Reflections on Lessing's Fragments

[of] learned men, and although I have certainly devoted myself to trade Handlung: In this context, the merchant's profession or commercial business, I nonetheless always associated with well-mannered students during my years of apprenticeship Lehrjahre: The formative period of training for a trade, though the author uses it here to describe his early intellectual social circle; but after that time, I also associated with many learned men, because there lay in my soul Gemüthe: A term encompassing one’s inner disposition, mind, and emotional state a great desire to investigate the powers of my spirit, to enlighten my understanding, to enrich it through correct concepts, to elevate my knowledge through diligent research, and to form myself so morally that I might possess within me a calm and contented soul, while having everyone outside of myself as a friend.

As long as I conversed with these scholars through the power of the light of reason Vernunftlicht: A key Enlightenment concept referring to the capacity of human intellect to find truth without relying solely on tradition or faith, they were the most polite of men; but if I wished to have some fun with them, I only had to begin original catchword: "an-" leading to "fangen" (to begin) [speaking] of the Book of Revelation—