WOLFENBUETTEL FRAGMENTS: The name given to a German deistic work published but not written by Leasing (q.v.) in the, last quarter of the eighteenth century. As early as 1771, and against the advice of Nicolai and Mendelssohn, Lessing sought a publisher for the work; but the royal censor, though not openly opposing, refused to authorize the publication, and Leasing gave up the project for the time being. In connection with his duties as librarian at Wolfenbüttel he proposed to issue a series of contributions on history and literature drawn from the treasures of the library, and for this he was relieved of liability to hindrance from the censor. In the third of this series he published (1774) the first of these fragments as Von Duldung der Deisten: Fragment eines Ungenannten, for which adroit preparation had been made in the preceding number. The fourth issue (1777) was devoted to more from the "unknown," together with comments of Leasing upon the contents of the rest. There were here five fragments which dealt with assaults of the pulpit upon reason, the impossibility of a revelation which could be satisfactorily relied upon by all men, the passage of the Red Sex by the Israelites, that the purpose of the New-Testament writings was not the revelation of a new religion, and on the history of the resurrection. While the first publication had aroused little interest, these five fragments aroused great feeling. In 1778 a further issue discussed the purpose of Jesus and the disciples. Hereupon Leasing was forbidden to publish anything more upon religious matters without official sanction, though he refused to obey. Other editions

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were issued after his death (4th ed., 1835), and parts not issued by him appeared 1787. The authorship did not remain hidden, though Lessing tried to lay a false scent by suggesting the name of Johann Lorenz Schmidt, the editor of the Wertheim Bible (see Bibles, Annotated, I., § 4). The author was Herrmann Samuel Reimarus, as is confirmed by his own son, Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus, who gave to the Hamburg city library the complete work from which the fragments were taken (a letter from the younger Reimarus is published in the Leipziger Litteraturzeitung, 1827, no. 55, in which the authorship is asserted).

Hermann Samuel Reimarus was born at Hamburg Dec. 22, 1694, and died there Mar. 1, 1768. He came of a family of ministers, though his father was a teacher, but one of rare talents, and was himself the oldest son. In his preparatory course he was under such instructors as Johann Christian Wolff; he studied at the universities of Jena and Wittenberg, at the latter of which he taught in the philosophical faculty. In 1723 he became rector of the city school at Wismar, and in 1717 professor of oriental languages in the gymnasium of Hamburg, where he remained in spite of a call to Göttingen to succeed Gesner. Reimarus was held in high honor in his native city, and his house was the gatheringplace of choice spirits. He employed the leisure which his duties left him in the study of one branch of learning after another. His official position entailed upon him the duty of preparing memorials of deceased persons. Outside of these he left but three larger works, which appeared in the earlier portion of his life. These were: Die vornehmsten Wahrheiten der naturlichen Religion (Hamburg, 1754); Die Vernunftlehre, als eine Anweisung zum richtigen Gebrauch der Vernunft in der Erkenntnis der Wahrheit (1756); and Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Triebe der Tiere (1760). These appeared in several editions after the death of Reimarus and were translated into Dutch. The philosophical standpoint of Reimarus was essentially that of Wolff, though more radical; the being of God, the divine plan in the world, the annihilation of doubt of the divine providence, the immortality of the soul, the advantages of religion were proved by reason, and so far his attitude was apologetic. He was awake to the fact that in his time many little works had appeared which assailed not only Christianity but all religion and ethics, and his aim was to oppose these and to set forth by the claims of reason the truths of natural religion as well as of Christianity. Hence he named the great work which he left behind "Apology or Defense for the Rational Worshiper of God." In this he subjected the entire Biblical history to the tests of analytical criticism; according to the deistic standpoint of Reimarus, miracle is impossible, so that if the prophets and Jesus and the apostles pretended to work miracles, they were impostors. Such "impurities" he found to be conceivable in the Bible, since it contained much that was at variance with virtue as tested by the laws of nature and of peoples. A psychological explanation of this attitude of Reimarus appears when it is recalled that he was a man highly honored by his contemporaries, and that he held fast to the observances of the

Church, even though he regarded both Judaism and Christianity to have been founded by processes which involved imposture. He recognized that his book would cause unrest, and so did not print it, preferring that it remain concealed, being available for the use of such friends of his as were possessed of discretion. Some parts he had frequently worked over, and had revised the whole shortly before his death; this revised autograph is still extant.

While Lessing went to Hamburg in Apr., 1767, and Reimarus did not die until March of the next year, there is no evidence that the two met; but soon after the death of Reimarus, Lessing became acquainted with the son and daughter of Reimarus. According to a letter of Lessing to the son (in Lessing's Briefe, Nachträge and Berichtigungen, p. 17, no. 183a, Berlin, 1886), the latter was aware of Lessing's possession of parts of the elder Reimarus' work. These parts were in the author's handwriting, but not in their final shape, though the main thought was in no way different. Permission to publish excerpts was obtained by Lessing only on condition that the name of the author be not divulged. The complete work was carefully guarded by the family and shown to but few-"the community" of friends of Reimarus. In 1779 Lessing was allowed to copy from the final draft the chapters which related to the passage of the Red Sea, in which the results with reference to the numbers differed from what had been published. In 1779 the publisher Ettinger of Gotha was ready to publish the whole work, but the family decisively negatived the proposition, fearing a loss of the good reputation which it enjoyed and the effect upon the health of the mother of the family. The intention to republish portions (Zeitschrift für historische Theologie, 1850-52) failed through lack of interest in the work on the part of the public.

(Carl Bertheau†.)

Bibliography: An ed. of the "Fragments" as issued by Lessing appeared Berlin, 1895. There is an Eng. transl. of part, Fragments from Reimarus, ed. C. Voysey, London, 1879 (cf. J. Sawyer, A Criticism of . . . C. Voysey's "Fragments from Reimarus," ib. 1880). Consult: the literature under Goeze, Johan Melchior; and Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim; D. F. Strauss, Hermann Samuel ReimaruS und seine Schutzschrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes, Leipsic, 1862; J. A. H. Reimari . . . de vita sua commentarius. Additae sunt de vita H. S. Reimari narrationes J. G. Büschii et C. A. Klotzii, Hamburg, 1815; C. Mönckeberg, Hermann Samuel' Reimarus und Johann Christian Edelmann, ib. 1867; K. Fischer, Geschichte der neueren Philosophie, ii. 759-772, Heidelberg, 1867; K. C. Scherer, Das Tier in die Philosophie des H. S. Reimarus, Würzburg, 1898; B. Brandl, Die Ueberlieferung der "Schutzschrift" des H. S. Reimarus, Pilsen, 1907.