V. THE PERIOD OF DECAY.—This period is in many respects the most dismal in German history. During the seventeenth century little poetry of worth was produced. No progress was made in the formation of the drama, and few prose works were written that are now tolerated. The one brilliant thinker of the age was Leibnitz. VI. THE PERIOD OF REVIVAL.—With the accession of Frederick the Great, a stronger national life sprung up in Germany, and literature shared the growth. Several causes contributed to the advance of literature; the revival of classical learning, and a knowledge of English literature were chief. Several literary schools grew up. Important as were many of the writers in them, they exercised slight influence on the national mind compared with founders of the German classical literature—Klopstock, Wieland, and Lessing. Klopstock’s fame mainly rests on the “Messiah,” a work now little read, and if defective, yet full of striking and beautiful images. Klopstock’s odes are superior to his dramas, the latter showing knowledge neither of the stage nor of life. His influence upon intellectual life in Germany was very marked. Wieland was one of the most prolific of writers. “Oberon” is the most pleasing of his poems to modern readers, and by far most famous. “Agathon” is his best prose romance. Although at first a strong pietist, Wieland eventually became a pronounced epicurean. Lessing, the third of these great poets, is the only writer before Goethe that Germans now read sympathetically. As an imaginative writer he was chiefly distinguished in the drama, and his most important dramatic work is “Minna Von Barnhelm.” Superior to his imaginative works were his labors as a thinker. His style ranks with the greatest European writers, and his criticisms are of great value.