ERNST KUNO BERTHOLD FISCHER, one of the most distinguished German thinkers of the nineteenth century, was born at Sandewalde, Silesia, July 23d, 1824. His “History of Modern Philosophy,” 1852–77, won him the respect of thinkers both in Europe and America. It is a work of deep and varied learning, especially notable among books of its class for the lucidity of its style and the clearness of its definitions,—illustrated when he defines the desire for salvation as “the desire for freedom from our own worldly and selfish nature” and identifies it as the master motive both of philosophy and religion. His earliest work as a philosophical teacher was done at Heidelberg, but in 1853 he was “silenced” by the authorities of that university. He taught at Berlin and Jena until 1872, when he generously accepted an invitation from Heidelberg to return and fill its chair of Philosophy. Among his writings are “Diotima, the Idea of the Beautiful,” “Lessing’s ‘Nathan, the Wise,’” and “Spinoza’s Life and Character.” His greatest work, “The History of Modern Philosophy,” is notable in its art of construction as in its style. It is a series of “monographs” or essays, each complete individually, while all support and complement each other.