In 1757 he and his friends Mendelssohn and Nicolai undertook the Bibliothek der Schonen Wissenschaften: which may fairly be said to have been the best literary journal Germany could then boast, and even now it may be referred to with both pleasure and profit for the valuable information and pieces of criticism which it contains. To this period, from 1753 to 1760, during which he resided at Berlin, belong his ' Fables' and his ' Litteraturbriefe: or ' Letters on Litera ture' (1759), a life of Sophocles, after the manner of Basile, and e translation of Diderot'e dramatic' pieces. From 1760 to 1765 Breslau was hie residence, he having accepted the appointment of government secretary to General Von Tauenzien. Here he found himself quite in a new sphere, very advantageous in some respects but in others the reverse; for, greatly to the astonishment of all, he began to addict himself to play with an eagerness quite at variance with a philosophical temperament. If he seldom auflered In pocket, being generally sue cessful at the faro-table, he probably suffered in health, for such was his agitation even while winning, that the perspiration would dros from his forehead. Ile did not however neglect his studies and hii pen, but employed the latter on several antiquarian and literary subjects and topics of criticism.
At length he gave up faro and his appointment ; returned to Berlin, and the following year published his celebrated 'Lace:mon,' the most finished of his prose works, although In itself incomplete. The follow ing year was marked by another literary triumph, namely, his ' Minna von Baroholm: and the succeeding one by his ' Dramaturgie ' and the 'Antiquarische Briefe.' After this be was preparing to put into execution his long-meditated journey to Italy, when his friend Ebert obtained for him the situation of keeper at the Wolfenbiittel Library (1770), of which celebrated and extensive collection, comprising about 10,000 manuscripts, and 200,000 printed volumes, he published an account entitled ' Wolfenbiittelscheu Fregmente: 1773. Ills 'Emilia
Galotti,' which, after long remaining in an unfinished state, was com pleted and published in 1772, has been criticised as manifesting more of psychological study than of poetical impulse. Hie last drama, 'Nathan,' which was translated many years ago by the late William Taylor of Norwich, was also almost the last of all his literary pro ductions. From that time, 1779, his health and spirits visibly declined very fast ; he became subject to attacks of somnolency in such a degree that he was unable to rouse himself, or even keep awake iu the society of his moat agreeable friends; thus affording another striking iostance of great mental power succeeded by complete exhaustion, and that prematurely, for he had entered only into his fifty-third year when he died, February 15, 1781.
Few writers who have written so much have written so carefully ; and considered with regard to style alone Lessing's works had a most beneficial influence upon German literature. Among them are several masterpieces of various kinds, including his admirable Fables ; yet it is not so much for these as for what he did for their literature gene rally that his countrymen are indebted to him. Ile was the first to bestow upon it those graces and those aesthetic qualities in which it had till then been deficient.
His brother KARL Gorruesr LESarxa (born 10th July 1740), who published his biography and some posthumous pieces, in 1793, wrote several comedies, which, although now almost forgotten, were not without merit for their humour and liveliness and also exhibited considerable dramatio taleot.