were riper. He
published several volumes of his writings. They contained treatises
composed at Wittenberg, Rehabilitations (_Rettungen_) of distinguished
men, whom he held the world had maligned, as well as several plays,
among which were the 'Jews,' 'The Woman-hater,' 'The Freethinker,' 'The
Treasure,' as well as the fragmentary play 'Samuel Henzi,' a novel
attempt to treat of modern historical incidents on the stage. A
somewhat savage attack, entitled 'Vade mecum,' in which he criticised
unsparingly a certain Pastor Lange's rendering of 'Horace,' drew upon
Lessing the attention of the learned world, and since he was in the
right in his strictures, they regarded him with mingled fear and
admiration. His renewed criticisms in Voss's _Gazette_ further
maintained his reputation as a redoubtable critic.

These were happy, hopeful years in Lessing's life; he enjoyed his work,
and it brought him success. He had, moreover, formed some of the
warmest friendships of his life with the bookseller Nicolai and the
philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. With the former he discoursed on English
literature, with the latter, on aesthetic and metaphysical themes. Their
frequent reunions were sources of mental refreshment and invigoration
to all three. What cared Lessing that his resources were meagre, he
could live, and his father was growing more reconciled now that men of
established repute lauded his son's works. Together with Mendelssohn,
Lessing wrote an essay on a theme propounded by the Berlin Academy,
'Pope a Metaphysician!' that did not obtain the prize, as it ridiculed
the learned body which had proposed a ridiculous theme, but it
attracted notice.

In the year 1755 Lessing wrote 'Miss Sara Sampson,' a play that marks
an epoch in his life and in German literature. It was the first German
attempt at domestic drama, and was, moreover, written in prose instead
of in the fashionable Alexandrines. The play was acted that same year
at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and Lessing went to superintend in person.
Its success was immense, and revived Lessing's love for the stage,
which had rather flagged at Berlin from want of a theatre there. He
accordingly resolved on this account to remove to Leipzig again, and
disappeared from Berlin without announcing his intention to his
friends.

At Leipzig he once more lived among the comedians, and carried on a
lively correspondence with Mendelssohn on the philosophical theories of
the drama in general, with