Unable to pay the fine he was kept in prison for
three years. His wife and sister, who carried on the business
[174] and continued to sell the book, were fined and imprisoned soon
afterwards and a whole host of shop assistants.
If his publishers suffered in England, the author himself suffered in
America where bigotry did all it could to make the last years of his
life bitter.
The age of enlightenment began in Germany in the middle of the
eighteenth century. In most of the German States, thought was
considerably less free than in England. Under Frederick the Great's
father, the philosopher Wolff was banished from Prussia for according to
the moral teachings of the Chinese sage Confucius a praise which, it was
thought, ought to be reserved for Christianity. He returned after the
accession of Frederick, under whose tolerant rule Prussia was an asylum
for those writers who suffered for their opinions in neighbouring
States. Frederick, indeed, held the view which was held by so many
English rationalists of the time, and is still held widely enough, that
freethought is not desirable for the multitude, because they are
incapable of understanding philosophy. Germany felt the influence of the
English Deists, of the French freethinkers, and of Spinoza; but in the
German rationalistic propaganda of this period there is nothing very
original or interesting.
[175] The names of Edelmann and Bahrdt may be mentioned.
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