LESSING’S “Nathan the Wise” might have remained the favorite drama of Germany, if Goethe and Schiller had not written after him; and, in spite of them and of their works as critics in the same field, his “Laocoon” keeps its place above all other critical writings of modern times, occupying for modern times the same place of unquestionable pre-eminence that is conceded to Longinus “On the Sublime,” among classical writers on related subjects. Its purpose was to define the nature, the principles, and the scope of sculpture, painting, and poetry, as modes of expressing human thought and emotion. His familiarity with the great classical poets was so intimate that his knowledge of plastic and graphic art, as well as of poetic, seems to be due chiefly to their teachings or to suggestions from their principles. His illustrations are so largely based on classical verse that ideas which cannot fail to be stimulating to all can be wholly intelligible only to those who will consent to share his enthusiasm for the great masters from whom his education was so largely derived.

  He was born at Kamenz, in Upper Lusatia, January 22d, 1729. His father, who was a clergyman, sent him to Leipsic to study theology; but it is said that Lessing devoted his time largely to the theatre and the drama instead of to his text-books. The result was his first comedy, “The Young Scholar,” which was produced in 1748,—giving great offense to his parents, who concluded that he was neglecting his studies and took him away from the University. He returned and took up the study of medicine, but soon afterwards left the University for Berlin, where he supported himself by writing until 1751. He then entered the University of Wittenberg to complete his studies. Taking his degree of Master and returning to Berlin, he began the brilliant career which made him one of the greatest names in the literature in Germany. As a poet he is attractive, as a writer of fables he is a friend of successive generations of the young in and out of Germany; as the author of “Minna von Barnhelm,” “Emilia Galotti,” and “Nathan the Wise,” he is secure in his place as one of the favorite dramatists of Germany, and as a critic he has given the world in his “Laocoon” a work so great that it redeems criticism from the reproach of negation and almost gives it a place as one of the creative arts. Lessing belonged to the great period of intellectual development in Germany which rescued the country from the domination of Parisian taste in art and literature, thus making possible Goethe,—the only Gothic writer who can rank with Shakespeare. At Lessing’s death, February 15th, 1781, Germany already had full assurance of Goethe as the greatest Teutonic genius of modern times; but it is no exaggeration to say that the “Faust” does not give fuller play to the genius of the Teutonic peoples for poetry than the “Laocoon” does to what is their not less characteristic genius for criticism.