Fragments from Reimarus

his death, his friends considered it a pious duty toward the departed not to expose his memory to humiliation, to accusations of heresy from the clergy, and revilings from the multitude.

Lessing only made the acquaintance of Reimarus during the last year of his life, when his health was beginning to fail, and therefore did not know him intimately. Afterward, however, a great friendship sprang up between Lessing and the son and daughter of Reimarus. It was from Elise Reimarus that, after much difficulty and persuasion, he obtained possession of the precious manuscripts of the Fragments with leave to publish them, but only on the condition that he would not reveal the name of the author; for the children of Reimarus dreaded the hatred which might thereby be brought upon their father’s name. Lessing published the Fragments one after another in 1774.

Two of Lessing’s most intimate friends, Nicolai and Mendelssohn, had strongly advised him not to publish them, but he was not to be dissuaded from his purpose. After a time, the general belief that the Fragments had been written by Reimarus became so strong that, at last, Elise began to fear that Lessing must have betrayed her secret, and he found himself obliged to write to her brothers to deny the imputation. It was not until 1814 that all doubt on the subject was brought to an end by Dr. A. Reimarus who, in a letter to the library at Göttingen, declared his father to have been the author of the Fragments, which, had he lived to