MENDELSSOHN, MOSES, an eminent German philosopher, was b. Sept. 7, 1729, at Dessau. From his father, a Jewish schoolmaster and scribe, he received his first edu cation; and in his 13th year proceeded to Berlin, where, amid very indigent circum stances, he contrived.to learn Latin and modern languages, and to apply hitnself to the study of philosophy, into which early readings, chiefly of Mainionides's _Horeb Nebuckint, had initiated him already. After many years of comparative indigence he became the partner of a rich silk-manufacturer, whose children he had educated. The intimate friend of men like Lessing, Sulzer, Nicolai, he, directly and indirectly, contributed in a vast degree to the extermination of the brutal prejudices against the Jews, and the dis graceful laN3;'s with respect to them. On the other hand, he acted in the most benen. cial manner on his own co-religionists, by rousing theni from the mental apathy with which they reg,arded in his day all that had not a distinct reference to religion, and by waging fierce war against their own religious and other prejudices. He was also. on account of his immense influence upon them, called another Moses. He died Jan. 4, 1786, and Ramier wrote the following epitaph on him: " True to the religion of his fore fathers, wise as Socrates, teaching immortality-, and becoming immortal like Socrates."
His principal works are, Pope, ein Metaphysiker (with Lessing) (Dan. 1755); Briefe iiber die Empfindungen (Berl. 1764); Deber die Eviclenz der Netaphysh(chen Wissensehaften, a prize essay of the Berlin academy, which thereupon unanimously resolved to elect him a member of their body;. Frederick the great, however, crenerally prejudiced against the Jews, struck his name off the list; Phaedon, oder Abe; Unsterblichkeit der Seele (Berl. 1767) a dialogue in the manner of Plato; Jerusalm, oder libel. religilise _Yacht des Aden Mums (Berl. 1783), chiefly in answer to Lavater's obtnisive, sometimes even offensively worded arguments, by which lie intended to convert Mendelssolin to Christianity, or to prove that he was a Christian alreadv. Further, 3forgenstanden (Berl. conversations with his children and' friends, chiefly in refutation of Pantheism and Spinozism. Besides many other smaller Hebrew and German essays, contributions to the Ilibliothek der sehonsen Wissenschnften, edited by Lessing (to whom, in a manner, lie furnished the prototype to his Nathan tier Weise), etc., his translation of the Pentateuch and the Psalms deserves a prominent place. IIis works have been ceSlleeted and edited. by G. B. Mendelssolin (Leip., 1843-45, 7 vols.).