He was not celebrated, in any
national
sense, until he was nearly
sixty years of age.
sixty years of age.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v15 - Kab to Les
(Exit.
]
Child — No, no: I shall go on playing with the young lion. (Looks
at the female attendant and laughs. ]
King - I feel an unaccountable affection for this wayward child.
How blest the virtuous parents whose attire
Is soiled with dust, by raising from the ground
The child that asks a refuge in their arms!
And happy are they while with lisping prattle,
In accents sweetly inarticulate,
He charms their ears; and with his artless smiles
Gladdens their hearts, revealing to their gaze
His tiny teeth just budding into view.
Attendant - I see how it is. He pays me no manner of attention.
(Looking off the stage. ] I wonder whether any of the hermits are
about here. [Seeing the King. ] Kind sir, could you come hither a
moment and help me to release the young lion from the clutch of
this child, who is teasing him in boyish play?
King (approaching and smiling]— Listen to me, thou child of a
mighty saint:
Dost thou dare show a wayward spirit here?
Here, in this hallowed region ? Take thou heed
Lest, as the serpent's young defiles the sandal,
Thou bring dishonor on the holy sage,
Thy tender-hearted parent, who delights
To shield from harm the tenants of the wood.
Attendant - Gentle sir, I thank you; but he is not the saint's son.
King — His behavior and whole bearing would have led me to
doubt it, had not the place of his abode encouraged the idea.
(Follows the child, and takes him by the hand, according to the request of
the attendant. ]
Aside
I marvel that the touch of this strange child
Should thrill me with delight; if so it be,
How must the fond caresses of a son
Transport the father's soul who gave him being!
Attendant (looking at them both] - Wonderful! Prodigious!
King – What excites your surprise, my good woman?
Attendant — I am astonished at the striking resemblance between
the child and yourself; and what is still more extraordinary, he
## p. 8472 (#72) ############################################
8472
KĀLIDĀSA
Fir
S SE
BE
-
min
ki
FC
Che
CA
ei
2.
seems to have taken to you kindly and submissively, though you are
a stranger to him.
King (fondling the child ]- If he be not the son of the great sage,
of what family does he come, may I ask ?
Attendant -Of the race of Puru.
King [aside] — What! are we then descended from the same an-
cestry? This no doubt accounts for the resemblance she traces
between the child and me. Certainly it has always been an estab-
lished usage among the princes of Puru's race –
To dedicate the morning of their days
To the world's weal, in palaces and halls,
'Mid luxury and regal pomp abiding:
Then, in the wane of life, to seek release
From kingly cares, and make the hallowed shade
Of sacred trees their last asylum, where
As hermits they may practice self-abasement,
And bind themselves by rigid vows of penance.
[Aloud. ] But how could mortals by their own power gain admission
to this sacred region ?
Attendant — Your remark is just; but your wonder will cease when
I tell you that his mother is the offspring of a celestial nymph, and
gave him birth in the hallowed grove of Kāçyapa.
King [aside) - Strange that my hopes should be again excited!
[Aloud. ) But what, let me ask, was the name of the prince whom
she deigned to honor with her hand ?
Attendant — How could I think of polluting my lips by the mention
of a wretch who had the cruelty to desert his lawful wife ?
King [aside] - Ha! the description suits me exactly. Would I
!
could bring myself to inquire the name of the child's mother!
[Reflecting. ] But it is against propriety to make too minute inquiries
about the wife of another man.
First Attendant (entering with the china peacock in her hand] — Sarva-
damana, Sarva-damana, see, see, what a beautiful cakunta [bird).
Child [looking round]— My mother! Where? Let me go to her.
Both Attendants — He mistook the word “çakunta” for “Çakuntalā. ”
The boy dotes upon his mother, and she is ever uppermost in his
thoughts.
Second Attendant — Nay, my dear child: I said, look at the beauty
of this cakunta.
King [aside]— What! is his mother's name Çakuntalā ? But the
name is not uncommon among women. Alas! I fear that the mere
similarity of a name, like the deceitful vapor of the desert, has
once more raised my hopes only to dash them to the ground.
Child — Dear nurse, what a beautiful peacock! [Takes the toy. ]
E
1
## p. 8473 (#73) ############################################
KĀLIDĀSA
8473
First Attendant [looking at the child in great distress] — Alas! alas!
I do not see the amulet on his wrist.
King – Don't distress yourself. Here it is. It fell off while he
was struggling with the young lion. (Stoops to pick it up. ]
Both Attendants — Hold! hold! Touch it not, for your life. How
marvelous! He has actually taken it up without the slightest hesita-
tion. [Both raise their hands to their breasts and look at each other in
astonishment. ]
King – Why did you try to prevent my touching it?
First Attendant - Listen, great monarch. This amulet, known as
« The Invincible,” was given to the boy by the divine son of Marichi
soon after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed. Its
peculiar virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one excepting
the father or mother of the child can touch it unhurt.
King — And suppose another person touches it?
First Attendant — Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites
him.
King — Have you ever witnessed the transformation with your own
eyes ?
Both Attendants — Over and over again.
King (with rapture, aside] - Joy! joy! Are then my dearest hopes
to be fulfilled ? [Embraces the child. ]
Second Attendant - Come, my dear Suvratā, we must inform Çakun-
talā immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to inter-
rupt her in the performance of her religious vows. (Exeunt. ] ]
Child [to the King] - Do not hold me. I want to go to my mother.
King – We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son.
Child — Dushyanta is my father, not you.
King (smiling ] - His contradiction convinces me only the more.
Enter Çakuntalā, in widow's apparel, with her long hair twisted into a
single braid.
Çakuntala (aside]—I have just heard that Sarva-damana's amulet
has retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground.
I can hardly believe in my good fortune. Yet why should not
Sānumati's prediction be verified ?
King (gazing at Çakuntalā) – Alas! can this indeed be my Çakun-
talā ?
Clad in the weeds of widowhood, her face
Emaciate with fasting, her long hair
Twined in a single braid, her whole demeanor
Expressive of her purity of soul:
With patient constancy she thus prolongs
The vow to which my cruelty condemned her.
## p. 8474 (#74) ############################################
8474
KĀLIDĀSA
Çakuntala (gazing at the King, who is pale with remorse] - Surely
this is not like my husband; yet who can it be that dares pollute by
the pressure of his hand my child, whose amulet should protect him
from a stranger's touch ?
Child (going to his mother]— Mother, who is this man that has been
kissing me and calling me his son ?
King – My best beloved, I have indeed treated thee most cruelly,
but am now once more thy fond and affectionate lover. Refuse not
to acknowledge me as thy husband.
Cakuntală [aside] -- Be of good cheer, my heart. The anger of
Destiny is at last appeased. Heaven regards thee with compassion.
But is he in very truth my husband ?
King – Behold me, best and loveliest of women,
Delivered from the cloud of fatal darkness
That erst oppressed my memory. Again
Behold us brought together by the grace
Of the great lord of Heaven. So the moon
Shines forth from dim eclipse, to blend his rays
With the soft lustre of his Rohini.
Çakuntalā — May my husband be victorious
[She stops short, her voice choked with tears. ]
King – O fair one, though the utterance of thy prayer
Be lost amid the torrent of thy tears,
Yet does the sight of thy fair countenance
And of thy pallid lips, all unadorned
And colorless in sorrow for my absence,
Make me already more than conqueror.
Child — Mother, who is this man?
Çakuntala - My child, ask the deity that presides over thy destiny.
King (falling at Çakuntala's feet) -
Fairest of women, banish from thy mind
The memory of my cruelty; reproach
The fell delusion that o'erpowered my soul,
And blame not me, thy husband, —'tis the curse
Of him in whom the power of darkness reigns,
That he mistakes the gifts of those he loves
For deadly evils. Even though a friend
Should wreathe a garland on a blind man's brow,
Will he not cast it from him as a serpent ?
Çakuntalā Rise, my own husband, rise. Thou wast not to blame.
My own evil deeds, committed in a former state of being, brought
down this judgment upon me. How else could my husband, who
## p. 8475 (#75) ############################################
KĀLIDĀSA
8475
-
was ever of a compassionate disposition, have acted so unfeelingly ?
[ The King rises. ] But tell me, my husband, how did the remem-
brance of thine unfortunate wife return to thy mind?
King — As soon as my heart's anguish is removed, and its wounds
are healed, I will tell thee all.
Oh! let me, fair one, chase away the drop
That still bedews the fringes of thine eye;
And let me thus efface the memory
Of every tear that stained thy velvet cheek,
Unnoticed and unheeded by thy lord,
When in his madness he rejected thee.
[Wipes away the tear. ]
Çakuntalā (seeing the signet-ring on his finger]– Ah! my dear hus-
band, is that the Lost Ring ?
King — Yes; the moment I recovered it, my memory was restored.
Çakuntalā — The ring was to blame in allowing itself to be lost at
the
very time when I was anxious to convince my noble husband of
the reality of my marriage.
King – Receive it back, as the beautiful twining plant receives
again its blossom in token of its reunion with the spring.
Çakuntalā — Nay; I can never more place confidence in it. Let
my husband retain it.
Enter Mātali
-
Mätali — I congratulate your Majesty. Happy are you in your
reunion with your wife; happy are you in beholding the face of your
own son,
Translation of Monier Williams.
A
I.
FROM THE MEGHADUTA. ? OR CLOUD MESSENGER
CERTAIN Yaksha [Divine Being) neglectful once of his mas-
ter's task, and stript thus of his glory through his lord's
curse, which was to last a year and was the more grievous
because of separating him from his Beloved, had taken up his
abode amid the hermitages on Rāma's Hill, dense in shade trees
and whose waters were hallowed by [the fair] Sītā's having
bathed in them.
Upon this mountain the love-lorn wight, from whose
wasted arm the golden bracelet had slipped down, had already
spent eight weary moons, separated from his consort; when, on
2.
## p. 8476 (#76) ############################################
8476
KĀLIDĀSA
the first day of the Ashādha month, he caught sight of a cloud
clinging to the mountain peak and resembling an elephant with
lowered tusks butting at a bank of earth.
3. Scarce checking his tears in the presence of the cloud
which was a source of emotion to him, the servant of Kubera
[Lord of Wealth] stood long wrapt in thought: [for truly] at
the sight of a cloud the heart even of a person in happiness is
stirred, but how much more when one is longing to throw his
arms about [the loved one's] neck and is absent far away.
4. Now, desirous to cheer the heart of his Beloved, for the
rainy month was nigh at hand, and eager to send by the cloud a
message to her, telling of his welfare, the Yaksha, filled with
joy, bade the cloud welcome, in loving terms, after he had wor-
shiped it with fresh jasmine sprays, saying:-
6. “I know that thou art born of a world-renowned race of
clouds, Indra's chief counselor and assuming any shape at will,
so I, who am separated from my consort by Fate's cruel decree,
come as suppliant to thee; for better is a fruitless boon if asked
of a noble person than an answered request made to a craven.
7. « Thou art, O Cloud, a refuge for the sore-distressed;
deign therefore to bear a message for me whom the wrath of
Kubera has banished. It is to Alakā, abode of the Yakshas'
Lord, that thou must fly, where the palaces gleam with the
moonlight that glances from the head of god Çiva, whose statue
stands in the outer garden.
9. "A favoring breeze will gently, gently waft thee, and this
proud Chātaka bird upon the left doth carol sweetly; the cranes
in wreathed curves in the sky, and eager for the mating-time,
will wait in attendance upon thee, for thou art the herald of
joy.
13. « First hear me tell the path that is to be thy journey,
and where on the mountain-tops thou shalt rest thy foot when
worn and weary, quaffing the light creamy nectar of the stream,
when tired out: afterwards, O Watery Minister, thou shalt hear a
message that is fit for thine ears to drink in. "
[And in fairest colors of a poet's brush he paints the northward journey
of the cloud to the home where the lonely spouse awaits her banished lord's
return. ]
Translation of A. V. W. Jackson.
## p. 8476 (#77) ############################################
## p. 8476 (#78) ############################################
GRUP
Die rosii
KANT
## p. 8476 (#79) ############################################
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grandparents having emigrated iron Scotland to East Prussia. Kartis
parents were members of the Pietistic party in the indtheran Church,
ward Kant's eariy education was thus under inriences decidediy emen
toral in their religious character,-- although the poverty. the haul
bet hun , and the sterling character of his parents prevented the waring
## p. 8476 (#80) ############################################
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## p. 8477 (#81) ############################################
8477
IMMANUEL KANT
(1724-1804)
BY JOSIAH ROYCE
10. G
He external events of the life of Immanuel Kant are neither
numerous nor startling. He was born in Königsberg in
LÔ East Prussia, in the year 1724, on the 22d of April.
He
died in his native place on the 12th of February, 1804. He never
traveled beyond about a distance of sixty miles from the city; was
never occupied except as scholar, private tutor, university official,
and writer. He saw very little of the great world at any time.
He was not celebrated, in any national sense, until he was nearly
sixty years of age. His personal relations were for the most part,
and until his later years, almost as restricted as his material circum-
stances. He was in all the early part of his life decidedly poor.
By dint of very strict economy he acquired a moderate amount of
property before his death, but he was never rich.
He carefully
avoided all roads to purely worldly position or power. Yet by dint
of intellectual prowess, fortified by a profound moral earnestness,
although one somewhat coldly austere, — he acquired an influence
over the thought, first of his country, and then of Europe, which has
been in many ways transforming. Amongst philosophical thinkers he
stands in the first rank in the very small group of those philosophers
who can be regarded as genuine originators. As an original thinker,
in fact, he is the only modern philosopher who can be put beside
Plato and Aristotle. Other modern thinkers have represented indi-
vidual ideas of more or less independence and importance; Kant
alone has the honor of having transformed by his work some of the
most fundamental tendencies of modern speculation.
Of Kant the man, numerous characterizations have been given
by his friends and admirers. Most of these accounts relate especially
to his appearance and life in his later years. Of his youth we know
much less. On his father's side Kant was of Scottish descent, his
grandparents having emigrated from Scotland to East Prussia. Kant's
parents were members of the Pietistic party in the Lutheran Church,
and Kant's early education was thus under influences decidedly emo-
tional in their religious character,-- although the poverty, the hard
labor, and the sterling character of his parents prevented the wasting
## p. 8478 (#82) ############################################
8478
IMMANUEL KANT
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of time in devotional extravagances such as often characterized the
Pietistic movement; and the philosopher later looked back upon his
early training not only with a deep feeling of devotion, but with
a genuine intellectual respect. The family was large. There were
three sons and seven daughters. One of Kant's brothers later became
a minister. One of the sisters survived the philosopher. But six of
the children died young; and Immanuel himself inherited a delicate
constitution which had a great deal to do, in later years, both with
the sobriety and with the studious contemplativeness of his life's
routine. At eight years of age, Kant attended the gymnasium called
the Fredericianum, in KönigsbergHere he spent eight years and a
half, much under the eye and the influence of the director of the gym-
nasium, Dr. F. A. Schultz, — Pietist, professor of theology, and pastor.
Schultz was a scholarly, independent, and extremely active man,
severe as a disciplinarian, stimulating as a thinker and worker. As
Kant himself grew into youth, he formed literary ambitions, showed
skill as a Latin writer and reader, but gave no evidences as yet of
philosophical tendencies. He was not regarded as an especially prom-
ising boy: he is said to have been sensitive; he was certainly weak
in body and small in stature. He entered the University in 1740;
struggled with poverty and pedantry for about four years; was influ-
enced by the philosophical teaching, especially of Martin Knutzen;
and earned some necessary means as private tutor. A familiar
anecdote of his university period relates that Kant occasionally was
obliged to borrow clothing from his friends while his own was mend-
ing; and the story adds that on such occasions the friend might be
obliged to stay at home himself. In any case, Kant's university life
is described as one of ew recreations and of pretty constant labor.
Its result was seen at once after graduation, however, in the some-
what ambitious publication with which Kant's literary career opened.
This was a study of the then current problem of the theory of kinetic
forces,— or “living forces, as in the terminology of that time the
title-page of this essay calls them. The essay was at once philo-
sophical and quasi-mathematical. It was not in any positive sense
an important contribution to the discussion; but it was obviously the
work of a man in earnest. It was written in a spirit that combined
in an attractive way ambition and modesty; and it contained in one
passage a somewhat prophetic statement of the course that Kant had
laid out for himself.
Kant's mother died in 1737. In 1746 his father followed. The
years immediately subsequent to his university course, and to the
publication of the foregoing treatise, were passed as private tutor;
and it was at the beginning of this period that Kant traveled farthest
from his native city. Our philosopher's work as tutor in private
uts b
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atten
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DE
.
## p. 8479 (#83) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
1
8479
families was of considerable advantage for his knowledge of the
world, and brought him into contact with somewhat distinguished
local magnates. Nine years in all were passed in this occupation.
The year 1755 begins a new and important period of Kant's
career. In this year he became tutor, or privat-docent, at the Univer-
sity, defended a dissertation upon metaphysics as he took his place
in the University, and published a treatise on the Natural History
and Theory of the Heavens. In the latter essay he not only showed
in various ways the most important features of his earlier methods
of work, but had the honor of forestalling Lambert and Laplace in a
number of suggestions, which have since become fainous, relating to
the evolution of the solar system. From this moment dates a long-
continued and extremely laborious effort towards self-development.
As a university teacher, Kant was singularly successful. His range
of lectures was large. Physical science, and especially physical ge-
ography, logic, and metaphysics were prominent among his topics.
Affiliated at first with the then current highly formal and dogmatic
Wolffian philosophy of the universities, Kant was from the outset an
essentially independent expositor of doctrine, and soon became more
and more an independent thinker. He united the necessarily some-
what pedantic method due to his own early training, with a marvel-
ous humanity of spirit, and much brilliancy of expression as a lecturer.
Some of his students listened with great enthusiasm. Herder, who
attended his lectures in 1762 and 1763, never forgot, even in the midst
of a bitter opposition which years later grew up in his mind towards
Kant, the early influence of the master upon him. At the time or
near it, the young Herder could hardly use expressions too enthusi-
astic concerning his master. « Heavenly hours” he names the time
spent in such instruction. Kant, he tells us, unites learning and
depth in the finest fashion with something resembling the humor
of "Tristram Shandy. ) » He is a profound observer in the pathology
of our mind,” he shows a creative philosophical imagination,” and
has his own Socratic method of bringing everything into relation with
In æsthetic as in ethical directions Herder finds his teacher
equally great.
Kant is “altogether a social observer, altogether a
finished philosopher, a philosopher of humanity, and in this humane
philosophy a German Shaftesbury. ”
Some amongst Kant's writings belonging to this period show
literary powers which make this enthusiastic characterization more
intelligible than the writings of his later period would serve to do.
Kant had unquestionably the power to become a popular writer of
distinction, if not of extraordinary rank. But he was disposed to
sacrifice his literary gifts for the sake of a cause which as the years
went by became constantly dearer to him. For worldly distinction
»
man.
## p. 8480 (#84) ############################################
8480
IMMANUEL KANT
that
ha
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CI
he had small desire. University advancement came
to him very
slowly. Official favor he did not seek. His work as a teacher was
always precious to him. But most of all he prized what he once
called his mistress, namely Metaphysics. At certain central problems
he worked with a constantly increasing devotion and intensity. His
own contributions to philosophy became during the years between
1762 and 1766 somewhat numerous: but he himself, even at the time,
made comparatively little of them; for he found them fragmentary,
and as he himself says, regarded philosophical insight as an ideal
whole, in which very little could be accomplished unless that whole
were surveyed at a glance. Of his own development during these
years, the philosopher himself has given us some indications in notes
preserved among his papers. « Of my science,” he says (namely,
of philosophy), "I taught at first what most appealed to I
attempted to make some contributions of my own to the common
treasury; in other respects I attempted to correct errors: yet all
the while I expected to extend the dogmas of tradition. But when
one attempts with real earnestness to find truth, one spares at last
not even his own productions. One submits everything that one has
learned or has believed to a thorough-going criticism; and so it slowly
came to pass that I found my entire dogmatic theory open to funda-
mental objections. ” Later on, Kant declared that he regarded all
his metaphysical writings as rendered entirely worthless by his later
critical philosophy. Thus unsparingly did the great critic assail his
own thought first and most of all.
He was
aware that in
doing so he deliberately adopted, in his later treatises, a method of
exposition that lacked all literary charms. “My method,” he says
in notes relating to his later style, “is not very much disposed to
enchain the reader or to please him. My writings seem scholastic,
dryly contemplative,- yes, even meagre, and far enough from the
tone of genius. It seems, to be sure, as if there were nothing more
tasteless than metaphysics; but the jewels that are beauty's adorn-
ment lay once in dark mines, or at least were seen only in the dim
workshop of the artist. ”
The fruits of Kant's long labors ripened first in the year 1781,
when he published his Critique of Pure Reason, the most famous
philosophical treatise of the last two centuries. This theoretical trea-
tise was followed by a more popular exposition of a portion of the
doctrine of the Critique' itself in 1783. To this more popular expo-
sition, which also contained extensive replies to critics, Kant gave
the name of Prolegomena to Every Future Metaphysic. ? In 1785
and 1788 he published works bearing on his ethical doctrine; in 1790
a philosophical treatise upon æsthetics, and upon the presence of
design in nature; in 1793 appeared an “Essay upon the Philosophy of
even
1
## p. 8481 (#85) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8481
a very
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Religion. During the years between 1781 and 1795 Kant also printed
a large number of philosophical papers upon various subjects, ethical,
historical, and polemical. The long period of preparation had thus
given place to a time of great philosophical activity; but after 1795
the now aged philosopher began to feel the effects of his always deli-
cate constitution with rapidly increasing severity. He grew unable
to follow the current discussions which his own writings had by this
time provoked. He planned a large philosophical work which was
to set the crown upon his systematic labors; but he was unable to
give this treatise any final form. His last few years were beset
with increasing physical infirmity and mental ineffectiveness, although
he preserved to the last his high moral courage and his rigid self-
control. At the end he wasted away, and died of marasmus in 1804.
In person Kant was small and spare, weak of muscle, and scarcely
five feet high. His cheeks were sunken, his cheek-bones high, his
chest was small; his shoulders were slightly deformed. His forehead
was high, narrow at the base and broad at the top. His head was de-
cidedly large in proportion to the rest of his body; and the capacity
of his skull, as measured in 1880 (when his remains were transferred
to a chapel raised in his honor), was declared to be uncommonly
great. The physical details here given are found in much fuller
statement in the excellent life of Kant by Dr. Stuckenberg, published
by Macmillan in 1882. The physical habits of Kant have been often
described in works of literary gossip. What especially attracts atten-
tion is that rigid regularity of routine which was determined by the
philosopher's sensitive health. His constitution was intolerant of
medicine; and he early learned that he could combat his numerous
minor infirmities only by careful diet, by mental self-control (in which
he acquired great skill), and by strict habit of life. His care extended
to his breathing, in an almost Oriental fashion. He cured his pains,
on occasions, by control over his attention; and by the same means
worked successfully against sleeplessness. He was troubled with
defective vision; and in general he narrowly escaped hypochondriac
tendencies by virtue of a genuinely wholesome cheerfulness of intel-
In intellectual matters themselves Kant was always
characterized by an extraordinary power of thoughtful analysis; by
a strenuous disposition to pursue, without haste and without rest,
any line of inquiry which had once engaged his attention; by keen
suspicion of all his instincts and acquired presuppositions; and by a
somewhat fatalistic willingness to wait as long as might be necessary
for light. No thinker ever had originality more obviously thrust upon
him by the situation, and by his unwearied devotion to his task.
From the outset, indeed, he had a sense that his work was destined
to have important results; but this sense was something very far
the says
cosed to
Lolastic,
om the
more
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e dim
lectual temper.
1781,
mous
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f the
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e of
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XV-531
## p. 8482 (#86) ############################################
8482
IMMANUEL KANT
shemden
the you
Cats
That co
he net
ci bis
me an
any
中董事.
22
When
different from vanity, and was accompanied by none of that personal
longing for brilliancy and originality which has determined for good
or for ill the life work of so many literary men and thinkers. Not
naturally an iconoclast, Kant was driven by his problems to become
one of the most revolutionary of thinkers. Not naturally an enthu-
siast, he was led to results which furnished the principal philosophical
food for the most romantic and emotional age of modern German lit-
erature. Devoted at the outset to the careful exposition of doctrines
which he had accepted from tradition, Kant was led by the purely
inner and normal development of his work to views extraordinarily
independent.
The process of his thought constitutes as it were one long and
connected nature process, working with the fatal necessity of the ebb
and flow of the tide, and is as independent of his personal caprices
as of the merely popular tendencies of the period in which he grew
up. Yet when Frederick Schlegel later classed the thinkers of pure
reason with the French Revolution, as one of the characteristic pro-
cesses of the century, he expressed a view which the student of intel-
lectual life can well appreciate and easily defend. But the expression
suggests not alone the importance of the critical philosophy, but also
its character as a sort of natural development of the whole intellect-
ual situation of that age.
Morally speaking, Kant was characterized by three features. Of
these the first is his relatively cool intellectual attitude towards all
problems. He has no sympathy with romantic tendencies; although
later many a romantic soul came to sympathize profoundly with him.
He is opposed to mysticism of every form; and not so much suspects
the emotions of human nature, as clearly sees what he takes to be
their essential and fundamental capriciousness. The second trait is
a thorough regard for lawfulness of action. Reasonable guidance is
for him the only possible guidance. Emotions must deceive; the
plan of life is as plan alone worthy of consideration. Kant has
small interest in noble sentiments, but very great natural respect for
large and connected personal and social undertakings, when guided
by ideas.
The third characteristic of the philosopher, in this part of
his nature, is that sincerely cheerful indifference to fortune which
made him, amidst all his frequently keen criticism of the weakness
of human nature and of the vanities of life, withal a critic who
just escapes pessimism by dint of his assurance that, after all, reason
must triumph in the universe. Kant was a fine observer of human
nature, and as such was fond of lecturing on what we might call
the comparative psychology of national and social types. He was
widely read in the anthropological literature of his day. Accord.
ingly, his observations on man's moral nature, in his lectures as in his
1
Alle
Issia
20
. و *
1
1
## p. 8483 (#87) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8483
personal
ior good
ers. Not
become
i enthu.
sophical
yan lit.
ctrines
purely
dinarily
long and
of the ebb
al caprices
ch he grew
. ers of pure
teristic pro-
nt of intel
expression
ly, but also
le intellect-
published treatises, often show the breadth of reading and the humane
shrewdness of judgment which were the source of the charm that
the young Herder so richly found in his teaching. Yet Kant's ac-
counts of human nature, without being cynical, always appear some-
what coldly disillusioned. What saves this aspect of his work from
seeming cynical is the genuine tone of moral seriousness with which
he views the more rational aspects of human tasks. In one passage
of his lectures on psychology, in connection with the theory of pleas-
ure and pain, he briefly sums up his view of the happiness possible
to any mortal man. This view at first sight is somewhat uninviting.
From the nature of the case. Kant reasons, every pleasure has to
be attended with a corresponding experience of pain.
Life in gen-
eral seems to be naturally something of a burden. Moreover, every
human desire has by nature other desires opposing it. Our tenden-
cies, as they naturally are, are profoundly deceitful. Yet despite all
this, Kant asserts that life has its very deep comforts. But what are
these? Kant replies:— «The deepest and easiest means of quieting
all pains is the thought that a reasonable man should be expected to
have at his control, - namely, the thought that life in general, so far
as the enjoyment of it goes, has no genuine worth at all; for enjoy-
ment depends upon fortune: but its worth consists alone in the use
of life, in the purposes to which it is directed. And this aspect of
life comes to man not by fortune, but only through wisdom. This
consequently is in man's power. Whoever is much troubled about
losing life will never enjoy life. ”
These three traits of Kant's moral attitude towards life unite to
give some of his more mature historical essays and critical studies
a character which deserves to be better known than it now is, by
students who are less interested in the metaphysical aspect of his
doctrine. In judging the course of human history, Kant sometimes
seems to be accepting the doctrine of Hobbes, that by nature all
men are at war with all. In fact, however, Kant sees deeper. The
situation has another aspect. The warfare is still fundamental.
Every man is at war not only with his fellows, but by nature with
himself. He desires freedom, but he desires also power. Power he
can get only through social subordination. This, man more or less
feels from the outset. His need of his fellow-man is as prominent
in his own mind as is his disposition to war with his fellow. Kant
accordingly speaks of man as a being “who cannot endure his fellow-
inan, and cannot possibly do without him. ” Thus there is that in
man which wars against the very warfare itself; and Kant's general
psychological theory of the inner opposition and division of the nat-
ural man comes to appear somewhat like the Pauline doctrine of the
Epistle to the Romans. But Nature's chaos is Reason's opportunity.
atures. Of
wards all
although
with him.
7 suspects
es to be
d trait is
dance is
ire; the
ant has
Pect for
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En his
## p. 8484 (#88) ############################################
8484
IMMANUEL KANT
It is
upon
this
very basis that Kant founds his ethical theory; accord-
ing to which the moral law can find in our natures no possible basis
except the fundamental and supreme demand of the Pure Reason,
that this universal but obviously senseless conflict shall cease through
voluntary subordination to what Kant calls the Categorical Impera-
tive. The Categorical Imperative is the principle of consistency in
conduct; stated abstractly, the principle, So act at any time that you
could will the maxim of your act to become a universal law for all
reasonable beings. This maxim a man can obey; because he is not
merely a creature with this nature, so capricious and so inwardly
divided against itself, but a rational being with free-will, capable of
subordinating caprice to reason. The whole moral law is thus summed
up in the maxim, Act now as if your act determined the deed of
every man for all time; or more simply, Act upon absolutely con-
sistent principles. And now, in the course of history, Kant sees the
progressive process of the realization of this one universal principle
of the reason, in the organization of a rational human society.
Kant's true originality as a thinker lies most in his theoretical
philosophy. Of this in the present place it is impossible to give any
really significant account. If one must sum up in the fewest words
the most general idea of this doctrine, one is disposed to say: Kant
found philosophical thought concerned with the problem, how human
knowledge is related to the real world of truth. This problem had
assumed its then customary shape in connection with discussions
both of traditional theology and of science. What we now call the
conflict of religion and science really turned for that age, as for ours,
upon the definition and the solution of this fundamental problem of
the scope and the limits of knowledge. But what philosophers up
to Kant's time had not questioned, was that if human knowledge in
any region, as for instance in the region of natural science, has valid-
ity,- accomplishes what it means to accomplish, — then this valid-
ity and this success must involve a real acquaintance with the world
absolutely real, beyond the boundaries of human experience. Thus
materialistic philosophy had maintained that if natural science is
valid, man knows a world of absolutely real matter, which explains
all things and is the ultimate truth. Theological doctrine had held
in a similar way that if the human reason is valid at all, then the
absolute nature of God, of the soul, or of some other transcendent
truth, must in some respect be within our range. Now Kant under-
took, by virtue of a new analysis of human knowledge, to prove, on
one hand, that human reason cannot know absolute truth of any kind
except moral truth. Herein, to be sure, his doctrine seemed at one
with those skeptical views which had questioned in former times
the validity of human knowledge altogether. But Kant did not agree
## p. 8485 (#89) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8485
accord.
ble basis
Reason,
through
Impera
cener in
at jou
or all
Eis not
wardly
pable oi
summed
- deed of
utely con
at sees the
1 principle
ety:
Cheoretical
give any
with the skeptics as to their result. On the other hand, he main-
tained that the real success and the genuine validity of human
science depend upon the very fact that we are not able to know, in
theoretical realms, any absolute or transcendent truth whatsoever.
For, as Kant asserts, in dealing with nature as science knows nature,
we are really dealing with the laws of human experience as such, and
not with any absolute or transcendent truth whatever. It is however
the nature of the human understanding, the constitution of human
experience, that is expressed in all natural laws that we are able to
discover; in all the truth that science maintains or that the future
can disclose. Thus, as Kant states the case, it is the understanding
that gives laws to nature. And the limitation of knowledge to the
realm of experience, and our failure to be able to know in theoreti-
cal terms any transcendent truth, are not signs of the failure of
human knowledge in its essential human purposes, but are conditions
upon which depends the very validity of our knowledge within its
own realm. In trying to know more than the world of experience,
we try an experiment which, if successful, could only end in making
all knowledge impossible. Space, time, such fundamental ideas as
the idea of causality,— all these are facts which represent no funda-
mental truth beyond experience whatever. They are facts determined
solely by the facts of human nature. They hold within our range,
and not beyond it. Of things in themselves we know nothing. But
on this very ignorance, Kant maintains, is founded not only the valid-
ity of our natural sciences, but the possibility of retaining, against
the assaults of materialism and of a purely negative skepticism, the
validity of our moral consciousness and the essential spirit of reli-
gious faith. In this unique combination of critical skepticism, of
moral idealism, and of a rationalistic assurance of the validity for all
men of the a priori principles upon which natural science rests, lies
the essential significance of the philosophy of Kant, - a significance
which only a much fuller exposition, and a study of the history of
thought, could make explicit.
Jest words
say: Kant
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kind
at one
times
agret
## p. 8486 (#90) ############################################
8486
IMMANUEL KANT
A COMPARISON OF THE BEAUTIFUL WITH THE PLEASANT
AND THE GOOD
10
E: 5
tri
From «The Critique of Judgment
>
111
A
1.
Child — No, no: I shall go on playing with the young lion. (Looks
at the female attendant and laughs. ]
King - I feel an unaccountable affection for this wayward child.
How blest the virtuous parents whose attire
Is soiled with dust, by raising from the ground
The child that asks a refuge in their arms!
And happy are they while with lisping prattle,
In accents sweetly inarticulate,
He charms their ears; and with his artless smiles
Gladdens their hearts, revealing to their gaze
His tiny teeth just budding into view.
Attendant - I see how it is. He pays me no manner of attention.
(Looking off the stage. ] I wonder whether any of the hermits are
about here. [Seeing the King. ] Kind sir, could you come hither a
moment and help me to release the young lion from the clutch of
this child, who is teasing him in boyish play?
King (approaching and smiling]— Listen to me, thou child of a
mighty saint:
Dost thou dare show a wayward spirit here?
Here, in this hallowed region ? Take thou heed
Lest, as the serpent's young defiles the sandal,
Thou bring dishonor on the holy sage,
Thy tender-hearted parent, who delights
To shield from harm the tenants of the wood.
Attendant - Gentle sir, I thank you; but he is not the saint's son.
King — His behavior and whole bearing would have led me to
doubt it, had not the place of his abode encouraged the idea.
(Follows the child, and takes him by the hand, according to the request of
the attendant. ]
Aside
I marvel that the touch of this strange child
Should thrill me with delight; if so it be,
How must the fond caresses of a son
Transport the father's soul who gave him being!
Attendant (looking at them both] - Wonderful! Prodigious!
King – What excites your surprise, my good woman?
Attendant — I am astonished at the striking resemblance between
the child and yourself; and what is still more extraordinary, he
## p. 8472 (#72) ############################################
8472
KĀLIDĀSA
Fir
S SE
BE
-
min
ki
FC
Che
CA
ei
2.
seems to have taken to you kindly and submissively, though you are
a stranger to him.
King (fondling the child ]- If he be not the son of the great sage,
of what family does he come, may I ask ?
Attendant -Of the race of Puru.
King [aside] — What! are we then descended from the same an-
cestry? This no doubt accounts for the resemblance she traces
between the child and me. Certainly it has always been an estab-
lished usage among the princes of Puru's race –
To dedicate the morning of their days
To the world's weal, in palaces and halls,
'Mid luxury and regal pomp abiding:
Then, in the wane of life, to seek release
From kingly cares, and make the hallowed shade
Of sacred trees their last asylum, where
As hermits they may practice self-abasement,
And bind themselves by rigid vows of penance.
[Aloud. ] But how could mortals by their own power gain admission
to this sacred region ?
Attendant — Your remark is just; but your wonder will cease when
I tell you that his mother is the offspring of a celestial nymph, and
gave him birth in the hallowed grove of Kāçyapa.
King [aside) - Strange that my hopes should be again excited!
[Aloud. ) But what, let me ask, was the name of the prince whom
she deigned to honor with her hand ?
Attendant — How could I think of polluting my lips by the mention
of a wretch who had the cruelty to desert his lawful wife ?
King [aside] - Ha! the description suits me exactly. Would I
!
could bring myself to inquire the name of the child's mother!
[Reflecting. ] But it is against propriety to make too minute inquiries
about the wife of another man.
First Attendant (entering with the china peacock in her hand] — Sarva-
damana, Sarva-damana, see, see, what a beautiful cakunta [bird).
Child [looking round]— My mother! Where? Let me go to her.
Both Attendants — He mistook the word “çakunta” for “Çakuntalā. ”
The boy dotes upon his mother, and she is ever uppermost in his
thoughts.
Second Attendant — Nay, my dear child: I said, look at the beauty
of this cakunta.
King [aside]— What! is his mother's name Çakuntalā ? But the
name is not uncommon among women. Alas! I fear that the mere
similarity of a name, like the deceitful vapor of the desert, has
once more raised my hopes only to dash them to the ground.
Child — Dear nurse, what a beautiful peacock! [Takes the toy. ]
E
1
## p. 8473 (#73) ############################################
KĀLIDĀSA
8473
First Attendant [looking at the child in great distress] — Alas! alas!
I do not see the amulet on his wrist.
King – Don't distress yourself. Here it is. It fell off while he
was struggling with the young lion. (Stoops to pick it up. ]
Both Attendants — Hold! hold! Touch it not, for your life. How
marvelous! He has actually taken it up without the slightest hesita-
tion. [Both raise their hands to their breasts and look at each other in
astonishment. ]
King – Why did you try to prevent my touching it?
First Attendant - Listen, great monarch. This amulet, known as
« The Invincible,” was given to the boy by the divine son of Marichi
soon after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed. Its
peculiar virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one excepting
the father or mother of the child can touch it unhurt.
King — And suppose another person touches it?
First Attendant — Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites
him.
King — Have you ever witnessed the transformation with your own
eyes ?
Both Attendants — Over and over again.
King (with rapture, aside] - Joy! joy! Are then my dearest hopes
to be fulfilled ? [Embraces the child. ]
Second Attendant - Come, my dear Suvratā, we must inform Çakun-
talā immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to inter-
rupt her in the performance of her religious vows. (Exeunt. ] ]
Child [to the King] - Do not hold me. I want to go to my mother.
King – We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son.
Child — Dushyanta is my father, not you.
King (smiling ] - His contradiction convinces me only the more.
Enter Çakuntalā, in widow's apparel, with her long hair twisted into a
single braid.
Çakuntala (aside]—I have just heard that Sarva-damana's amulet
has retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground.
I can hardly believe in my good fortune. Yet why should not
Sānumati's prediction be verified ?
King (gazing at Çakuntalā) – Alas! can this indeed be my Çakun-
talā ?
Clad in the weeds of widowhood, her face
Emaciate with fasting, her long hair
Twined in a single braid, her whole demeanor
Expressive of her purity of soul:
With patient constancy she thus prolongs
The vow to which my cruelty condemned her.
## p. 8474 (#74) ############################################
8474
KĀLIDĀSA
Çakuntala (gazing at the King, who is pale with remorse] - Surely
this is not like my husband; yet who can it be that dares pollute by
the pressure of his hand my child, whose amulet should protect him
from a stranger's touch ?
Child (going to his mother]— Mother, who is this man that has been
kissing me and calling me his son ?
King – My best beloved, I have indeed treated thee most cruelly,
but am now once more thy fond and affectionate lover. Refuse not
to acknowledge me as thy husband.
Cakuntală [aside] -- Be of good cheer, my heart. The anger of
Destiny is at last appeased. Heaven regards thee with compassion.
But is he in very truth my husband ?
King – Behold me, best and loveliest of women,
Delivered from the cloud of fatal darkness
That erst oppressed my memory. Again
Behold us brought together by the grace
Of the great lord of Heaven. So the moon
Shines forth from dim eclipse, to blend his rays
With the soft lustre of his Rohini.
Çakuntalā — May my husband be victorious
[She stops short, her voice choked with tears. ]
King – O fair one, though the utterance of thy prayer
Be lost amid the torrent of thy tears,
Yet does the sight of thy fair countenance
And of thy pallid lips, all unadorned
And colorless in sorrow for my absence,
Make me already more than conqueror.
Child — Mother, who is this man?
Çakuntala - My child, ask the deity that presides over thy destiny.
King (falling at Çakuntala's feet) -
Fairest of women, banish from thy mind
The memory of my cruelty; reproach
The fell delusion that o'erpowered my soul,
And blame not me, thy husband, —'tis the curse
Of him in whom the power of darkness reigns,
That he mistakes the gifts of those he loves
For deadly evils. Even though a friend
Should wreathe a garland on a blind man's brow,
Will he not cast it from him as a serpent ?
Çakuntalā Rise, my own husband, rise. Thou wast not to blame.
My own evil deeds, committed in a former state of being, brought
down this judgment upon me. How else could my husband, who
## p. 8475 (#75) ############################################
KĀLIDĀSA
8475
-
was ever of a compassionate disposition, have acted so unfeelingly ?
[ The King rises. ] But tell me, my husband, how did the remem-
brance of thine unfortunate wife return to thy mind?
King — As soon as my heart's anguish is removed, and its wounds
are healed, I will tell thee all.
Oh! let me, fair one, chase away the drop
That still bedews the fringes of thine eye;
And let me thus efface the memory
Of every tear that stained thy velvet cheek,
Unnoticed and unheeded by thy lord,
When in his madness he rejected thee.
[Wipes away the tear. ]
Çakuntalā (seeing the signet-ring on his finger]– Ah! my dear hus-
band, is that the Lost Ring ?
King — Yes; the moment I recovered it, my memory was restored.
Çakuntalā — The ring was to blame in allowing itself to be lost at
the
very time when I was anxious to convince my noble husband of
the reality of my marriage.
King – Receive it back, as the beautiful twining plant receives
again its blossom in token of its reunion with the spring.
Çakuntalā — Nay; I can never more place confidence in it. Let
my husband retain it.
Enter Mātali
-
Mätali — I congratulate your Majesty. Happy are you in your
reunion with your wife; happy are you in beholding the face of your
own son,
Translation of Monier Williams.
A
I.
FROM THE MEGHADUTA. ? OR CLOUD MESSENGER
CERTAIN Yaksha [Divine Being) neglectful once of his mas-
ter's task, and stript thus of his glory through his lord's
curse, which was to last a year and was the more grievous
because of separating him from his Beloved, had taken up his
abode amid the hermitages on Rāma's Hill, dense in shade trees
and whose waters were hallowed by [the fair] Sītā's having
bathed in them.
Upon this mountain the love-lorn wight, from whose
wasted arm the golden bracelet had slipped down, had already
spent eight weary moons, separated from his consort; when, on
2.
## p. 8476 (#76) ############################################
8476
KĀLIDĀSA
the first day of the Ashādha month, he caught sight of a cloud
clinging to the mountain peak and resembling an elephant with
lowered tusks butting at a bank of earth.
3. Scarce checking his tears in the presence of the cloud
which was a source of emotion to him, the servant of Kubera
[Lord of Wealth] stood long wrapt in thought: [for truly] at
the sight of a cloud the heart even of a person in happiness is
stirred, but how much more when one is longing to throw his
arms about [the loved one's] neck and is absent far away.
4. Now, desirous to cheer the heart of his Beloved, for the
rainy month was nigh at hand, and eager to send by the cloud a
message to her, telling of his welfare, the Yaksha, filled with
joy, bade the cloud welcome, in loving terms, after he had wor-
shiped it with fresh jasmine sprays, saying:-
6. “I know that thou art born of a world-renowned race of
clouds, Indra's chief counselor and assuming any shape at will,
so I, who am separated from my consort by Fate's cruel decree,
come as suppliant to thee; for better is a fruitless boon if asked
of a noble person than an answered request made to a craven.
7. « Thou art, O Cloud, a refuge for the sore-distressed;
deign therefore to bear a message for me whom the wrath of
Kubera has banished. It is to Alakā, abode of the Yakshas'
Lord, that thou must fly, where the palaces gleam with the
moonlight that glances from the head of god Çiva, whose statue
stands in the outer garden.
9. "A favoring breeze will gently, gently waft thee, and this
proud Chātaka bird upon the left doth carol sweetly; the cranes
in wreathed curves in the sky, and eager for the mating-time,
will wait in attendance upon thee, for thou art the herald of
joy.
13. « First hear me tell the path that is to be thy journey,
and where on the mountain-tops thou shalt rest thy foot when
worn and weary, quaffing the light creamy nectar of the stream,
when tired out: afterwards, O Watery Minister, thou shalt hear a
message that is fit for thine ears to drink in. "
[And in fairest colors of a poet's brush he paints the northward journey
of the cloud to the home where the lonely spouse awaits her banished lord's
return. ]
Translation of A. V. W. Jackson.
## p. 8476 (#77) ############################################
## p. 8476 (#78) ############################################
GRUP
Die rosii
KANT
## p. 8476 (#79) ############################################
. ; ܀
LiMANLIL
(124
BY JUST
3
SIE externi irents of the in:
n:11CI1S
!
1
༣*，་,་ །
1107 startiing:
Fást Prysasiat, in the yeni
died in his native place on the 1. ';
trained beyond aveita uistance o*
e'er occupied except as scholar, 1
and writer. He saw very littie of
Il Was not clelinted in any 27. 1!
Sity years of . . His personal resion
* mil his liter pears, amost is rin
starles. lle was in aii the early "t
i
By dint of very strict economy he i
774;** ** before his death, but lit
a ti sini ail roads to purely worll'y porsal:
1.
of intellectual prowess, furtitied by a ſrui ;**
although one somewhat coldly austere', -
over the thourit first of his country, annet
!
been in mar. y ways transtornirg. Amonșrat ! ! !
stands in the first rank in the very sinail groups
wo can be regarded as genuine originators. Is 2?
in fact, he is the only modern philosopher whos.
Pi. t', and Aristotle. Otiler mociorn thinkers te
villal ideas of more or less independence 2. 1
al 11. has the honor of having transformed by ilin nila
most fundamentai tedencies of modern speculation,
Of Kut the mani, numerous characterizations he's
by his friends and admirers. Most of these account serile cope!
to his appearance and life in his later years. Of his youth We know
in ich less On his father's side hit way of Scottish descert, bis
grandparents having emigrated iron Scotland to East Prussia. Kartis
parents were members of the Pietistic party in the indtheran Church,
ward Kant's eariy education was thus under inriences decidediy emen
toral in their religious character,-- although the poverty. the haul
bet hun , and the sterling character of his parents prevented the waring
## p. 8476 (#80) ############################################
.
tra
3
3
རྔུ།།
## p. 8477 (#81) ############################################
8477
IMMANUEL KANT
(1724-1804)
BY JOSIAH ROYCE
10. G
He external events of the life of Immanuel Kant are neither
numerous nor startling. He was born in Königsberg in
LÔ East Prussia, in the year 1724, on the 22d of April.
He
died in his native place on the 12th of February, 1804. He never
traveled beyond about a distance of sixty miles from the city; was
never occupied except as scholar, private tutor, university official,
and writer. He saw very little of the great world at any time.
He was not celebrated, in any national sense, until he was nearly
sixty years of age. His personal relations were for the most part,
and until his later years, almost as restricted as his material circum-
stances. He was in all the early part of his life decidedly poor.
By dint of very strict economy he acquired a moderate amount of
property before his death, but he was never rich.
He carefully
avoided all roads to purely worldly position or power. Yet by dint
of intellectual prowess, fortified by a profound moral earnestness,
although one somewhat coldly austere, — he acquired an influence
over the thought, first of his country, and then of Europe, which has
been in many ways transforming. Amongst philosophical thinkers he
stands in the first rank in the very small group of those philosophers
who can be regarded as genuine originators. As an original thinker,
in fact, he is the only modern philosopher who can be put beside
Plato and Aristotle. Other modern thinkers have represented indi-
vidual ideas of more or less independence and importance; Kant
alone has the honor of having transformed by his work some of the
most fundamental tendencies of modern speculation.
Of Kant the man, numerous characterizations have been given
by his friends and admirers. Most of these accounts relate especially
to his appearance and life in his later years. Of his youth we know
much less. On his father's side Kant was of Scottish descent, his
grandparents having emigrated from Scotland to East Prussia. Kant's
parents were members of the Pietistic party in the Lutheran Church,
and Kant's early education was thus under influences decidedly emo-
tional in their religious character,-- although the poverty, the hard
labor, and the sterling character of his parents prevented the wasting
## p. 8478 (#82) ############################################
8478
IMMANUEL KANT
mies
Frid, a1
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and The
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13
of time in devotional extravagances such as often characterized the
Pietistic movement; and the philosopher later looked back upon his
early training not only with a deep feeling of devotion, but with
a genuine intellectual respect. The family was large. There were
three sons and seven daughters. One of Kant's brothers later became
a minister. One of the sisters survived the philosopher. But six of
the children died young; and Immanuel himself inherited a delicate
constitution which had a great deal to do, in later years, both with
the sobriety and with the studious contemplativeness of his life's
routine. At eight years of age, Kant attended the gymnasium called
the Fredericianum, in KönigsbergHere he spent eight years and a
half, much under the eye and the influence of the director of the gym-
nasium, Dr. F. A. Schultz, — Pietist, professor of theology, and pastor.
Schultz was a scholarly, independent, and extremely active man,
severe as a disciplinarian, stimulating as a thinker and worker. As
Kant himself grew into youth, he formed literary ambitions, showed
skill as a Latin writer and reader, but gave no evidences as yet of
philosophical tendencies. He was not regarded as an especially prom-
ising boy: he is said to have been sensitive; he was certainly weak
in body and small in stature. He entered the University in 1740;
struggled with poverty and pedantry for about four years; was influ-
enced by the philosophical teaching, especially of Martin Knutzen;
and earned some necessary means as private tutor. A familiar
anecdote of his university period relates that Kant occasionally was
obliged to borrow clothing from his friends while his own was mend-
ing; and the story adds that on such occasions the friend might be
obliged to stay at home himself. In any case, Kant's university life
is described as one of ew recreations and of pretty constant labor.
Its result was seen at once after graduation, however, in the some-
what ambitious publication with which Kant's literary career opened.
This was a study of the then current problem of the theory of kinetic
forces,— or “living forces, as in the terminology of that time the
title-page of this essay calls them. The essay was at once philo-
sophical and quasi-mathematical. It was not in any positive sense
an important contribution to the discussion; but it was obviously the
work of a man in earnest. It was written in a spirit that combined
in an attractive way ambition and modesty; and it contained in one
passage a somewhat prophetic statement of the course that Kant had
laid out for himself.
Kant's mother died in 1737. In 1746 his father followed. The
years immediately subsequent to his university course, and to the
publication of the foregoing treatise, were passed as private tutor;
and it was at the beginning of this period that Kant traveled farthest
from his native city. Our philosopher's work as tutor in private
uts b
Some
atten
near
der
of
ta
DE
.
## p. 8479 (#83) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
1
8479
families was of considerable advantage for his knowledge of the
world, and brought him into contact with somewhat distinguished
local magnates. Nine years in all were passed in this occupation.
The year 1755 begins a new and important period of Kant's
career. In this year he became tutor, or privat-docent, at the Univer-
sity, defended a dissertation upon metaphysics as he took his place
in the University, and published a treatise on the Natural History
and Theory of the Heavens. In the latter essay he not only showed
in various ways the most important features of his earlier methods
of work, but had the honor of forestalling Lambert and Laplace in a
number of suggestions, which have since become fainous, relating to
the evolution of the solar system. From this moment dates a long-
continued and extremely laborious effort towards self-development.
As a university teacher, Kant was singularly successful. His range
of lectures was large. Physical science, and especially physical ge-
ography, logic, and metaphysics were prominent among his topics.
Affiliated at first with the then current highly formal and dogmatic
Wolffian philosophy of the universities, Kant was from the outset an
essentially independent expositor of doctrine, and soon became more
and more an independent thinker. He united the necessarily some-
what pedantic method due to his own early training, with a marvel-
ous humanity of spirit, and much brilliancy of expression as a lecturer.
Some of his students listened with great enthusiasm. Herder, who
attended his lectures in 1762 and 1763, never forgot, even in the midst
of a bitter opposition which years later grew up in his mind towards
Kant, the early influence of the master upon him. At the time or
near it, the young Herder could hardly use expressions too enthusi-
astic concerning his master. « Heavenly hours” he names the time
spent in such instruction. Kant, he tells us, unites learning and
depth in the finest fashion with something resembling the humor
of "Tristram Shandy. ) » He is a profound observer in the pathology
of our mind,” he shows a creative philosophical imagination,” and
has his own Socratic method of bringing everything into relation with
In æsthetic as in ethical directions Herder finds his teacher
equally great.
Kant is “altogether a social observer, altogether a
finished philosopher, a philosopher of humanity, and in this humane
philosophy a German Shaftesbury. ”
Some amongst Kant's writings belonging to this period show
literary powers which make this enthusiastic characterization more
intelligible than the writings of his later period would serve to do.
Kant had unquestionably the power to become a popular writer of
distinction, if not of extraordinary rank. But he was disposed to
sacrifice his literary gifts for the sake of a cause which as the years
went by became constantly dearer to him. For worldly distinction
»
man.
## p. 8480 (#84) ############################################
8480
IMMANUEL KANT
that
ha
(***
0:
CI
he had small desire. University advancement came
to him very
slowly. Official favor he did not seek. His work as a teacher was
always precious to him. But most of all he prized what he once
called his mistress, namely Metaphysics. At certain central problems
he worked with a constantly increasing devotion and intensity. His
own contributions to philosophy became during the years between
1762 and 1766 somewhat numerous: but he himself, even at the time,
made comparatively little of them; for he found them fragmentary,
and as he himself says, regarded philosophical insight as an ideal
whole, in which very little could be accomplished unless that whole
were surveyed at a glance. Of his own development during these
years, the philosopher himself has given us some indications in notes
preserved among his papers. « Of my science,” he says (namely,
of philosophy), "I taught at first what most appealed to I
attempted to make some contributions of my own to the common
treasury; in other respects I attempted to correct errors: yet all
the while I expected to extend the dogmas of tradition. But when
one attempts with real earnestness to find truth, one spares at last
not even his own productions. One submits everything that one has
learned or has believed to a thorough-going criticism; and so it slowly
came to pass that I found my entire dogmatic theory open to funda-
mental objections. ” Later on, Kant declared that he regarded all
his metaphysical writings as rendered entirely worthless by his later
critical philosophy. Thus unsparingly did the great critic assail his
own thought first and most of all.
He was
aware that in
doing so he deliberately adopted, in his later treatises, a method of
exposition that lacked all literary charms. “My method,” he says
in notes relating to his later style, “is not very much disposed to
enchain the reader or to please him. My writings seem scholastic,
dryly contemplative,- yes, even meagre, and far enough from the
tone of genius. It seems, to be sure, as if there were nothing more
tasteless than metaphysics; but the jewels that are beauty's adorn-
ment lay once in dark mines, or at least were seen only in the dim
workshop of the artist. ”
The fruits of Kant's long labors ripened first in the year 1781,
when he published his Critique of Pure Reason, the most famous
philosophical treatise of the last two centuries. This theoretical trea-
tise was followed by a more popular exposition of a portion of the
doctrine of the Critique' itself in 1783. To this more popular expo-
sition, which also contained extensive replies to critics, Kant gave
the name of Prolegomena to Every Future Metaphysic. ? In 1785
and 1788 he published works bearing on his ethical doctrine; in 1790
a philosophical treatise upon æsthetics, and upon the presence of
design in nature; in 1793 appeared an “Essay upon the Philosophy of
even
1
## p. 8481 (#85) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8481
a very
ner was
де оnсе
Coblems
V. His
etween
time
Larsi
deal
hole
these
notes
namely
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common
: yet all
But when
-s at last
- one has
it slowly
to funda
arded all
his later
ssail his
that in
-thod of
Religion. During the years between 1781 and 1795 Kant also printed
a large number of philosophical papers upon various subjects, ethical,
historical, and polemical. The long period of preparation had thus
given place to a time of great philosophical activity; but after 1795
the now aged philosopher began to feel the effects of his always deli-
cate constitution with rapidly increasing severity. He grew unable
to follow the current discussions which his own writings had by this
time provoked. He planned a large philosophical work which was
to set the crown upon his systematic labors; but he was unable to
give this treatise any final form. His last few years were beset
with increasing physical infirmity and mental ineffectiveness, although
he preserved to the last his high moral courage and his rigid self-
control. At the end he wasted away, and died of marasmus in 1804.
In person Kant was small and spare, weak of muscle, and scarcely
five feet high. His cheeks were sunken, his cheek-bones high, his
chest was small; his shoulders were slightly deformed. His forehead
was high, narrow at the base and broad at the top. His head was de-
cidedly large in proportion to the rest of his body; and the capacity
of his skull, as measured in 1880 (when his remains were transferred
to a chapel raised in his honor), was declared to be uncommonly
great. The physical details here given are found in much fuller
statement in the excellent life of Kant by Dr. Stuckenberg, published
by Macmillan in 1882. The physical habits of Kant have been often
described in works of literary gossip. What especially attracts atten-
tion is that rigid regularity of routine which was determined by the
philosopher's sensitive health. His constitution was intolerant of
medicine; and he early learned that he could combat his numerous
minor infirmities only by careful diet, by mental self-control (in which
he acquired great skill), and by strict habit of life. His care extended
to his breathing, in an almost Oriental fashion. He cured his pains,
on occasions, by control over his attention; and by the same means
worked successfully against sleeplessness. He was troubled with
defective vision; and in general he narrowly escaped hypochondriac
tendencies by virtue of a genuinely wholesome cheerfulness of intel-
In intellectual matters themselves Kant was always
characterized by an extraordinary power of thoughtful analysis; by
a strenuous disposition to pursue, without haste and without rest,
any line of inquiry which had once engaged his attention; by keen
suspicion of all his instincts and acquired presuppositions; and by a
somewhat fatalistic willingness to wait as long as might be necessary
for light. No thinker ever had originality more obviously thrust upon
him by the situation, and by his unwearied devotion to his task.
From the outset, indeed, he had a sense that his work was destined
to have important results; but this sense was something very far
the says
cosed to
Lolastic,
om the
more
adorn
e dim
lectual temper.
1781,
mous
trea-
f the
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1785
1790
e of
y of
XV-531
## p. 8482 (#86) ############################################
8482
IMMANUEL KANT
shemden
the you
Cats
That co
he net
ci bis
me an
any
中董事.
22
When
different from vanity, and was accompanied by none of that personal
longing for brilliancy and originality which has determined for good
or for ill the life work of so many literary men and thinkers. Not
naturally an iconoclast, Kant was driven by his problems to become
one of the most revolutionary of thinkers. Not naturally an enthu-
siast, he was led to results which furnished the principal philosophical
food for the most romantic and emotional age of modern German lit-
erature. Devoted at the outset to the careful exposition of doctrines
which he had accepted from tradition, Kant was led by the purely
inner and normal development of his work to views extraordinarily
independent.
The process of his thought constitutes as it were one long and
connected nature process, working with the fatal necessity of the ebb
and flow of the tide, and is as independent of his personal caprices
as of the merely popular tendencies of the period in which he grew
up. Yet when Frederick Schlegel later classed the thinkers of pure
reason with the French Revolution, as one of the characteristic pro-
cesses of the century, he expressed a view which the student of intel-
lectual life can well appreciate and easily defend. But the expression
suggests not alone the importance of the critical philosophy, but also
its character as a sort of natural development of the whole intellect-
ual situation of that age.
Morally speaking, Kant was characterized by three features. Of
these the first is his relatively cool intellectual attitude towards all
problems. He has no sympathy with romantic tendencies; although
later many a romantic soul came to sympathize profoundly with him.
He is opposed to mysticism of every form; and not so much suspects
the emotions of human nature, as clearly sees what he takes to be
their essential and fundamental capriciousness. The second trait is
a thorough regard for lawfulness of action. Reasonable guidance is
for him the only possible guidance. Emotions must deceive; the
plan of life is as plan alone worthy of consideration. Kant has
small interest in noble sentiments, but very great natural respect for
large and connected personal and social undertakings, when guided
by ideas.
The third characteristic of the philosopher, in this part of
his nature, is that sincerely cheerful indifference to fortune which
made him, amidst all his frequently keen criticism of the weakness
of human nature and of the vanities of life, withal a critic who
just escapes pessimism by dint of his assurance that, after all, reason
must triumph in the universe. Kant was a fine observer of human
nature, and as such was fond of lecturing on what we might call
the comparative psychology of national and social types. He was
widely read in the anthropological literature of his day. Accord.
ingly, his observations on man's moral nature, in his lectures as in his
1
Alle
Issia
20
. و *
1
1
## p. 8483 (#87) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8483
personal
ior good
ers. Not
become
i enthu.
sophical
yan lit.
ctrines
purely
dinarily
long and
of the ebb
al caprices
ch he grew
. ers of pure
teristic pro-
nt of intel
expression
ly, but also
le intellect-
published treatises, often show the breadth of reading and the humane
shrewdness of judgment which were the source of the charm that
the young Herder so richly found in his teaching. Yet Kant's ac-
counts of human nature, without being cynical, always appear some-
what coldly disillusioned. What saves this aspect of his work from
seeming cynical is the genuine tone of moral seriousness with which
he views the more rational aspects of human tasks. In one passage
of his lectures on psychology, in connection with the theory of pleas-
ure and pain, he briefly sums up his view of the happiness possible
to any mortal man. This view at first sight is somewhat uninviting.
From the nature of the case. Kant reasons, every pleasure has to
be attended with a corresponding experience of pain.
Life in gen-
eral seems to be naturally something of a burden. Moreover, every
human desire has by nature other desires opposing it. Our tenden-
cies, as they naturally are, are profoundly deceitful. Yet despite all
this, Kant asserts that life has its very deep comforts. But what are
these? Kant replies:— «The deepest and easiest means of quieting
all pains is the thought that a reasonable man should be expected to
have at his control, - namely, the thought that life in general, so far
as the enjoyment of it goes, has no genuine worth at all; for enjoy-
ment depends upon fortune: but its worth consists alone in the use
of life, in the purposes to which it is directed. And this aspect of
life comes to man not by fortune, but only through wisdom. This
consequently is in man's power. Whoever is much troubled about
losing life will never enjoy life. ”
These three traits of Kant's moral attitude towards life unite to
give some of his more mature historical essays and critical studies
a character which deserves to be better known than it now is, by
students who are less interested in the metaphysical aspect of his
doctrine. In judging the course of human history, Kant sometimes
seems to be accepting the doctrine of Hobbes, that by nature all
men are at war with all. In fact, however, Kant sees deeper. The
situation has another aspect. The warfare is still fundamental.
Every man is at war not only with his fellows, but by nature with
himself. He desires freedom, but he desires also power. Power he
can get only through social subordination. This, man more or less
feels from the outset. His need of his fellow-man is as prominent
in his own mind as is his disposition to war with his fellow. Kant
accordingly speaks of man as a being “who cannot endure his fellow-
inan, and cannot possibly do without him. ” Thus there is that in
man which wars against the very warfare itself; and Kant's general
psychological theory of the inner opposition and division of the nat-
ural man comes to appear somewhat like the Pauline doctrine of the
Epistle to the Romans. But Nature's chaos is Reason's opportunity.
atures. Of
wards all
although
with him.
7 suspects
es to be
d trait is
dance is
ire; the
ant has
Pect for
guided
part of
which
eakness
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t call
Was
ccord.
En his
## p. 8484 (#88) ############################################
8484
IMMANUEL KANT
It is
upon
this
very basis that Kant founds his ethical theory; accord-
ing to which the moral law can find in our natures no possible basis
except the fundamental and supreme demand of the Pure Reason,
that this universal but obviously senseless conflict shall cease through
voluntary subordination to what Kant calls the Categorical Impera-
tive. The Categorical Imperative is the principle of consistency in
conduct; stated abstractly, the principle, So act at any time that you
could will the maxim of your act to become a universal law for all
reasonable beings. This maxim a man can obey; because he is not
merely a creature with this nature, so capricious and so inwardly
divided against itself, but a rational being with free-will, capable of
subordinating caprice to reason. The whole moral law is thus summed
up in the maxim, Act now as if your act determined the deed of
every man for all time; or more simply, Act upon absolutely con-
sistent principles. And now, in the course of history, Kant sees the
progressive process of the realization of this one universal principle
of the reason, in the organization of a rational human society.
Kant's true originality as a thinker lies most in his theoretical
philosophy. Of this in the present place it is impossible to give any
really significant account. If one must sum up in the fewest words
the most general idea of this doctrine, one is disposed to say: Kant
found philosophical thought concerned with the problem, how human
knowledge is related to the real world of truth. This problem had
assumed its then customary shape in connection with discussions
both of traditional theology and of science. What we now call the
conflict of religion and science really turned for that age, as for ours,
upon the definition and the solution of this fundamental problem of
the scope and the limits of knowledge. But what philosophers up
to Kant's time had not questioned, was that if human knowledge in
any region, as for instance in the region of natural science, has valid-
ity,- accomplishes what it means to accomplish, — then this valid-
ity and this success must involve a real acquaintance with the world
absolutely real, beyond the boundaries of human experience. Thus
materialistic philosophy had maintained that if natural science is
valid, man knows a world of absolutely real matter, which explains
all things and is the ultimate truth. Theological doctrine had held
in a similar way that if the human reason is valid at all, then the
absolute nature of God, of the soul, or of some other transcendent
truth, must in some respect be within our range. Now Kant under-
took, by virtue of a new analysis of human knowledge, to prove, on
one hand, that human reason cannot know absolute truth of any kind
except moral truth. Herein, to be sure, his doctrine seemed at one
with those skeptical views which had questioned in former times
the validity of human knowledge altogether. But Kant did not agree
## p. 8485 (#89) ############################################
IMMANUEL KANT
8485
accord.
ble basis
Reason,
through
Impera
cener in
at jou
or all
Eis not
wardly
pable oi
summed
- deed of
utely con
at sees the
1 principle
ety:
Cheoretical
give any
with the skeptics as to their result. On the other hand, he main-
tained that the real success and the genuine validity of human
science depend upon the very fact that we are not able to know, in
theoretical realms, any absolute or transcendent truth whatsoever.
For, as Kant asserts, in dealing with nature as science knows nature,
we are really dealing with the laws of human experience as such, and
not with any absolute or transcendent truth whatever. It is however
the nature of the human understanding, the constitution of human
experience, that is expressed in all natural laws that we are able to
discover; in all the truth that science maintains or that the future
can disclose. Thus, as Kant states the case, it is the understanding
that gives laws to nature. And the limitation of knowledge to the
realm of experience, and our failure to be able to know in theoreti-
cal terms any transcendent truth, are not signs of the failure of
human knowledge in its essential human purposes, but are conditions
upon which depends the very validity of our knowledge within its
own realm. In trying to know more than the world of experience,
we try an experiment which, if successful, could only end in making
all knowledge impossible. Space, time, such fundamental ideas as
the idea of causality,— all these are facts which represent no funda-
mental truth beyond experience whatever. They are facts determined
solely by the facts of human nature. They hold within our range,
and not beyond it. Of things in themselves we know nothing. But
on this very ignorance, Kant maintains, is founded not only the valid-
ity of our natural sciences, but the possibility of retaining, against
the assaults of materialism and of a purely negative skepticism, the
validity of our moral consciousness and the essential spirit of reli-
gious faith. In this unique combination of critical skepticism, of
moral idealism, and of a rationalistic assurance of the validity for all
men of the a priori principles upon which natural science rests, lies
the essential significance of the philosophy of Kant, - a significance
which only a much fuller exposition, and a study of the history of
thought, could make explicit.
Jest words
say: Kant
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times
agret
## p. 8486 (#90) ############################################
8486
IMMANUEL KANT
A COMPARISON OF THE BEAUTIFUL WITH THE PLEASANT
AND THE GOOD
10
E: 5
tri
From «The Critique of Judgment
>
111
A
1.
