Reflections on Lessing's Fragments

to put honest people on the learned pillory, exposing them to the laughter of other learned wits through biting critiques, and stripping them of their honor and reputation.

For an honest writer, it is already a great failing if he does not dare to honor even that work with his own name in which he believes he has treated truths—truths which he would gladly impart to his fellow men, and by which he might likewise shape them into good people, in order to be loved by them and honored, praised, and loved for the truth shared with them.

You The author continues to address Gotthold Ephraim Lessing directly. and the author of the Letters on the Bible in a Popular Tone original: "Briefe über die Bibel im Volkston." This refers to Karl Friedrich Bahrdt (1741–1792), a radical Enlightenment theologian who published a controversial "popular" version of the New Testament. must