guished by external influences. Of that quiet
self-respect which we look for in a good and highly educated man,
little is as yet to be seen. Money and outward honour still exercise
too great a power even over the most upright Gellert, who was a pattern
to his contemporaries of tender feeling and unselfishness, when a
professor at Leipzig, was joyfully surprised that a foreign nobleman
from Silesia, whom he did not personally know, but with whom he had
once exchanged a few letters, offered his mother a yearly pension of
twelve ducats. In his answer the assurance of tears of gratitude did
not fail. He never felt a scruple in accepting sums of money from
persons unknown to him. And one may venture to maintain that in 1750,
throughout the whole of Germany, there was scarcely a man, even among
the best, who would have refused an anonymous present.

When Frederick William the First called upon the professors of his
University at Frankfort, to engage in a public disputation with his
reader, Morgenstein, who stood on the lecturer's platform in a
grotesque attire, with a fox's brush by his side, no one dared to
gainsay the tyrannical whim, except Johann Jacob Moser, who considered
himself in the relation of a stranger to the Brandenburgers, and
preserved the proud consciousness of being in high consideration in the
Imperial Court. And even he was so excited by the occurrence, that
he fell dangerously ill. Where there exists such a deficiency of
self-respect in men engaged in the struggle of life, their vanity grows
exuberantly. It so clouded the minds of most men of that period, that
but few leave an agreeable impression behind them; and it was no wonder
that only the strongest were free from it. Men were sentimental and
sensitive; it was a matter of decorum to pay compliments; respect for
truth was less than now, and the necessity for politeness greater. He
who exercised an influence on others by his intellectual labours, or by
his own powers had won consideration in his sphere, was accustomed to
receive much praise and honour, and missed it if withdrawn. He who had
no rank or title, had acquired no office in the State, and did not
enjoy the privileges of a superior position, was recklessly crushed and
oppressed. Not merit, but the approbation of influential persons was of
value; not learning alone availed with publishers and readers: a
position at the University, and a great circle of auditors who bought
and spread the works o