was at its height, he lay perfectly quiet, with great significance in his looks. This so much struck his friend standing by the bed, that he familiarly asked him what he was thinking of? "I am curious to know what will pass in my mind when I am in the act of dying.” Being told that was impossible, he abruptly replied: "You want to cheat me." On the day of his reception into the order of free-masons at Hamburgh, one of his friends, a zealous free-mason, took him aside into an adjoining room, and asked him, "Is it not true, now, that you find nothing among us against the government, religion, or morals ?" "Yes," answered Lessing, with great vivacity, "would to heaven I had! I should then at least have found something!" The extent of his genius must be gathered from his numerous writings. Mendelsohn said of him in a letter to his brother, shortly after his death, that he was advanced at least a century before the age in which he lived. In 1762, he accompanied his general to the siege of Schweidnitz; but after the peace, he was introduced to the king of Prussia, and then resumed his literary occupations at Berlin. Though he produced many works, yet they were not the source of much profit, and, in 1769, his circumstances were so narrow, that he was obliged to sell his library for support. At this critical juncture he met with a generous patron in Leopold, heir-apparent to the duke of Brunswick, through whose means he was appointed librarian at Wolfenbuttle. One of the fruits of this very desirable situation was a periodical publication, entitled "Contributions to Literary History," containing notices and extracts of the most remarkable MSS. The Contributions" were made the vehicle of "Fragments of an anonymous Writer discovered in the Library at Wolfenbuttle," which consisted of direct attacks upon the Christian revelation. They occasioned a great commotion among the German theologians, and would not have been printed but for the interference of prince Leopold with the licensers of the press. In 1778 they were suppressed. Lessing, from his rising fame, and connection with prince Leopold, with whom he went on a tour to Italy, was so distinguished among the German literati, that several potentates of that country made him offers of an advantageous settlement. |