Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/881

KANT 845 from Konigsberg. The only academic preferment received by him during the lengthy probation was the post of under- librarian, to which he was appointed in 1766. His lectures, at first mainly upon physics, gradually expanded until nearly all descriptions of philosophy were included under them. A most interesting programme of his courses on metaphysics, logic, ethics, and physical geography for the session 1765-66 has been printed in his works (i. 289- 299). The history of his literary activity during this period will be given in connexion with the notice of his writings. In 1770 he obtained the chair of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg, and delivered as his inaugural address the dissertation De Mundi Sensibilis et InteUigibilis Forma et Principiis. Eleven years later appeared the Kritik of Pure Reason, the work towards which he had been steadily advancing, and of which all his later writings are developments. In 1783 he published the Prolegomena, intended as an introduction to the Kritik, which had been found to stand in need of some explanatory comment. A second edition of the Kritik, with some modifications, appeared in 1787, after which it remained unaltered. In spite of its frequent obscurity, its novel terminology, and its declared opposition to prevailing systems, the Kantian philosophy made rapid progress in Germany. In the course of ten or twelve years from the publication of the Kritik of Pure Reason, it was expounded in all the leading universities, and it even penetrated into the schools of the Church of Rome. Such men as Schulze in Konigs berg, Kiesewetter in Berlin, Jakob in Halle, Born and Heydenreich in Leipsic, Reinhold and Schmid in Jena, Buhle in Gottingen, Tennemann in Marburg, and Snell in Giessen, with many others, made it the basis of their philo sophical teaching, while theologians like Tieftrunk, Staudlin, and Ammon -eagerly applied it to Christian doctrine and morality. Young men flocked to Konigsberg as to a shrine of philosophy. The Prussian Government even undertook the expense of their support. Kant was hailed by some as a second Messiah. He was consulted as an oracle on all questions of casuistry, as, for example, on the lawful ness of inoculation for the small-pox. This universal homage for a long time left Kant unaffected ; it was only in his later years that he spoke of his system as the limit of philosophy, and resented all further progress. He still pursued his quiet round of lecturing and authorship, and contributed from time to time papers to the literary journals. Of these, among the most remarkable was his review of Herder s Philosophy of History, which greatly exasperated that author, and led to a violent act of retalia tion some years after in his Metakritik of Pure Reason. Schiller at this period in vain sought to engage Kant upon his Horen. He remained true to the Berlin Joiirnal, in which most of his criticisms appeared. In 1792 Kant, in the full height of his reputation, was involved in a painful collision with the Government on the question of his religious doctrines. Wb llner had replaced Von Zedlitz as minister of spiritual affairs, and, in an age peculiarly lax and heterodox, an unwise attempt was made to apply a rigid censorship to works of philosophical theo logy. It was not wonderful that the philosophy of Kant had excited the declared opposition of all adherents of historical Christianity, since its plain tendency was towards a moral rationalism, and it- could not by any process of interpretation be reconciled to the literal doctrines of the Lutheran Church. It would have been much better to permit his exposition of the philosophy of religion to enjoy the same literary rights as his earlier works, since Kant could not be interdicted without first silencing a multitude of theologians who were at least equally separated from positive Christianity. The Government, however, judged otherwise ; and after the first part of his book, On Religion ivithin the Limits of Reason alone, had appeared in the Jlerlin Journal, the publication of the remainder, which treats in a more rationalizing style of the peculiarities of Christianity, was forbidden. Kant, thus shut out from Berlin, availed himself of his local* privilege, and, with the. sanction of the theological faculty of his own university, published the full work in Konigsberg. The Government, who were probably as much influenced by hatred and fear of the French Revolution, of which Kant was supposed to be a partisan, as by love of orthodoxy, resented the act ; and a secret cabinet order was received by him intimating the displeasure of the king, Frederick William II, and exacting from him a pledge not to lecture or write at all on religious subjects in future. With this mandate Kant, after a struggle, complied, and kept his engagement till 1797, when the death of the king, according to his con struction of his promise, set him free. This incident, how ever, produced a very unfavourable effect on his spirits. He withdrew in 1794 from society; next year he gave up all his classes but one public lecture on logic or metaphysics ; and in 1797, before the removal of the interdict on his theological teaching, he ceased altogether his public labours, after an academic course of forty -two years. He previously, in the same year, finished his treatises on the Metaphysics of Ethics, which, with his Anthropology, completed in 1798, were the last considerable works that he revised with his own hand. His Lectures on Logic, on Physical Geography, on Pedagogics, were edited during his lifetime by his friends and pupils. By way of asserting his right to resume theological disquisition, he also issued in 1798 his Strife of the Faculties, in which all the strongest points of his work on religion were urged afresh, and the correspond ence that had passed between himself and his censors was given to the world. From the date of his retirement from the chair Kant declined in strength, and gave tokens of intellectual decay. His memory began to fail, and a large work at which he wrought night and day, on the connexion between physics and metaphysics, was found to be only a repetition of his already published doctrines. After 1802, finding himself attacked with a weakness in the limbs, attended with frequent fits of falling, he mitigated a little the Spartan severity of his life, and also consented to receive medical advice. A constant restlessness oppressed him ; his sight gave way ; his conversation became an extraordinary mixture of metaphors ; and it was only at intervals that gleams of his former power broke out, especially when some old chord of association was struck in natural science or physical geography. A few days before his decease, with a great effort he thanked his medical attendant for his visits in the words, " I have not yet lost my feeling for humanity." On the 12th of February 1804, he breathed his last, having almost completed the eightieth year of his age. It is superfluous to characterize the genius of Kant ; but a few words may be added as to his personal appearance and habits of life, study, and teaching. His stature was small, and his appearance feeble. He was little more than 5 feet high; his breast was almost concave, and, like Schleiermacher, he was deformed in the right shoulder. His hair was light, his complexion fresh, his forehead high and square, while his eye of light blue showed an ex pression of unusual depth and power. His senses were quick and delicate ; and, though of weak constitution, he escaped, by strict regimen, all serious illness till the close of life. His life was arranged with mechanical regularity ; and, as he never married, he kept the habits of his studious youth to old age. His man-servant awoke him summer