Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/144

134 F I C F I C stitute essential principles of animal and of the higher vegetable organisms. The substances are distinguished among themselves more by physical peculiarities and pro perties than by distinctions of chemical constitution, which, indeed, is so variable as to point to the conclusion that the various principles are not to be regarded as definite chemical compounds. In a physiological sense fibrin results from the union of two albuminoids which exist separately in the blood, fibrinogen and the fibrinoplastic substance. The body is most readily obtained by lashing blood-clot with a loose bundle of twigs, when the sub stance will attach itself to the twigs in a filamentous con dition. On being purified by washing with water, it forms a soft elastic transparent or whitish mass of filaments, which have no tendency to cohere. When permitted to dry in the air it becomes a hard horny mass, with a yellowish or green ish tinge. Fibrin is quite insoluble in water, but boiled under pressure, or with long continued boiling, it dissolves with a change of its structure. It is unaffected by alcohol or ether, but in presence of dilute acids and weak alkalies it is gradually dissolved. Its average percentage composi tion is thus stated : Carbon 52 6, hydrogen 7*8, nitrogen 17 4, oxygen 21 8, sulphur 1 2. The analogous product obtained from muscular tissue is termed syntonin. Vegetable fibrin is that portion of the nitrogenous constituents of cereal grains and similar seeds which is insoluble in alcohol. Fibrin, although a substance of the highest physiological interest, and of the utmost importance as a constituent of food, has hitherto, unlike albumen, casein, and gluten, found no special application as a separate industrial product. FICHTE, JOHAJTN GOTTLIEB (1762-1814), one of the most eminent of modern German metaphysicians, was born at Eammenau in Upper Lusatia on the 19th May 1762. His father, a ribbon-weaver in that village, was of Swedish origin, the first of the Fichte family having been a soldier in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, who was left wounded at Rammeuau and settled there. All of the race were dis tinguished for piety, uprightness, and solidity of character. With these qualities Fichte himself combined a certain impetuosity of temper and impatience which were probably derived from his mother, a woman of somewhat querulous and jealous disposition. At a very early age the boy showed remarkable mental vigour and moral independence. A fortunate accident brought him under the notice of a neighbouring nobleman, Freiherr von Miltitz, and was the means of procuring him a more excellent education than his father s circumstances would have allowed. By Von Miltitz he was placed under the care of Pastor Krebel at Niederau, who prepared him admirably for higher school instruction. After a short stay at Meissen he was then entered at the celebrated school or seminary at Pforta, near Raumburg. In 1780, after eix years residence at Schulpforta, Fichte, whose patron Von Miltitz had unfortunately died, entered the university of Jena as a student of theology. His means did not permit him to prosecute an uninterrupted course of study ; he supported himself mainly by private teaching, and during the years 1784-1787 acted as tutor in various families of Saxony. In 1787, after an unsuccessful application to the consistory for some pecuniary assistance, such as was frequently given to poor students of theology at the Saxon universities, he seems to have been altogether driven to miscellaneous literary work. A tutorship at Zurich was, however, obtained in the spring of 1788, through his friend Weisse, and Fichte spent in Switzerland two of the happiest years of his life. He made several valuable acquaintances, among others Lavater and his brother-in-law Hartmann Rahn, to whose daughter, Johanna Maria, he became engaged before leaving Zurich in 1790. Settling at Leipsic, Fichte still found himself without any fixed means of livelihood, and was again reduced to literary drudgery, writing tales, plays, and reviews for the popular magazines. In the midst of this distracting work occurred the most important event of his life, his introduc tion to the philosophy of Kant. That Fichte had been already interested in philosophico- theological questions we know, but up to this period his speculations had been but desultory. At Schulpforta he had read with delight Lessing s Anti-Goeze, and during his Jena student days had occupied himself with the difficult problem of the relation between philosophy and religion. The outcome of his speculations, as exhibited in the fragmentary Aphorismen iiber Religion und Deisnms (unpublished, date 1790 ; Werke, i. 1-8), was a species of Spinozistic determinism, regarded, however, as lying altogether outside the boundary of religion. Ifc is remarkable that even for a time should fatalism have been predominant in Fichte s reasoning, for in character he was throughout opposed to such a view, and, as he has said, " according to the man, so is the system of philosophy he adopts." With such half-formed opinions, Kant s philosophy was a new revelation. In particular, he seized upon the practical side, in which Kant works out his view of the absolute moral law as the essence of free intelligence. This doctrine lies at the root of all Fichte s after speculations ; in fact, his system is merely the rigidly consistent evolution of the true relation between reason as practical and reason as cognitive. Fichte s Letters of this period sufficiently attest the influence exercised on him by the study of Kant. It effected a revolution in his whole mode of thinking and so completely did the Kantian doctrine of the inherent moral worth of man harmonize with his own character, that from this time forward his life becomes one effort to realize and perfect a true philosophy, and to make its principles no mere theoretic axioms, but practical maxims. At first ho seems to have thought that the best method for accomplishing his object would be to expound Kantianism in a popular, intelligible form. He felt, and rightly, that the reception of Kant s doctrines was impeded by the clumsy and scholastic phraseology in which they were stated. An abridgment of the Kritik dcr Urtlieilskraft was begun, but was left unfinished. The circumstances of Fichte s life had not improved. N"o opening had presented itself, and it had been arranged in the beginning of 1791 that he should return to Zurich and be married to Johanna Rahn. This plan was overthrown by a commercial disaster which severely affected the fortunes of the Rahn family. Fichte accepted a post as private tutor to the family of a nobleman in Warsaw, and proceeded slowly on foot to that town. The situation proved unsuit able ; the lady, as Kuuo Fischer says, "required greater submission and better French " than Fichte could yield, and after little more than a fortnight s stay, Fichte set out for Konigsberg, drawn thither by the desire to see Kant. His first interview with Kant was disappointing ; the coldness and formality of the aged philosopher checked the enthu siasm of the young disciple, though it did not diminish his admiration and reverence. He resolved to bring himself before Kant s notice in a more effective manner by sub mitting to him some paper in which the principles of the Kantian philosophy should be applied. Such was the origin of the work, written in four weeks, the Versuch eincr Kritik aller Ojfenbarung (Essay towards a Critique of all Revelation). The problem which Fichte dealt with in this essay was one not yet handled by Kant himself, and the relations of which to the critical philosophy furnished matter for considerable surmise. Indirectly, indeed, Kant had indicated a very definite opinion on theology : from the Critique of Pure Reason it was clear that for him specula tive theology must be purely negative, while the Critique of