Reflections on Lessing's Fragments

A horizontal ornamental banner or divider consisting of parallel lines with a central decorative floral element and scrollwork motifs at each end.

My dear Horus!

A small square emblem or woodcut in the upper right margin. It depicts a crown from which five leafy plumes or floral stalks emerge. Surrounding the emblem are four individual letters at the corners: B and V above, and O and S below.

What will you likely think when this book comes before your eyes, and you see from it that an unlearned man German: "Ungelehrter." The author identifies as a layperson rather than a professional academic or theologian, a common rhetorical move to appeal to the "common sense" of the reader against elite Enlightenment critics. has dared to make his observations upon the system of teachings and opinions released to the world for examination in your learned work? I have done so with the very same unconstrained frankness as you have used regarding the Revelation of John, regarding the prophetic predictions of the Messiah, as well as regarding Jesus himself and his disciples. However, only this difference reigns between the two of us: that you have accompanied your concepts with a poisonous mockery, while mine are only founded, over-

original: "gegründete, über-"

This is a "catchword," a common printing practice where the first syllable of the next page ("zeugende," meaning convincing or testifying) is printed at the bottom of the current page to help the bookbinder assemble the sheets in the correct order.