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13. From To Lessing’s Friends (1786)
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153 Our friend’s devotion to Spinozism should not be regarded as a mere hypothesis (as the patriarch in Nathan puts it) that one devises in order to dispute it pro and con.200 A man with an established reputation in the republic of letters, Mr. Jacobi steps forward publicly and asserts as a genuine fact that Lessing was really and truly a Spinozist. His proofs are said to be contained in a correspondence between him, a third person [Elise Reimarus], and myself, which he presents to the inquisitorial court of public opinion, and which is supposed to establish this fact beyond all doubt. This correspondence was actually my immediate reason for publishing sooner than I had intended my Morning Hours, or Lectures on the Existence of God, which I had sketched out some years ago. I mentioned this reason in the preface to the first part of the Morning Hours [not translated here]. I intended to leave [the discussion of] the correspondence itself to the second part. At first I was quite willing to divulge the dispute immediately, and I even obtained Mr. Jacobi’s permission to make any use of his letters. But other considerations arose. The matter struck me as too delicate and my readers too unprepared for me to venture such an unfortunate inquiry straightaway. I wanted first to bring the issue into the open and then touch on what concerns individual people. I wanted to disclose at the outset my conception of Spinozism as well as the harmful and harmless forms of this system, and then investigate whether this or that person adhered to this system and in what sense. Was Lessing a Spinozist? Did Jacobi hear this from Lessing himself? What was their frame of mind when this confidence passed between them? These questions could be postponed until we had come to an understanding with our readers about the very issue itself, that is, about what Spinozism actually is or is not. Therefore, I changed my mind and decided to reserve the kind permission of my correspondent for the next part. But I see that he has deemed it proper to rush ahead of me. He unscrupulously tosses the bone of contention before the public and for all posterity accuses our friend, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, editor of the Fragments and author of Nathan, the eminent, admired defender of theism and 13 | From To Lessing’s Friends (1786) 200. [See Lessing, Nathan the Wise, act 4, scene 2.] 154 | p o l e m i c a l w r i t i n g s rational religion, of being a Spinozist, an atheist, and a blasphemer. What are we to do now? Will we take up the defense of our friend? The strictest ecclesiastical court is not likely to begrudge the accused heretic such assistance. But it seemed to me that we could confidently leave the author of Nathan to his own defense. Even were I Plato or Xenophon, I would be wary of speaking in defense of this Socrates.201 Lessing and hypocrite, the author of Nathan and blasphemer—whoever can think these things together is able to think the impossible, and he can just as easily think Lessing and blockhead together! Nevertheless, since I have become entangled in this issue, and since Mr. Jacobi, first in private letters and now in public, is challenging me to take up this issue involving our friend, you will permit us to investigate the basis of this accusation together! I will go through the complaint before your eyes. And as I narrate the story, I will supplement it from my side, adding observations wherever I take them to be necessary. Mr. Jacobi, as he has related, heard from a friend that Mendelssohn was about to write about Lessing’s character, and asked her how much or how little Mendelssohn had known about Lessing’s religious convictions. He wrote: Lessing had been a Spinozist. “My friend,” he says, “grasped my intention completely. The matter seemed to her to be of great importance, and she immediately wrote to Mendelssohn in order to reveal to him what I had disclosed to her.” He continues: “Mendelssohn was astonished, and the first thing he did was to doubt the accuracy of my claim.”202 [To say] that I was astonished is no longer to narrate the story, but rather to make a supposition on the part of the narrator. What Mr. Jacobi disclosed to our mutual friend and she revealed to...