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 Boehm (1575-1624), the great mystic, stood for a long time almost alone in the use of the vernacular tongue, until the latter part of the century, when Leibnitz (1646-1716) and Wolf (1679-1754) appeared. Christian Thomasius (1655-1728), the able jurist and pietistic philosopher and writer, was the first, in his lectures at Leipsic and afterward at Halle, to substitute the German for the Latin language as the medium of instruction. He was also among the very first to use the German language in his writings, and established the first German learned periodical in Leipsic (1688-'90). Leibnitz was the first to lay a scientific basis for the study of philosophy in Germany, but his works were chiefly written in Latin and French. Wolf, his disciple, shaped the views of Leibnitz into a comprehensive system, and published his works in the German language.—Under the impulse of the new philosophical ideas, Germany became in the 18th century excited on the subject of literature, as it had been on that of theology in the 16th. The 17th closed with the foundation of the Berlin academy by Leibnitz (1700). The general clamor was for reform in education, in literature, and soon for reform in all departments of thought. Gottsched in Leipsic (1700-1766), laboring in the same direction as Thomasius, exerted himself to make the German language the sole medium of instruction, and published in it manuals and abridgments of philosophy and science. He advocated the classical rules of composition of Racine and Corneille, but aimed above all at correctness. His views brought him into conflict with Bodmer (1698-1783) and Breitinger of Zurich (1701-'76), who were admirers of Milton and rigidly orthodox in religion, while Gottsched was friendly to Voltaire. They carried on a paper war in their respective journals, until at length many who had rallied round Gottsched became disgusted with his pedantry, and separating themselves from him, established a periodical celebrated in German literature under the name of Bremer Beiträge, edited by Gärtner (1712-'91), in which they opposed their former friend; at the same time they formed a poetical union to which Hagedorn was friendly, although he did not join it, but which was eventually joined by Klopstock, who became its hero. Among the contributors to this journal were Rabener (1714-'71), a popular satirist, of a correct and easy style; Zacharia (1726-'77), a writer of poetry in imitation of Pope's “Rape of the Lock;” Gellert (1715-'69), a famous fabulist; Kästner, the poet and mathematician; Giseke; Johann Elias Schlegel, dramatist, and Johann Adolph Schlegel (1721-'93), poet; Fuchs, Cramer, Ebert, translator of Young's “Night Thoughts,” and several others. The journal was printed in Bremen, but the poets resided for some time at Leipsic, whence they adopted the name of the second Saxon school, while the followers of Bodmer (of Zürich) styled themselves the Swiss school.

Related to the latter was the school of Halle, to which belonged Lange, Pyra, Uz, and Götz. The most distinguished of the poets of this school were Kleist (1715-'59), author of descriptive and picturesque poetry in the manner of Thomson and Pope, and Ramler (1725-'98), a composer of odes, and the first to introduce the language, versification, and manners of the ancients into Germany. Gleim (1719-1803), the celebrated fabulist and poet, at first a follower of Bodmer, gathered a knot of writers around him, and exercised for about 40 years a considerable influence on German poetry; but his fame was diminished by the criticisms of Herder. Salomon Gessner of Zürich (1730-'87) gained in his time a high reputation as a writer of idyls, but Herder thinks that he was overrated by his contemporaries. Bodmer's prestige was also soon broken by the criticisms of Lessing. Of greater influence than any of the poets as yet named were Hagedorn of Hamburg (1708-'54), whose fables and songs have immortalized him in Germany, and Albert von Haller (l708-'77), the illustrious physiologist and savant, who was remarkable as a writer of descriptive and didactic poetry. They were followed by Klopstock (1724-1803), whose “Messiah” made a profound impression upon the religious world by its mystic, devout, and rapturous faith, while as a work of art it was greatly admired. The fashionable and elegant portion of society was attracted by the semi-Grecian, semi-Parisian muse of Wieland (1733-1813). But it was reserved for Lessing (1729-'81) to give a new direction to German literature. He did for it what Luther had done for the German language. He established a new school of criticism, and struck a final blow at Gallic influence, at the same time that Frederick the Great was coquetting with the French graces. His tragedy Emilia Galotti, his comedy Minna von Barnhelm, and his philosophical drama Nathan der Weise, are models of dramatic composition. He exerted a powerful influence on the progress of the German drama by unfolding for the first time all the beauty, vigor, and originality of Shakespeare before the German mind, and by the profound and philosophical criticisms in his Dramaturgie. He pronounced a condemnatory judgment upon all foreign models except Shakespeare and the ancients, and demonstrated that the spirit of the age shrank from the mediæval sentimentality of epic poetry, and desired literature to reflect its own stirring energies, as the drama alone can do. Most celebrated among the many literary publications which were identified with Lessing's critical labors was a periodical (Literaturbriefe) which he founded in Berlin in 1759, in conjunction with Nicolai (1733-1811), the publisher and author. Lessing was the master spirit of this publication, and the principal contributor next to himself was his friend Moses Mendelssohn (1729-'86). Both Klopstock and Wieland were criticised in that