Selected Prose Works of G. E. Lessing. Translated - from the German,
by C. E. Beasley, B.A., and Helen Zitnmern. (George Boll and Son.)
—This volume eomprises the " Laokoon," the essay on " How the Ancients Represented Death," and "Dramatic Notes." The preface states that Mr. Bensley's translation, first published in 1853, is sub- stantially the same as that now presented, but that it has undergone
"complete and careful revision." Of the "Laokoon," certainly the best known of Lessing'e works, nothing need be said. Fewer readers will be
acquainted with the essay on "how the Ancients Represented Death,"
translated in this volume by Mice Helen Zimmern. This work was welcomed by many of Lessiug's countrymen and contemporaries,
from the contrast suggested by it to the repulsive :symbolism of medissval art in the skeleton. The unique figure with the extinguished torch, twin-brother to Sleep, harmonised with the Greek conception, and, as we feel, with the higher Christian ideal. The " Dramatio Notes," translated and abridged from the " Dramaturgic)," is likewise due to the pen of Miss Helen Zimmern.
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