[PW] ?: free knowledge: Lessing or Schiller?

[Solomons1pal at aol.com]

Colleagues,
 
   One of the 18th century German dichters, Lessing or Schiller,  said that 
if God offered him a choice of free knowledge on the one hand, or just  a 
passion for knowledge on the other, he would choose the latter.
 
   Which one was it who said this?  Where exactly did he say  it?
 
                        Mark  Halpern (_markhalpern at iname.com_ 
(mailto:markhalpern at iname.com) )