ke Luther, he was true to every conviction, and did not shrink from
its expression. Like Luther, he could have said, "I was born to fight
with devils and storms, and hence it is that my writings are so
boisterous and stormy." Like Luther, he became the founder of a new
religion and of a new German literature. And again, like Luther, his
life labours were not for Germany alone, but spread over all Europe;
and few of us know how much of our present culture we owe directly or
indirectly to Lessing's influence.

In this country he has not been sufficiently known. Up to the present,
his name has been familiar to Englishmen only as the author of the
'Laokoon,' 'Nathan the Wise,' and, possibly also, of 'Minna von
Barnhelm.' In knowing these, we certainly know the names of some of his
masterpieces, but we cannot thence deduce the entire cause of the man's
far-spreading influence.

Fully to understand Lessing's influence, and fully to understand the
bearing of his works, some slight previous acquaintance with German
literature is absolutely requisite. For unless we comprehend the source
whence an author's inspirations have sprung, we may often misconceive
his views. And Lessing's writings, above all, essentially sprang from
the needs of his time. The subject is a large one, and can only be
briefly indicated here; but we venture to remark, for those whose
interest may be aroused in the subject of this volume, that the fuller
their knowledge of the man and the motive force that evoked his works,
the keener will be their enjoyment of these works themselves.

In naming Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller, we utter the three greatest
names that German literature can boast. And between the three runs a
connecting link of endeavour; the efforts of none can be conceived
without the efforts of the others; but Lessing was the leader. He was
the mental pathfinder who smoothed the way for Goethe's genius, and
prepared the popular understanding for Schiller, the poetical
interpreter of Kant.

Lessing was born in the early years of the eighteenth century, at a
time therefore when Germany may be said practically to have had no
literature. For the revival of learning, the interest in letters that
arose with the Reformation, and had been fostered by the emancipating
spirit of Protestantism, had been blighted and extinguished by the
terrible wars that ravaged the country for thirty years, impoverishing
the people, destroying the homesteads and farm