Let him assist its might
With gentleness, forbearance, love of peace,
And with sincere submission to his God!
With gentleness, forbearance, love of peace,
And with sincere submission to his God!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v15 - Kab to Les
If you condemn them, I shall suspect your Christianity;
if you approve of them, I shall question your taste. ”]
THUNDER
Hº
.
O, FRIENDS! it thunders! Let us drink!
Fill up the bowl! For what care we?
Let hypocrites and villains shrink,
And minions bend the servile knee!
It thunders! drain the glasses dry!
Nor start like women with affright:
Just Jove may lash the sea-surge high,
His nectar he will never smite.
BENEFITS
'En if a vicious man were like a leaky vat,
That wastes what it receives, pour in, for all of that!
If vat and man are not in too decrepit plight,
Keep pouring in thy gifts! How soon a crack soaks tight!
E
ON MR. R
*
THA
WHAT you're a poet, sir, I'm very glad;
But are you nothing more? Ah! that's too bad.
* Probably Karl Wilhelm Ramler,
## p. 9011 (#651) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9011
FROM (NATHAN THE WISE)
SALAD
ALADIN
Draw nearer, Jew! Still nearer! Close to me,
And have no fear!
Nathan
Let that be for thy foe!
Saladin Thy name is Nathan.
Nathan
Yes.
Saladin
Nathan the Wise ?
Nathan No.
Saladin
Well! if not by thee thyself so called,
The people call thee so.
Nathan
Maybe, the people.
Saladin Thou dost not think, forsooth, that I
The people's voice do scornfully disdain ?
Indeed, I have long wished to know the man
The people call the Wise.
Nathan -
What if they mean
By wise that he is only shrewd, and knows
His own advantage craftily to gain ?
Saladin His true advantage meanest thou thereby ?
Nathan Then the most selfish were the shrewdest too;
Then were indeed “crafty” and “wise” the same.
Saladin - I hear thee prove what thou wouldst contradict.
Man's truest gain, which people do not know,
Thou knowest or at least hast sought to know;
This thou hast pondered, and 'tis this alone
That makes man wise.
Nathan
And which each deems himself
To be.
Saladin
And now of modesty enough!
To hear it evermore, where one expects
Dry reason, sickens.
[He springs up.
To the matter now!
But be honest, yes, be honest!
Nathan –
Sultan,
It surely is my wish to serve thee so,
That worthy of thy further custom I
May still remain.
Saladin
To serve me ? how?
Nathan
The best
Of all shalt thou receive, and have it at
The fairest price.
## p. 9012 (#652) ###########################################
9012
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Saladin
What dost thou speak of, Jew?
Not of thy wares! The chafferer with thee
Shall be my sister. [Aside: That for the eavesdropper. ]
With thee as merchant have I naught to do.
Nathan Then doubtless thou thyself would'st know what I
Have on my journey, of the foe, who seems
To stir again, observed or happened on?
If plainly I-
Saladin
That too is not my drift
With thee. Of that I know already what
I require. - In short-
Nathan -
Command me, Sultan.
Saladin — In something else that's wholly different
I now desire thy teaching. –Since thou art
So wise, pray tell me once what faith, what law
Has seemed to thee most genuine.
Nathan -
Sultan,
I am a Jew.
Saladin
And I a Mussulman.
Between us is the Christian. Of these three
Religions, one alone can be the true.
A man like thee remains not standing there,
Where merely chance of birth has cast his lot;
Or if he there remain, then he remains
Through insight, reason, or through better choice.
Come now, impart to me thy insight, let
Me hear the reasons which I've lacked the time
Minutely to examine. Let me know-
Of course in strictest confidence – the grounds
That have availed to fix thy final choice,
That I may make it mine. How? Thou dost start?
Dost weigh me with thy eye? It may well be
That I'm the first of Sultans who e'er had
A whim like this, which yet methinks is not
Unworthy of a Sultan. — Is't not so ?
Give answer! Speak! Or wishest thou to have
A moment to reflect? I give it thee.
Reflect, quickly reflect. I shall return
Without delay.
[Retires to an adjoining room. ]
Nathan -
Hm! hm! How very strange!
How dazed I am! What does the Sultan want?
What? I thought 'twas money, and he wishes — Truth.
## p. 9013 (#653) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9013
And wishes it cash down and unalloyed,
As though 'twere coin — yes, ancient coin that's weighed.
And that perhaps might do; but coin so new,
Which by the stamp alone is made to pass,
And may be counted out upon the board, -
That it is surely not. Can truth be put
Into the head like coin into a bag ?
Who then is here the Jew? Is't I or he?
How then ? If he in truth demand the truth?
For the distrust that he employs the truth
But as a trap, would be too mean! Too mean?
And what then for a magnate is too mean?
He rushed into the house and burst the door,
'Tis true — people should knock and listen first,
If they approach as friends. I must proceed
With care. But how? To be a downright Jew
Will never do. And not to be at all
A Jew, will do still less. If I'm no Jew,
Might he then ask why not a Mussulman?
That's it! That can save me! Not children only
Are fed with tales. - He comes. Well, let him come.
Saladin returns
Saladin
[Aside — Here then the field is clear. ] I've not returned
Too soon for thee? Are thy reflections ended ?
If so, speak out. There's none that hears us here.
Nathan -- Would the whole world might hear us.
Saladin
Is Nathan
So certain of his cause? Ha! that I call
A wise man! never to conceal the truth!
For it to hazard all — body and life,
Estate and blood!
Nathan
If it be needful, yes!
Or be of use.
Saladin -
Henceforth then I may hope
That I rightly bear one of my titles:
“Reformer of the world and of the law. ”
Nathan - Faith, 'tis a splendid title; yet before,
O Sultan, I may quite confide in thee,
Permit me to relate a tale.
Saladin -
Why not?
I'm always fond of tales if they're well told.
Nathan - To tell them well is not my strongest point.
Saladin — Again so proudly modest ? Make haste! the tale!
- - - -
## p. 9014 (#654) ###########################################
9014
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
-
Nathan In olden times a man lived in the East,
Who from a loving hand possessed a ring
Of priceless worth. An opal was the stone,
In which a hundred brilliant colors played,
And which the hidden virtue also had
Of making him who wore it, in this trust,
Pleasing to God and well beloved by man.
What wonder then that this man in the East
The ring upon his finger always kept,
And so disposed that it should be for aye
An heirloom in his house ? He left the ring
Bequeathed unto the dearest of his sons,
Ordaining that he too the ring should leave
To that one of his sons whom he most loved,
And that this dearest one, without regard
To birth, by virtue of the ring alone
Should ever be the house's head and prince.
Thou understandest, Sultan ?
Saladin
Yes; go on!
Nathan — Thus the ring came, from son to son, at last
To one who was the father of three sons,
Who all alike were dutiful to him,
And all of whom he therefore could not help
But love alike. Only from time to time
Now this one, now the other, now the third -
As each might chance to be alone with him,
And his effusive heart the other two
Did not divide — seemed worthier of the ring,
Which through fond weakness he'd to each of them
Promised in turn. Thus it went on as long
As it would do. But when he neared his death,
The kindly father was most sore perplexed.
It gave him pain to grieve two of his sons,
Who on his word relied. What should he do?
In secret to a jeweler he sends,
And orders him to make two other rings
According to the pattern of the first.
And bids him spare nor cost nor toil, that they
May prove to be alike and just like it.
The jeweler in this succeeds so well,
That when he brings the rings, the model ring
Not e'en the father longer can discern.
With joy he calls his sons, each one apart,
And gives to each his blessing and his ring -
And dies. Thou hear'st me, Sultan?
## p. 9015 (#655) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9015
Saladin (who has turned away astonished] -
Yes, I hear!
Make haste and bring thy story to an end.
Will it be
Nathan
Already I have ended;
For what is still to follow, comes of course.
Scarce was the father dead, when each son comes
And brings his ring, and each would of the house
Be lord. They search, they quarrel, they accuse:
In vain; the right ring could not now be proved, —
[After a pause, in which he awaits the Sultan's answer]
Almost as little as to us can be
The right belief.
Saladin
How so? And that shall be
The answer to my question ?
Nathan
It shall serve
Merely as my excuse, if I presume
Not to discriminate between the rings
The father ordered made with the intent
That they should indiscriminate remain.
Saladin — The rings! Sport not with me! I should have thought
That the religions, which I named to thee,
Were easy to distinguish, e'en to dress
And e'en to meat and drink.
Nathan
But only not
As to the grounds on which they're thought to rest.
For are they not all based on history,
Traditional or written? And history
Must be received on trust – is it not so ?
In whom now are we likeliest to trust ?
In our own people, surely; in those men
Whose blood we are, and who from infancy
Have proved their love and never us deceived,
Unless 'twere wholesomer to be deceived.
How can I my forefathers less believe
Than thou dost thine? Or on the other hand,
Can ask of thee to say thy fathers lied,
In order not to contradict my own?
The same is true of Christians — is it not?
Saladin (aside]—
Now by the living God, the man is right,
And I'm struck dumb.
Nathan
Now to our rings let us
Return. As I have said, the sons brought suit
Against each other, and before the judge
## p. 9016 (#656) ###########################################
9016
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Each truly swore that he'd received the ring
Directly from his father's hand, and swore
Not the less true — that also long before
He had by him been solemnly assured
That he one day the ring's prerogative
Should certainly enjoy. And each declared
The father ne'er could have been false to him.
Ere such a loving father he'd suspect,
He'd sooner charge his brothers with foul play,
Though hitherto of them the very best
He always had been ready to believe;
And now he wished to find the traitors out,
That he might on them be avenged.
Saladin
And now
The judge? I long to hear what thou wilt make
The judge reply. Relate!
Nathan
The judge spoke thus:-
“If you the father cannot soon produce,
Then I dismiss you from my judgment-seat.
Think you that to solve riddles I sit here?
Or wait you till the right ring opes its mouth?
Yet stay! I hear the right ring doth possess
The magic power of making one beloved,
To God and man well pleasing. That alone
Must now decide. For surely the false rings
Will fail in that. Now whom love two of you
The most ? Make haste and speak! Why are you mute?
Is't only inward that the rings do work,
Not outward ? Does each one love himself the most ?
Deceived deceivers are you then all three!
And of your rings all three are not the true.
Presumably the true ring being lost,
The father to conceal or to repair
The loss had three rings made for one. ”
Saladin
Grand! grand!
Nathan - And thereupon the judge went on to say:-
“If you'll, instead of sentence, take advice,
This is my counsel: Let the matter rest
Just as it lies. If each of you has had
A ring presented by his father, then
Let each believe his own the genuine ring.
'Tis possible the father did not wish
To suffer any longer in his house
The one ring's tyranny! And certainly,
## p. 9017 (#657) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9017
As he all three did love, and all alike,
He would not willingly oppress the two
To favor one. Well, then! Let each one strive
To imitate that love, so pure and free
From prejudice! Let each one vie with each
In showing forth the virtue of the stone
That's in his ring!
Let him assist its might
With gentleness, forbearance, love of peace,
And with sincere submission to his God!
And if the virtues of the stones remain,
And in your children's children prove their power,
After a thousand years have passed
Let them appear again before this seat.
A wiser man than I will then sit here
And speak. Depart! ) Thus said the modest judge.
ON LOVE OF TRUTH
From "Eine Duplik)
I
KNOW not whether it be a duty to offer up fortune and life
to the truth: certainly the courage and resolution necessary
to such a sacrifice are not gifts which we can bestow upon
ourselves. But I know it is a duty, if one undertake to teach
the truth, to teach the whole of it or none at all, to teach it
clearly and roundly, without enigmas or reserves, and with per-
fect confidence in its efficacy and utility; and the gifts required
for such a decision are in our power. Whoever will not acquire
these, or when acquired will not use them, shows that he has
a very poor opinion of the human intellect; and he deserves to
lose the confidence of his hearers, who, while he frees them from
some gross errors, yet withholds the entire truth, and thinks to
satisfy them by a compromise with falsehood. For the greater
the error, the shorter and straighter the way to the truth. On
the other hand, subtle error can prevent our recognition of its
nature, and forever blind us to the truth.
The man who is faithless to Truth in threatening dangers,
may yet love her much; and Truth forgives him his infidelity
for the sake of his love. But whosoever thinks of prostituting
Truth under all sorts of masks and rouge, may indeed be her
pimp, but he has never been her lover.
## p. 9018 (#658) ###########################################
9018
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Not the truth of which any one is, or supposes himself to be,
possessed, but the upright endeavor he has made to arrive at
truth, makes the worth of the man. For not by the possession
but by the pursuit of truth are his powers expanded, wherein
alone his ever-growing perfection consists. Possession makes us
easy, indolent, proud.
If God held all truth shut in his right hand, and in his left
nothing but the ever-restless search after truth, although with
the condition of for ever and ever erring, and should say to
me, "Choose! ” I should bow humbly to his left hand and say,
“Father, give! pure truth is for Thee alone! ”
THE MEANING OF HERESY
W***
is called a heretic has a very good side.
It is a man
who wishes to see with his own eyes. The only question
is whether he has good eyes. In certain ages the name
of heretic is the best title that a scholar can transmit to poster-
ity; far better than that of sorcerer, magian, exorcist, for these
serve to conceal many an impostor.
THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE
WT.
2.
That education is to the individual, revelation is to the whole
human race.
Education is revelation which is given to the individual;
revelation is education which has been and is still given to the
human race.
3.
Whether education, regarded from this point of view,
can be of any use in pedagogics, I will not discuss here; but in
theology it can surely be of very great use and remove many
difficulties, if revelation can be conceived of as an education of
the human race.
4. Education does not give to man anything which he could
not acquire of himself, but only gives it to him more quickly and
more easily. So too revelation does not give anything to the
human race which human reason, if left to itself, would not at-
tain; but it has given and still gives the most important of these
things earlier.
## p. 9019 (#659) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9019
5.
As in education it is not a matter of indifference in what
order the powers of the individual are developed, and as it can-
not impart to him everything at once, so God in his revelation
must observe a certain order and due moderation.
6. If the first man were immediately provided with the
conception of one God, it would be impossible for the concep-
tion thus communicated and not acquired to preserve its original
purity. As soon as human reason left to itself began to act upon
it, it would divide the one infinite into several finites and give to
each a designation.
7. It was thus that polytheism and idolatry naturally arose.
And who knows how many millions of years human reason might
have wandered in these erring ways, although some individuals
in all lands and at all times knew them to be erring ways, if it
had not pleased God by a new impulse to give it a better direc-
tion ?
8. But since God could not or would not reveal himself
any longer to each single individual, he chose a single people for
special education, the rudest and most uncivilized, in order to
train it from the very beginning.
[Paragraphs 9 to 52 show how monotheism, or the doctrine of one God,
was revealed to the Jews, and this moral education promoted by a system of
temporal rewards and punishments, according as they obeyed or transgressed
the commands of the Almighty. But when the Hebrew Bible, as an ele-
mentary hornbook, became gradually unsuited to the growing intellect of the
children of Israel, their teachers the Rabbins resorted to mystical and alle-
gorical interpretations, and forced new ideas into the text wholly foreign to
their original meaning. This course of instruction warped the mind of the
pupil, making him petty, crafty, captious, fond of subtleties and sophistries,
and incapable of seeing things in their true light-in short, cabalistic and
superstitious. ]
53. It was therefore necessary for a better teacher to come
and snatch the obsolete primer from the hands of the child.
Christ came.
[In paragraphs 54-77, Lessing discusses the tenets of this new teacher and
his disciples, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the dogmas of
the Trinity, of Original Sin, and of the Atonement; and arrives at the con-
clusion that “the development of real truths into truths of the reason is abso-
lutely necessary if they are to be of any help to the human race. ”]
78. It is not true that speculations concerning these things
have ever wrought mischief or been hurtful to civil society.
## p. 9020 (#660) ###########################################
9020
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
This reproach should be made, not to the speculations themselves,
but to the folly and tyranny that would hinder these speculations
and grudge to men the free exercise of their thoughts.
79. On the contrary, such speculations, however they may
result in individual cases, are incontestably the fittest exercises
of the human mind, so long as the human heart is at most only
capable of loving virtue for the sake of its consequences in con-
ferring eternal happiness.
80. For since this selfishness of the human heart exists, the
desire to exercise the mind exclusively on that which concerns
our physical necessities would tend rather to dull it than to
sharpen it. The mind must in sooth be exercised on intellect-
ual objects, if it is to attain its full illumination and produce
that purity of heart which makes us capable of loving virtue for
its own sake.
81. Or shall the human race never attain this highest degree
of enlightenment and purity? Never ?
82. Never ? Let me not be guilty of such blasphemy even
in my thoughts, All-gracious One! Education has its purpose in
the race not less than in the individual. What is educated, is
educated for something.
83. The flattering prospects which are offered to the youth,
the honor and prosperity which are pictured to him,- what are
these but means of training him up to be a man who will be
able to do his duty, even when these prospects of honor and
prosperity fail!
84. This is the aim of human education, and may not divine
education attain as much ? What art succeeds in doing with the
individual, shall not nature succeed in doing with the whole ?
Blasphemy! Blasphemy! [In other words, it is blasphemy to
doubt this. ]
85. No! it will come, it will surely come, the time of perfect
development: when man, the more firmly he feels convinced of
an ever better future, will have less need of borrowing from this
future the motives of his actions; when he will do good because
it is good, not because he expects arbitrary rewards, which were
formerly designed merely to fix and strengthen his inconstant
recognition of the inner and better rewards of virtue.
86. It will surely come, the time of a new, eternal gospel,
which is promised us even in the elementary books of the New
Covenant.
## p. 9021 (#661) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9021
94. Why may not each individual have already existed once
in this world ?
95. Is this hypothesis so absurd because it is the oldest, or
because the human mind hit upon it before the mental powers
had been dissipated and weakened by the sophistry of the schools ?
96. Why may not I already have taken all the steps towards
perfection which mere temporal rewards and punishments can
induce man to take ?
97. And why not again all those which the prospects of
eternal reward so strongly aid us to perform?
98. Why should I not return as often as I am fitted to
acquire new knowledge and new capacities? Do I take away
with me so much at once that it is perhaps not worth the while
to come again ?
99. Or because I forget that I have been here? Well for
me that I forget it! The remembrance of my former state would
permit me to make only a poor use of the present. And what I
must forget now, have I forgotten it forever?
Or because too much time would thereby be lost to me?
Lost ? What have I then to lose? Is not all eternity mine?
100.
THE DIFFERING SPHERES OF POETRY AND PAINTING
From Laocoön)
I
F it be true that painting uses for its imitations wholly differ-
ent means or signs from poetry, - namely, forms and colors
in space instead of articulate tones in time,-if it be incon-
testable that these signs must bear a suitable relation to the
thing signified, then coexistent signs can represent only coexistent
objects, and successive signs only successive objects.
Coexistent objects are called bodies; consequently bodies with
their visible attributes are the proper objects of painting.
Successive objects are called in general actions; consequently
actions are the proper objects of poetry.
Bodies exist, however, not only in space, but also in time.
They continue, and at every moment of their duration appear
differently and in different relations to each other. Each of
these momentary appearances and relations is the effect of a pre-
ceding and can be the cause of a succeeding one, and therefore
the centre of an action; consequently painting can imitate actions,
but only suggestively through bodies.
## p. 9022 (#662) ###########################################
9022
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
use
On the other hand, actions cannot exist in themselves, but
must inhere in certain beings. So far as these beings are bodies
or are regarded as bodies, poetry describes bodies, but only sug-
gestively through actions.
Painting can use in its coexistent compositions only a single
moment of the action; and must therefore choose the most preg-
nant one, which will render what precedes and follows most
comprehensible.
In like manner poetry in its progressive imitations can
only a single property of bodies; and must therefore choose the
one that awakens the most sensible image of the body, for the
purpose to which it is to be put.
Hence the rule of singleness in picturesque epithets and of
frugality in descriptions of material objects.
I should have less confidence in this dry deduction, if it were
not fully confirmed by the practice of Homer; or if it were not
rather the practice of Homer, from which I have derived it. The
grand style of the Greeks can be determined and elucidated only
by these principles, which are also justified by the opposite style
of so many modern poets, who wish to vie with the painter in
provinces in which they are necessarily surpassed by him.
Homer has usually but one stroke for one thing. A ship is
to him now the black ship, now the hollow ship, now the swift
ship, at most the well-rowed black ship. Further than this he
does not indulge in any word-painting of the ship. But he
makes a minute picture of the starting, the sailing, or the landing
of the ship; a picture from which the painter who wishes to put
it all on canvas would be obliged to make half a dozen pictures.
THE LIMITATIONS OF “WORD-PAINTING”
From Laocoon)
Wapplies
ones.
HAT I have been saying of corporeal objects in general
applies even more forcibly to beautiful
Physical beauty results from the harmony of a number
of parts which can be embraced in one glance. It is therefore
essential that those parts should be close together; and since
things whose parts are close together are the proper subjects of
painting, that art alone can represent physical beauty.
The poet, who can only set down one after another the
elements of the beautiful object, should therefore abstain wholly
## p. 9023 (#663) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9023
1
1
1
.
from the description of physical beauty by itself. He ought to
feel that these elements arranged in sequence cannot possibly
produce the same effect as if in juxtaposition; that the compre-
hensive glance we try to throw back over them at the end of the
enumeration produces no harmonious picture; and that it tran-
scends the power of human imagination to realize the effect of
a given pair of eyes, a given nose, and a given mouth together,
unless we can call to mind a like combination in nature or art.
Here again Homer is the model of models. He says — Nireus
was handsome; Achilles was very handsome; Helen was of god-
like beauty. But he is nowhere enticed into giving a minuter
detail of their beauties. Yet the whole poem is based on Helen's
loveliness. How a modern poet would have reveled in specifica-
tions of it!
Even Constantine Manasses tried to adorn his bare Chronicle
with a portrait of Helen. I feel grateful to him for the attempt;
for really I should not know where else to turn for so striking
an example of the folly of venturing on what Homer's wise judg-
ment refrained from undertaking. When I read in his book
“She was a woman passing fair, fine-browed, finest complex-
ioned,
Fine-cheeked, fine-featured, full-eyed, snowy-skinned,
Quick-glancing, dainty, a grove full of graces,
White-armed, voluptuous, breathing out frank beauty,
The complexion very fair, the cheeks rosy,
The countenance most charming, the eye blooming;
Beauty unartificial, unrouged, her own skin,
Dyed the brightest rose-color a warmer glow,
As if one stained ivory with splendid purple.
Her neck long, passing white, whence in legend
The Swan-born they termed the beautiful Helen,” –
it is like seeing stones rolled up a mountain, on whose crest they
are to be built into a noble structure, but all of which roll down
the other side. What picture does this huddle of words leave
with us? How did Helen look ? No two readers in a thousand
would have the same mental image of her.
Virgil, by imitating Homer's self-restraint, has achieved a
fair success.
His Dido is only the very beautiful (pulcherrima)
Dido. All the other details he gives refer to her rich ornaments
and superb apparel.
If on this account any one turned
against him what the old artist said to one of his pupils who had
H
1
1
1
## p. 9024 (#664) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9024
-
painted an elaborately dressed Helen,-“You have painted her
rich because you could not paint her lovely," — Virgil would
answer: “I am not to blame that I could not paint her lovely.
The fault is in the limitations of my art, and it is to my credit
that I have kept within them. ”
LESSING'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF
I
In the Concluding Number of the Hamburg Dramaturgy'
AM neither an actor nor a poet. People have honored me
occasionally with the latter title, but it is because they have
misunderstood me. The few dramatic attempts which I have
ventured upon do not justify this generosity. Not every one who
takes a brush in his hand and dabbles in colors is a painter.
The earliest of these attempts of mine were dashed off in those
years when desire and dexterity are easily mistaken for genius.
If there is anything tolerable in those of a later date, I am
conscious that I owe it all to criticism alone. I do not feel in
myself that living fountain that rises by its own strength, and by
its own force shoots up in jets so rich, so fresh, so pure! I am
obliged to press it all up out of myself with forcing-pump and
pipes. I should be so poor, so cold, and so short-sighted if I had
not learned in some measure modestly to borrow foreign treas-
ures, to warm myself at another's fire, and to strengthen my sight
with the lenses of art. I have therefore always been ashamed
and vexed when I have read or heard anything derogatory to
criticism. Criticism, it is said, stifles genius; whereas I flatter
myself I have received from it something very nearly akin to
genius. I am a lame man, who cannot be edified by a lampoon
against crutches.
Criticism, we may add, is like the crutch too in this respect, -
that it helps the cripple move from place to place, but can never
make a racer of him. If through criticism I have produced
something better than a man of my talents could have produced
without its aid, still it costs me so much time, I must be so free
from other pursuits and so uninterrupted by involuntary diver-
sions, I must have all my reading so at command, must be able
at every step so quietly to run over all the observations I have
ever made of manners and passions, that no one in the world
could be more unsuited than I, to be a worker whose task it
should be to supply a theatre with novelties.
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3,
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN
C
3 9076 00077 6190
PN
6013
W27
v. 15
Library of the world's best litera-
ture.
!
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DEARBORN CAMS WINARY
## p.
if you approve of them, I shall question your taste. ”]
THUNDER
Hº
.
O, FRIENDS! it thunders! Let us drink!
Fill up the bowl! For what care we?
Let hypocrites and villains shrink,
And minions bend the servile knee!
It thunders! drain the glasses dry!
Nor start like women with affright:
Just Jove may lash the sea-surge high,
His nectar he will never smite.
BENEFITS
'En if a vicious man were like a leaky vat,
That wastes what it receives, pour in, for all of that!
If vat and man are not in too decrepit plight,
Keep pouring in thy gifts! How soon a crack soaks tight!
E
ON MR. R
*
THA
WHAT you're a poet, sir, I'm very glad;
But are you nothing more? Ah! that's too bad.
* Probably Karl Wilhelm Ramler,
## p. 9011 (#651) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9011
FROM (NATHAN THE WISE)
SALAD
ALADIN
Draw nearer, Jew! Still nearer! Close to me,
And have no fear!
Nathan
Let that be for thy foe!
Saladin Thy name is Nathan.
Nathan
Yes.
Saladin
Nathan the Wise ?
Nathan No.
Saladin
Well! if not by thee thyself so called,
The people call thee so.
Nathan
Maybe, the people.
Saladin Thou dost not think, forsooth, that I
The people's voice do scornfully disdain ?
Indeed, I have long wished to know the man
The people call the Wise.
Nathan -
What if they mean
By wise that he is only shrewd, and knows
His own advantage craftily to gain ?
Saladin His true advantage meanest thou thereby ?
Nathan Then the most selfish were the shrewdest too;
Then were indeed “crafty” and “wise” the same.
Saladin - I hear thee prove what thou wouldst contradict.
Man's truest gain, which people do not know,
Thou knowest or at least hast sought to know;
This thou hast pondered, and 'tis this alone
That makes man wise.
Nathan
And which each deems himself
To be.
Saladin
And now of modesty enough!
To hear it evermore, where one expects
Dry reason, sickens.
[He springs up.
To the matter now!
But be honest, yes, be honest!
Nathan –
Sultan,
It surely is my wish to serve thee so,
That worthy of thy further custom I
May still remain.
Saladin
To serve me ? how?
Nathan
The best
Of all shalt thou receive, and have it at
The fairest price.
## p. 9012 (#652) ###########################################
9012
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Saladin
What dost thou speak of, Jew?
Not of thy wares! The chafferer with thee
Shall be my sister. [Aside: That for the eavesdropper. ]
With thee as merchant have I naught to do.
Nathan Then doubtless thou thyself would'st know what I
Have on my journey, of the foe, who seems
To stir again, observed or happened on?
If plainly I-
Saladin
That too is not my drift
With thee. Of that I know already what
I require. - In short-
Nathan -
Command me, Sultan.
Saladin — In something else that's wholly different
I now desire thy teaching. –Since thou art
So wise, pray tell me once what faith, what law
Has seemed to thee most genuine.
Nathan -
Sultan,
I am a Jew.
Saladin
And I a Mussulman.
Between us is the Christian. Of these three
Religions, one alone can be the true.
A man like thee remains not standing there,
Where merely chance of birth has cast his lot;
Or if he there remain, then he remains
Through insight, reason, or through better choice.
Come now, impart to me thy insight, let
Me hear the reasons which I've lacked the time
Minutely to examine. Let me know-
Of course in strictest confidence – the grounds
That have availed to fix thy final choice,
That I may make it mine. How? Thou dost start?
Dost weigh me with thy eye? It may well be
That I'm the first of Sultans who e'er had
A whim like this, which yet methinks is not
Unworthy of a Sultan. — Is't not so ?
Give answer! Speak! Or wishest thou to have
A moment to reflect? I give it thee.
Reflect, quickly reflect. I shall return
Without delay.
[Retires to an adjoining room. ]
Nathan -
Hm! hm! How very strange!
How dazed I am! What does the Sultan want?
What? I thought 'twas money, and he wishes — Truth.
## p. 9013 (#653) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9013
And wishes it cash down and unalloyed,
As though 'twere coin — yes, ancient coin that's weighed.
And that perhaps might do; but coin so new,
Which by the stamp alone is made to pass,
And may be counted out upon the board, -
That it is surely not. Can truth be put
Into the head like coin into a bag ?
Who then is here the Jew? Is't I or he?
How then ? If he in truth demand the truth?
For the distrust that he employs the truth
But as a trap, would be too mean! Too mean?
And what then for a magnate is too mean?
He rushed into the house and burst the door,
'Tis true — people should knock and listen first,
If they approach as friends. I must proceed
With care. But how? To be a downright Jew
Will never do. And not to be at all
A Jew, will do still less. If I'm no Jew,
Might he then ask why not a Mussulman?
That's it! That can save me! Not children only
Are fed with tales. - He comes. Well, let him come.
Saladin returns
Saladin
[Aside — Here then the field is clear. ] I've not returned
Too soon for thee? Are thy reflections ended ?
If so, speak out. There's none that hears us here.
Nathan -- Would the whole world might hear us.
Saladin
Is Nathan
So certain of his cause? Ha! that I call
A wise man! never to conceal the truth!
For it to hazard all — body and life,
Estate and blood!
Nathan
If it be needful, yes!
Or be of use.
Saladin -
Henceforth then I may hope
That I rightly bear one of my titles:
“Reformer of the world and of the law. ”
Nathan - Faith, 'tis a splendid title; yet before,
O Sultan, I may quite confide in thee,
Permit me to relate a tale.
Saladin -
Why not?
I'm always fond of tales if they're well told.
Nathan - To tell them well is not my strongest point.
Saladin — Again so proudly modest ? Make haste! the tale!
- - - -
## p. 9014 (#654) ###########################################
9014
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
-
Nathan In olden times a man lived in the East,
Who from a loving hand possessed a ring
Of priceless worth. An opal was the stone,
In which a hundred brilliant colors played,
And which the hidden virtue also had
Of making him who wore it, in this trust,
Pleasing to God and well beloved by man.
What wonder then that this man in the East
The ring upon his finger always kept,
And so disposed that it should be for aye
An heirloom in his house ? He left the ring
Bequeathed unto the dearest of his sons,
Ordaining that he too the ring should leave
To that one of his sons whom he most loved,
And that this dearest one, without regard
To birth, by virtue of the ring alone
Should ever be the house's head and prince.
Thou understandest, Sultan ?
Saladin
Yes; go on!
Nathan — Thus the ring came, from son to son, at last
To one who was the father of three sons,
Who all alike were dutiful to him,
And all of whom he therefore could not help
But love alike. Only from time to time
Now this one, now the other, now the third -
As each might chance to be alone with him,
And his effusive heart the other two
Did not divide — seemed worthier of the ring,
Which through fond weakness he'd to each of them
Promised in turn. Thus it went on as long
As it would do. But when he neared his death,
The kindly father was most sore perplexed.
It gave him pain to grieve two of his sons,
Who on his word relied. What should he do?
In secret to a jeweler he sends,
And orders him to make two other rings
According to the pattern of the first.
And bids him spare nor cost nor toil, that they
May prove to be alike and just like it.
The jeweler in this succeeds so well,
That when he brings the rings, the model ring
Not e'en the father longer can discern.
With joy he calls his sons, each one apart,
And gives to each his blessing and his ring -
And dies. Thou hear'st me, Sultan?
## p. 9015 (#655) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9015
Saladin (who has turned away astonished] -
Yes, I hear!
Make haste and bring thy story to an end.
Will it be
Nathan
Already I have ended;
For what is still to follow, comes of course.
Scarce was the father dead, when each son comes
And brings his ring, and each would of the house
Be lord. They search, they quarrel, they accuse:
In vain; the right ring could not now be proved, —
[After a pause, in which he awaits the Sultan's answer]
Almost as little as to us can be
The right belief.
Saladin
How so? And that shall be
The answer to my question ?
Nathan
It shall serve
Merely as my excuse, if I presume
Not to discriminate between the rings
The father ordered made with the intent
That they should indiscriminate remain.
Saladin — The rings! Sport not with me! I should have thought
That the religions, which I named to thee,
Were easy to distinguish, e'en to dress
And e'en to meat and drink.
Nathan
But only not
As to the grounds on which they're thought to rest.
For are they not all based on history,
Traditional or written? And history
Must be received on trust – is it not so ?
In whom now are we likeliest to trust ?
In our own people, surely; in those men
Whose blood we are, and who from infancy
Have proved their love and never us deceived,
Unless 'twere wholesomer to be deceived.
How can I my forefathers less believe
Than thou dost thine? Or on the other hand,
Can ask of thee to say thy fathers lied,
In order not to contradict my own?
The same is true of Christians — is it not?
Saladin (aside]—
Now by the living God, the man is right,
And I'm struck dumb.
Nathan
Now to our rings let us
Return. As I have said, the sons brought suit
Against each other, and before the judge
## p. 9016 (#656) ###########################################
9016
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Each truly swore that he'd received the ring
Directly from his father's hand, and swore
Not the less true — that also long before
He had by him been solemnly assured
That he one day the ring's prerogative
Should certainly enjoy. And each declared
The father ne'er could have been false to him.
Ere such a loving father he'd suspect,
He'd sooner charge his brothers with foul play,
Though hitherto of them the very best
He always had been ready to believe;
And now he wished to find the traitors out,
That he might on them be avenged.
Saladin
And now
The judge? I long to hear what thou wilt make
The judge reply. Relate!
Nathan
The judge spoke thus:-
“If you the father cannot soon produce,
Then I dismiss you from my judgment-seat.
Think you that to solve riddles I sit here?
Or wait you till the right ring opes its mouth?
Yet stay! I hear the right ring doth possess
The magic power of making one beloved,
To God and man well pleasing. That alone
Must now decide. For surely the false rings
Will fail in that. Now whom love two of you
The most ? Make haste and speak! Why are you mute?
Is't only inward that the rings do work,
Not outward ? Does each one love himself the most ?
Deceived deceivers are you then all three!
And of your rings all three are not the true.
Presumably the true ring being lost,
The father to conceal or to repair
The loss had three rings made for one. ”
Saladin
Grand! grand!
Nathan - And thereupon the judge went on to say:-
“If you'll, instead of sentence, take advice,
This is my counsel: Let the matter rest
Just as it lies. If each of you has had
A ring presented by his father, then
Let each believe his own the genuine ring.
'Tis possible the father did not wish
To suffer any longer in his house
The one ring's tyranny! And certainly,
## p. 9017 (#657) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9017
As he all three did love, and all alike,
He would not willingly oppress the two
To favor one. Well, then! Let each one strive
To imitate that love, so pure and free
From prejudice! Let each one vie with each
In showing forth the virtue of the stone
That's in his ring!
Let him assist its might
With gentleness, forbearance, love of peace,
And with sincere submission to his God!
And if the virtues of the stones remain,
And in your children's children prove their power,
After a thousand years have passed
Let them appear again before this seat.
A wiser man than I will then sit here
And speak. Depart! ) Thus said the modest judge.
ON LOVE OF TRUTH
From "Eine Duplik)
I
KNOW not whether it be a duty to offer up fortune and life
to the truth: certainly the courage and resolution necessary
to such a sacrifice are not gifts which we can bestow upon
ourselves. But I know it is a duty, if one undertake to teach
the truth, to teach the whole of it or none at all, to teach it
clearly and roundly, without enigmas or reserves, and with per-
fect confidence in its efficacy and utility; and the gifts required
for such a decision are in our power. Whoever will not acquire
these, or when acquired will not use them, shows that he has
a very poor opinion of the human intellect; and he deserves to
lose the confidence of his hearers, who, while he frees them from
some gross errors, yet withholds the entire truth, and thinks to
satisfy them by a compromise with falsehood. For the greater
the error, the shorter and straighter the way to the truth. On
the other hand, subtle error can prevent our recognition of its
nature, and forever blind us to the truth.
The man who is faithless to Truth in threatening dangers,
may yet love her much; and Truth forgives him his infidelity
for the sake of his love. But whosoever thinks of prostituting
Truth under all sorts of masks and rouge, may indeed be her
pimp, but he has never been her lover.
## p. 9018 (#658) ###########################################
9018
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
Not the truth of which any one is, or supposes himself to be,
possessed, but the upright endeavor he has made to arrive at
truth, makes the worth of the man. For not by the possession
but by the pursuit of truth are his powers expanded, wherein
alone his ever-growing perfection consists. Possession makes us
easy, indolent, proud.
If God held all truth shut in his right hand, and in his left
nothing but the ever-restless search after truth, although with
the condition of for ever and ever erring, and should say to
me, "Choose! ” I should bow humbly to his left hand and say,
“Father, give! pure truth is for Thee alone! ”
THE MEANING OF HERESY
W***
is called a heretic has a very good side.
It is a man
who wishes to see with his own eyes. The only question
is whether he has good eyes. In certain ages the name
of heretic is the best title that a scholar can transmit to poster-
ity; far better than that of sorcerer, magian, exorcist, for these
serve to conceal many an impostor.
THE EDUCATION OF THE HUMAN RACE
WT.
2.
That education is to the individual, revelation is to the whole
human race.
Education is revelation which is given to the individual;
revelation is education which has been and is still given to the
human race.
3.
Whether education, regarded from this point of view,
can be of any use in pedagogics, I will not discuss here; but in
theology it can surely be of very great use and remove many
difficulties, if revelation can be conceived of as an education of
the human race.
4. Education does not give to man anything which he could
not acquire of himself, but only gives it to him more quickly and
more easily. So too revelation does not give anything to the
human race which human reason, if left to itself, would not at-
tain; but it has given and still gives the most important of these
things earlier.
## p. 9019 (#659) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9019
5.
As in education it is not a matter of indifference in what
order the powers of the individual are developed, and as it can-
not impart to him everything at once, so God in his revelation
must observe a certain order and due moderation.
6. If the first man were immediately provided with the
conception of one God, it would be impossible for the concep-
tion thus communicated and not acquired to preserve its original
purity. As soon as human reason left to itself began to act upon
it, it would divide the one infinite into several finites and give to
each a designation.
7. It was thus that polytheism and idolatry naturally arose.
And who knows how many millions of years human reason might
have wandered in these erring ways, although some individuals
in all lands and at all times knew them to be erring ways, if it
had not pleased God by a new impulse to give it a better direc-
tion ?
8. But since God could not or would not reveal himself
any longer to each single individual, he chose a single people for
special education, the rudest and most uncivilized, in order to
train it from the very beginning.
[Paragraphs 9 to 52 show how monotheism, or the doctrine of one God,
was revealed to the Jews, and this moral education promoted by a system of
temporal rewards and punishments, according as they obeyed or transgressed
the commands of the Almighty. But when the Hebrew Bible, as an ele-
mentary hornbook, became gradually unsuited to the growing intellect of the
children of Israel, their teachers the Rabbins resorted to mystical and alle-
gorical interpretations, and forced new ideas into the text wholly foreign to
their original meaning. This course of instruction warped the mind of the
pupil, making him petty, crafty, captious, fond of subtleties and sophistries,
and incapable of seeing things in their true light-in short, cabalistic and
superstitious. ]
53. It was therefore necessary for a better teacher to come
and snatch the obsolete primer from the hands of the child.
Christ came.
[In paragraphs 54-77, Lessing discusses the tenets of this new teacher and
his disciples, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the dogmas of
the Trinity, of Original Sin, and of the Atonement; and arrives at the con-
clusion that “the development of real truths into truths of the reason is abso-
lutely necessary if they are to be of any help to the human race. ”]
78. It is not true that speculations concerning these things
have ever wrought mischief or been hurtful to civil society.
## p. 9020 (#660) ###########################################
9020
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
This reproach should be made, not to the speculations themselves,
but to the folly and tyranny that would hinder these speculations
and grudge to men the free exercise of their thoughts.
79. On the contrary, such speculations, however they may
result in individual cases, are incontestably the fittest exercises
of the human mind, so long as the human heart is at most only
capable of loving virtue for the sake of its consequences in con-
ferring eternal happiness.
80. For since this selfishness of the human heart exists, the
desire to exercise the mind exclusively on that which concerns
our physical necessities would tend rather to dull it than to
sharpen it. The mind must in sooth be exercised on intellect-
ual objects, if it is to attain its full illumination and produce
that purity of heart which makes us capable of loving virtue for
its own sake.
81. Or shall the human race never attain this highest degree
of enlightenment and purity? Never ?
82. Never ? Let me not be guilty of such blasphemy even
in my thoughts, All-gracious One! Education has its purpose in
the race not less than in the individual. What is educated, is
educated for something.
83. The flattering prospects which are offered to the youth,
the honor and prosperity which are pictured to him,- what are
these but means of training him up to be a man who will be
able to do his duty, even when these prospects of honor and
prosperity fail!
84. This is the aim of human education, and may not divine
education attain as much ? What art succeeds in doing with the
individual, shall not nature succeed in doing with the whole ?
Blasphemy! Blasphemy! [In other words, it is blasphemy to
doubt this. ]
85. No! it will come, it will surely come, the time of perfect
development: when man, the more firmly he feels convinced of
an ever better future, will have less need of borrowing from this
future the motives of his actions; when he will do good because
it is good, not because he expects arbitrary rewards, which were
formerly designed merely to fix and strengthen his inconstant
recognition of the inner and better rewards of virtue.
86. It will surely come, the time of a new, eternal gospel,
which is promised us even in the elementary books of the New
Covenant.
## p. 9021 (#661) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9021
94. Why may not each individual have already existed once
in this world ?
95. Is this hypothesis so absurd because it is the oldest, or
because the human mind hit upon it before the mental powers
had been dissipated and weakened by the sophistry of the schools ?
96. Why may not I already have taken all the steps towards
perfection which mere temporal rewards and punishments can
induce man to take ?
97. And why not again all those which the prospects of
eternal reward so strongly aid us to perform?
98. Why should I not return as often as I am fitted to
acquire new knowledge and new capacities? Do I take away
with me so much at once that it is perhaps not worth the while
to come again ?
99. Or because I forget that I have been here? Well for
me that I forget it! The remembrance of my former state would
permit me to make only a poor use of the present. And what I
must forget now, have I forgotten it forever?
Or because too much time would thereby be lost to me?
Lost ? What have I then to lose? Is not all eternity mine?
100.
THE DIFFERING SPHERES OF POETRY AND PAINTING
From Laocoön)
I
F it be true that painting uses for its imitations wholly differ-
ent means or signs from poetry, - namely, forms and colors
in space instead of articulate tones in time,-if it be incon-
testable that these signs must bear a suitable relation to the
thing signified, then coexistent signs can represent only coexistent
objects, and successive signs only successive objects.
Coexistent objects are called bodies; consequently bodies with
their visible attributes are the proper objects of painting.
Successive objects are called in general actions; consequently
actions are the proper objects of poetry.
Bodies exist, however, not only in space, but also in time.
They continue, and at every moment of their duration appear
differently and in different relations to each other. Each of
these momentary appearances and relations is the effect of a pre-
ceding and can be the cause of a succeeding one, and therefore
the centre of an action; consequently painting can imitate actions,
but only suggestively through bodies.
## p. 9022 (#662) ###########################################
9022
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
use
On the other hand, actions cannot exist in themselves, but
must inhere in certain beings. So far as these beings are bodies
or are regarded as bodies, poetry describes bodies, but only sug-
gestively through actions.
Painting can use in its coexistent compositions only a single
moment of the action; and must therefore choose the most preg-
nant one, which will render what precedes and follows most
comprehensible.
In like manner poetry in its progressive imitations can
only a single property of bodies; and must therefore choose the
one that awakens the most sensible image of the body, for the
purpose to which it is to be put.
Hence the rule of singleness in picturesque epithets and of
frugality in descriptions of material objects.
I should have less confidence in this dry deduction, if it were
not fully confirmed by the practice of Homer; or if it were not
rather the practice of Homer, from which I have derived it. The
grand style of the Greeks can be determined and elucidated only
by these principles, which are also justified by the opposite style
of so many modern poets, who wish to vie with the painter in
provinces in which they are necessarily surpassed by him.
Homer has usually but one stroke for one thing. A ship is
to him now the black ship, now the hollow ship, now the swift
ship, at most the well-rowed black ship. Further than this he
does not indulge in any word-painting of the ship. But he
makes a minute picture of the starting, the sailing, or the landing
of the ship; a picture from which the painter who wishes to put
it all on canvas would be obliged to make half a dozen pictures.
THE LIMITATIONS OF “WORD-PAINTING”
From Laocoon)
Wapplies
ones.
HAT I have been saying of corporeal objects in general
applies even more forcibly to beautiful
Physical beauty results from the harmony of a number
of parts which can be embraced in one glance. It is therefore
essential that those parts should be close together; and since
things whose parts are close together are the proper subjects of
painting, that art alone can represent physical beauty.
The poet, who can only set down one after another the
elements of the beautiful object, should therefore abstain wholly
## p. 9023 (#663) ###########################################
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9023
1
1
1
.
from the description of physical beauty by itself. He ought to
feel that these elements arranged in sequence cannot possibly
produce the same effect as if in juxtaposition; that the compre-
hensive glance we try to throw back over them at the end of the
enumeration produces no harmonious picture; and that it tran-
scends the power of human imagination to realize the effect of
a given pair of eyes, a given nose, and a given mouth together,
unless we can call to mind a like combination in nature or art.
Here again Homer is the model of models. He says — Nireus
was handsome; Achilles was very handsome; Helen was of god-
like beauty. But he is nowhere enticed into giving a minuter
detail of their beauties. Yet the whole poem is based on Helen's
loveliness. How a modern poet would have reveled in specifica-
tions of it!
Even Constantine Manasses tried to adorn his bare Chronicle
with a portrait of Helen. I feel grateful to him for the attempt;
for really I should not know where else to turn for so striking
an example of the folly of venturing on what Homer's wise judg-
ment refrained from undertaking. When I read in his book
“She was a woman passing fair, fine-browed, finest complex-
ioned,
Fine-cheeked, fine-featured, full-eyed, snowy-skinned,
Quick-glancing, dainty, a grove full of graces,
White-armed, voluptuous, breathing out frank beauty,
The complexion very fair, the cheeks rosy,
The countenance most charming, the eye blooming;
Beauty unartificial, unrouged, her own skin,
Dyed the brightest rose-color a warmer glow,
As if one stained ivory with splendid purple.
Her neck long, passing white, whence in legend
The Swan-born they termed the beautiful Helen,” –
it is like seeing stones rolled up a mountain, on whose crest they
are to be built into a noble structure, but all of which roll down
the other side. What picture does this huddle of words leave
with us? How did Helen look ? No two readers in a thousand
would have the same mental image of her.
Virgil, by imitating Homer's self-restraint, has achieved a
fair success.
His Dido is only the very beautiful (pulcherrima)
Dido. All the other details he gives refer to her rich ornaments
and superb apparel.
If on this account any one turned
against him what the old artist said to one of his pupils who had
H
1
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1
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GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING
9024
-
painted an elaborately dressed Helen,-“You have painted her
rich because you could not paint her lovely," — Virgil would
answer: “I am not to blame that I could not paint her lovely.
The fault is in the limitations of my art, and it is to my credit
that I have kept within them. ”
LESSING'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF
I
In the Concluding Number of the Hamburg Dramaturgy'
AM neither an actor nor a poet. People have honored me
occasionally with the latter title, but it is because they have
misunderstood me. The few dramatic attempts which I have
ventured upon do not justify this generosity. Not every one who
takes a brush in his hand and dabbles in colors is a painter.
The earliest of these attempts of mine were dashed off in those
years when desire and dexterity are easily mistaken for genius.
If there is anything tolerable in those of a later date, I am
conscious that I owe it all to criticism alone. I do not feel in
myself that living fountain that rises by its own strength, and by
its own force shoots up in jets so rich, so fresh, so pure! I am
obliged to press it all up out of myself with forcing-pump and
pipes. I should be so poor, so cold, and so short-sighted if I had
not learned in some measure modestly to borrow foreign treas-
ures, to warm myself at another's fire, and to strengthen my sight
with the lenses of art. I have therefore always been ashamed
and vexed when I have read or heard anything derogatory to
criticism. Criticism, it is said, stifles genius; whereas I flatter
myself I have received from it something very nearly akin to
genius. I am a lame man, who cannot be edified by a lampoon
against crutches.
Criticism, we may add, is like the crutch too in this respect, -
that it helps the cripple move from place to place, but can never
make a racer of him. If through criticism I have produced
something better than a man of my talents could have produced
without its aid, still it costs me so much time, I must be so free
from other pursuits and so uninterrupted by involuntary diver-
sions, I must have all my reading so at command, must be able
at every step so quietly to run over all the observations I have
ever made of manners and passions, that no one in the world
could be more unsuited than I, to be a worker whose task it
should be to supply a theatre with novelties.
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