Note 29 — Lecture VI. Free Thought In The Theology Of Germany From 1750-1835.

It has been stated in the text that these were Fragments, which Lessing published in 1774 and the following years, of a larger work which he professed to have found in the library of Wolfenbüttel, where he was librarian. They were published in [pg 426] the third of the series of works, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Literatur aus den Schätzen der Herzoglichen Bibliothekzu Wolfenbüttel, under the title, Fragmente Eines Ungenannten Herausgegeben von G. E. Lessing.

After Lessing's death, C. A. E. Schmidt published further Fragments, under the title Uebrige noch Ungedruckte Werke des Wolfenbüttelschen Fragmentisten. Ein Nachlass von G. E. Lessing.

The authorship of the Fragments was suspected at the time by Hamann; but it remained generally unknown, and became as great a secret as the authorship of the Letters of Junius, until 1827, when the question was discussed by Gurlitt in the Leipziger Literatur-Zeitung, No. 55, and proof was offered that the author was Reimarus of Hamburg.

The result of this and subsequent investigations is as follows. The original work of Reimarus, from which the Fragments were taken, remains in MS. in the public library of Hamburg. It was entitled Apologie oder Schutz-Schrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes. When written, it was shown only to intimate friends. Lessing was allowed to take a copy, and showed the MS. to Mendelssohn in 1771. Lessing wished to publish it entire; but the censorship would not give the imprimatur. Consequently it came out in fragments among the series of contributions from the Wolfenbüttel library, which were free from the censorship. The pretended discovery of them in the library was a mere excuse; and there is proof in Lessing's remains that he admitted the fact. See the statement of these facts in Lessing's Leben, by Guhrauer, (of which, vol. i. is by Danzel; vol. ii. by Guhrauer,) vol. ii. b. iii. ch. iv. p. 133, note 3, and b. iv. p. 141.1067

Several writers, subsequently to Gurlitt's examination of the question of authorship, have written, either on the question of the authorship of the Fragments, or on the contents of the larger work from which they are selections. In the Zeitschrift für die Historische Theologie for 1839, part iv. is an article composed from W. Körte's life of Thaer, in reference to the former question. Also Dr. W. Klose examined the original MS. in the Hamburg library, and published an account of it, with considerable extracts, in several of the numbers of the same journal, Niedner's Zeitschrift, 1850, (part iv; 1851, part iv; 1852, part iii.) It is in the preface (Vorbericht) to the first of these parts that the account of Reimarus's own mental history is given, to which allusion was made in the text of Lecture VI. (p. 225.)

During the last year the question has been made the subject of a monograph by the celebrated Strauss. He had heard of the existence of a copy of the original MS. in private hands at Hamburg, and proceeded to collate it with the view of publication. [pg 427] He found it to differ in some respects from the Fragments published by Lessing and Schmidt. He did not consider the hitherto unpublished parts of the work sufficiently important, either in a literary or historical point of view, to merit publication in extenso; but contented himself with stating the results of his study of it in a small work, H. S. Reimarus und seine Schutz-Schrift, &c. 1861. It contains a brief account of the literary question of the Fragments, and of Reimarus's life and stand-point; also an analysis of the unpublished parts of the work, written with the clearness which characterises all Strauss's didactic works. It would appear from the analysis that the pieces printed by Lessing were not only some of the ablest, but some of the least offensive of the whole work. The concluding pages contain some very interesting remarks, in which Strauss contrasts the criticism of the eighteenth century with that of the present day; the characteristics of the former being, that it charges imposture on the scripture writers; that of the latter, that it admits their honesty, but explains away their statements and opinions by reference to psychological and historical phenomena.

In addition to the sources given above, information is contained in the following works: Schröckh's Christ Kirchengesch. vi. 275; Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Century, E. T. vol. ii. 266 seq.; Hagenbach's Dogmengeschichte, § 275 notes, (where reference is made to Guhrauer's Bodin's Heptaplomeres, 1841, p. 257 seq.); Conversations-Lexicon, art. Reimarus; Amand Saintes' History of Rationalism, E. T. p. 84; Kahnis, Id. p. 145 seq.; K. Schwarz, Lessing als Theolog, of which ch. iv. is on the Fragmenten-streit; Strauss's Kleine Schriften, 1861; Lessing's Werke, xii. 508. (ed. Lachmann.)