The passage from subjective
reflection to objective and absolute being, had hitherto, as
we have seen, been attempted by Fichte on the ground of
moral feeling only.
reflection to objective and absolute being, had hitherto, as
we have seen, been attempted by Fichte on the ground of
moral feeling only.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
God!
I have no name for it:
Feeling is all; name is but sound and smoke,
Veiling the glow of heaven. ' *
"And the second sings:--
"'And God is ! --a holy will that abides,
Though the human will may falter;
High over both Space and Time it rides,
The high Thought that will never alter:
And while all things in change eternal roll,
It endures, through change, a motionless soul. ' "t
The publication of this essay furnished a welcome oppor-
tunity to those States to which Fichte was obnoxious on
account of his democratic opinions, to institute public pro-
ceedings against him. The note was sounded by the publi-
cation of an anonymous pamphlet, entitled "Letters of a
Father to his Son on the Atheism of Fichte and Forberg,"
which was industriously and even gratuitously circulated
throughout Germany. The first official proceeding was a
decree of the Electoral Government, prohibiting the sale of
the Philosophical Journal, and confiscating all copies of it
found in the electorate. This was followed up by a requisi-
tion addressed to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, as the Conser-
vator of the University of Jena, in which Fichte and Forberg
were accused of "the coarsest atheism, openly opposed not
only to the Christian, but even to natural, religion;"--and
their severe punishment was demanded; failing which, it
was threatened that the subjects of the Elector should be
prohibited from resorting to the University. These pro-
ceedings were imitated by the other Protestant Courts of
Germany, that of Prussia excepted.
In answer to the official condemnation of his essay, Fichte
sent forth his "Appeal to the Public against the accusation
of Atheism," Jena 1799;--in which, with his accustomed
* Goethe's "Faust. "
t The above stanza of Schiller's "Worte des Glaubens" is taken from
Mr. Merivale's excellent translation.
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? APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC.
97
boldness, he does not confine himself to the strict limits of
self-defence, but exposes with no lenient hand the true cause
which rendered him obnoxious to the Electoral Government,
--not the atheism of which he was so absurdly accused, but
the spirit of freedom and independence which his philosophy
inculcated. He did not desire, he would not accept of any
compromise;--he demanded a free acquittal, or a public
condemnation. He adopted the same high tone in his de-
fence before his own Government. The Court of Saxe-
Weimar had no desire to restrain the liberty of thought, or
to erect any barrier against free speculation. It was too
wise not to perceive that a Protestant University in which
secular power should dare to invade the precincts of philo-
sophy, or profane the highest sanctuaries of thought, how-
ever great its reputation for the moment, must infallibly
decline from being a temple of knowledge into a mere
warehouse for literary, medical, or theological merchandize,
--a school-room for artizans,--a drill-yard for hirelings.
But, on the other hand, it was no part of the policy of the
Ducal Court to give offence to its more powerful neighbours,
or to enter upon a crusade in defence of opinions obnoxious
to the masses, because unintelligible to them. It was there-
fore intended to pass over this matter as smoothly as possible,
and to satisfy the complaining governments by administering
to Fichte a general rebuke for imprudence in promulgating
his views in language liable to popular misconstruction.
The appearance of his "Appeal to the Public," however,
rendered this arrangement less easy of accomplishment.
The opinion of the Government with respect to this publica-
tion was communicated to Fichte in a letter from Schiller,
--" that there was no doubt that he had cleared himself of the
accusation before every thinking mind; but that it was sur-
prising that he had not consulted with higher quarters before
he sent forth his appeal: why appeal to the public at all,
when he had to do only with a favourable and enlightened
Government 1" The obvious answer to which was, that the
"Appeal to the Public" was a reply to the public confiscation
of his work, while the private accusation before his Prince
o
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? 98
MEMOIR OB' FICHTE.
was answered by a private defence. In that defence the
Court found that the accused was determined to push the
investigation as far as his accusers could desire;--that he
demanded either an honourable and unreserved acquittal, or
deposition from his office as a false teacher. A further
breach between the Court and Fichte was caused by a letter
which, in the course of these proceedings, he addressed to a
member of the Council,-- his private friend,--in which he an-
nounced that a resignation of his professorship would be the
result of any reproof on the part of the Government. This
letter, addressed to an individual in his private capacity, was
most unjustifiably placed among the official documents con-
nected with the proceedings. Its tone, excusable perhaps in a
private communication, seemed presumptuous and arrogant
when addressed to the supreme authority;--it was the
haughty defiance of an equal, rather than the remonstrance
of a subject. This abuse of a private letter,--this betrayal
of the confidence of friendship,--cost Jena its most distin-
guished professor. On the 2d of April 1799, Fichte received
the decision of the Ducal Court. It contained a reproof for
imprudence in promulgating doctrines so unusual and so of-
fensive to the common understanding, and accepted Fichte's
resignation as a recognised consequence of that reproof.
It is much to be regretted that the timid policy of the
government, and the faults of individuals, prevented in
this instance the formal recognition of the great principle
involved in the contest, i. e. that civil governments have no
right to restrain the expression of any theoretical opinion what-
ever, when propounded in a scientific form and addressed to the
scientific world.
During these trying occurrences, the most enthusiastic
attachment was evinced towards Fichte by the students.
Two numerously signed petitions were presented to the Duke,
praying for his recall. These having proved unavailing, they
caused a medallion of their beloved teacher to be struck, in
testimony of their admiration and esteem.
Fichte's position was now one of the most difficult which
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? REMOVAL TO BERLIN.
99
can well be imagined. A prolonged residence at Jena was
out of the question,--he could no longer remain there. But
where to turn ? --where to seek an asylum? No neighbouring
state would afford him shelter; even the privilege of a private
residence was refused. At length a friend appeared in the
person of Dohm, Minister to the King of Prussia. Through
him Fichte applied to Frederick-William for permission to
reside in his dominions, with the view of earning a livelihood
by literary exertion and private teaching. The answer of
the Prussian monarch was worthy of his high character:--
"If," said he, "Fichte is so peaceful a citizen, and so free
from all dangerous associations as he is said to be, I willingly
accord him a residence in my dominions. As to his religious
principles, it is not for the State to decide upon them. " *
Fichte arrived in Prussia in July 1799, and devoted the
summer and autumn to the completion of a work in which
his philosophy is set forth in a popular form, but with ad-
mirable lucidity and comprehensiveness,--we allude to his
"Bestimmung des Menschen" (the Vocation of Man), an es-
say in which all the great phases of metaphysical specula-
tion are condensed into an almost dramatic picture of the
successive stages in the development of an individual mind.
A translation of the "Bestimmung des Menschen" forms a
part of the present volume. Towards the end of the year
he returned to Jena for the purpose of removing his family to
Berlin, where, henceforward, he fixed his place of residence.
The following extracts are from letters written to his wife
during their temporary separation:--
jFtctjte an Seeing jFrau.
"You probably wish to know how I live. For many
reasons, the weightiest of which lie in myself and in my
cough, I cannot keep up the early rising. Six o'clock is ge-
nerally my earliest. I go then to my writing desk, so that I
* The original phraseology of this last passage is peculiarly characteristic:
"3ft rt reobr, tap a mit ban titben (C)ofte in getnbfeltgreitrn bfgriffm Ifl; fo mag tut
Nr Vitit (Soft mit tbm abmadjen; mir tyut ba< nidjtf. "
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? 100
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
am not altogether idle, although I do not get on as I could
wish. I am now working at the "Bestimmung des Men-
schen. " At half-past twelve I hold my toilet (yes! --get
powdered, dressed, &c. ), and at one I call on M. Veit, where
I meet Schlegel and a reformed preacher, Schlegel's friend. *
At three I return, and read a French novel, or write as I do
now to you. If the piece be at all tolerable, which is not
always the case, I go to the theatre at five. If it be not, I
walk with Schlegel in the suburbs, in the zoological gardens,
or under the linden trees before the house. Sometimes I
make small country parties with Schlegel and his friends.
So we did, for example, the day before yesterday, with the
most lively remembrance of thee and the little one. We had
no wine to drink your health,--only sour beer, and a slice of
black bitter bread with a thin bit of half-decayed ham stuck
upon it with dirty butter. Politeness makes me put up with
many things here which are scarcely tolerable. But I have
thought of a better method for country parties.
"In the evening I sup on a roll of bread and a quart of
Medoc wine, which are the only tolerable things in the
house; and go to bed between ten and eleven, to sleep
without dreaming. Only once,--it was after thy first alarm-
ing letter,--I had my Hermann in my arms, full of joy that
he was well again, when suddenly he stretched himself out,
turned pale, and all those appearances followed which are
indelibly fixed on my memory.
"I charge thee, dearest, with thy own health and the
health of the little one. --Farewell. "
******
"I am perfectly secure here. Yesterday I visited the
Cabinet Councillor Beyme, who is daily engaged with the
King, and spoke to him about my position. I told him
honestly that I had come here in order to take up my abode,
and that I sought for safety because it was my intention
that my family should follow me. He assured me, that far
from there being any desire to hinder me in this purpose, it
Schleiermacher.
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? LETTERS TO HIS WIFE.
101
would be esteemed an honour and advantage if I made my
residence here,--that the King was immovable upon certain
principles affecting these questions, &c. "
******
"I work with industry and pleasure. My work on the
'Vocation of Man' will, I think, be ready at Michaelmas,--
written, not printed,--and it seems to me likely to succeed.
You know that I am never satisfied with my works when
they are first written, and therefore my own opinion on this
point is worth something By my
residence in Berlin I have gained this much, that I shall
thenceforth be allowed to live in peace elsewhere ;--and this is
much. I venture to say that I should have been teased and
perhaps hunted out of any other place. But it is quite another thing now that I have lived in Berlin under the eye of the King. By and by, I think, even the Weimar Court
will learn to be ashamed of its conduct, especially if I make
no advances to it. In the meantime something advan-
tageous may happen . So be thou calm and of good courage,
dear one, and trust in thy Fichte's judgment, talent, and
good fortune. Thou laughst at the last word. Well, well!
--I assure you that good fortune will soon come back
again. "
******
"I have written to Reinhold a cold, somewhat upbraiding
letter. The good weak soul is full of lamentation. I shall
immediately comfort him again, and take care that he be
not alienated from me in future. If I was beside thee, thou
wouldst say--'Dost thou hear, Fichte? thou art proud--I
must tell it thee, if no one else will. ' Very well, be thou
glad that I am proud. Since I have no humility, I must be
proud, so that I may have something to carry me through
the world. "
******
"Of all that thou writest to me, I am most dissatisfied
with this, that thou callest our Hermann an ill-bred boy.
No greater misfortune could befall me on earth than that
this child should be spoiled; and I would lament my absence
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? 102
MEMOIE OF FICHTE.
from Jena only if it should be the cause of that. I adjure
thee by thy maternal duties, by thy love to me, by all that
is sacred to thee, let this child be thy first and only care,
and leave everything else for him. Thou art deficient in
firmness and coolness;--hence all thy errors in the educa-
tion of the little one. Teach him that when thou hast once
denied him anything, it is determined and irrevocable, and
that neither petulance nor the most urgent entreaties will
be of any avail:--once fail in this, and you have an ill-
taught obstinate boy, particularly with the natural disposi-
tion to strength of character which our little one possesses;
and it costs a hundred times more labour to set him right
again. For indeed it should be our first care not to let his
character be spoiled; and believe me, there is in him the
capacity of being a wild knave, as well as that of being an
honest, true, virtuous man. In particular, do not suppose
that he will be led by persuasion and reasoning. The most
intelligent men err in this, and thou also in the same way.
He cannot think for himself yet, nor will he be able to do so
for a long time;--at present, the first thing is that he should
learn obedience and subjection to a foreign mind. Thou
mayst indeed sometimes gain thy immediate purpose by
persuasion, not because he understands thy reasons and is
moved by them, but because thou in a manner submittest
thyself to him and makest him the judge. Thus his pride
is flattered; thy talk employs his vacant time and dispels
his caprices. But this is all;--while for the future thou
renderest his guidance more difficult for thee, and confirmest
thyself in a pernicious prejudice. "
? >>>>***
"Cheerfulness and good courage are to me the highest
proof that thou lovest me as I should be loved. Dejection
and sorrow are distrust in me, and make me unhappy
because they make thee unhappy. It is no proof of love
that thou shouldst feel deeply the injustice done to me;--
to me it is a light matter, and so must it be to thee, for thou
and I are one.
"Do not speak of dying; indulge in no such thoughts;
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? RESIDENCE AT BERLIN.
103
for they weaken thee, and thus might become true. No!
we shall yet live with each other many joyful and happy
days; and our child shall close our eyes when he is a mature
and perfect man: till then he needs us.
"In the progress of my present work, I have taken a
deeper glance into religion than ever I did before. In me
the emotions of the heart proceed only from perfect intel-
lectual clearness:--it cannot be but that the clearness I
have now attained on this subject shall also take possession
of my heart.
"Believe me, that to this disposition is to be ascribed, in
a great measure, my steadfast cheerfulness, and the mildness
with which I look upon the injustice of my opponents. I do
not believe that, without this dispute and its evil conse-
quences, I should ever have come to this clear insight, and
the disposition of heart which I now enjoy; and so the
violence we have experienced has had a result which neither
you nor I can regret.
"Comfort the poor boy, and dry thy tears as he bids thee.
Think that it is his father's advice, who indeed would say
the same thing. And do with our dear Hermann as I wrote
thee before. The child is our riches, and we must use him
welL"
If the spectacle of the scholar contending against the hin-
drances of fortune and the imperfections of his own nature,
--struggling with the common passions of mankind and the
weakness of his own will,--soaring aloft amid the highest
speculations of genius, and dragged down again to earth by
its coarsest attractions;--if this be one of the most painful
spectacles which the theatre of life presents, surely it is one
of the noblest when we see such a man pursuing some lofty
theme with a constancy which difficulties cannot shake, nor
the whirlwind of passion destroy. Nor is the scene less in-
teresting and instructive, if the inherent nobility of its
central figure have drawn around him a few souls of kindred
nobleness, whose presence sheds a genial brilliance over a
path otherwise solitary, although never dark or doubtful.
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? 104
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
Such was now Fichte's position. The first years of his resi-
|dence at Berlin were among the most peaceful in his life of
vicissitude and storm. Withdrawn from public duties, and
uninterrupted by the sources of outward annoyance to which
he had lately been exposed, he now enjoyed a period of tran-
quil retirement, surrounded by a small circle of friends
worthy of his attachment and esteem. Friedrich and Wil-
Ihelm Schlegel, Tieck, Woltmann, Reichhardt, and Jean
Paul Friedrich Richter, were among his chosen associates;
Bernhardi, with his clear and acute yet discursive thought,
his social graces and warm affections, was his almost daily
companion. Hufeland, the king's physician, whom he had
known at Jena, now became bound to him by the closest
ties, and rendered him many kind offices, over which the
delicacy of friendship has thrown a veil.
Amid the amenities of such society, and withdrawn from
the anxieties and disturbances of public life, Fichte now
devoted himself to the development and completion of his
philosophical theory. The period of danger and difficulty
through which he had lately passed, the loss of many valued
and trusted friends, and the isolation of his own mental
position, naturally favoured the fuller development of that
profound religious feeling which lay at the root of his cha-
racter. It was accordingly during this season of repose,
that the great leading idea of his system first revealed itself
to his mind in perfect clearness, and impressed upon his
subsequent writings that deeply religious character to which
we have already adverted.
The passage from subjective
reflection to objective and absolute being, had hitherto, as
we have seen, been attempted by Fichte on the ground of
moral feeling only. Our Faith in the Divine is the inevi-
table result of our sense of duty; it is the imperative
demand of our moral nature. We are immediately conscious
of a Moral law within us, whose behests are announced to
us with an absolute authority which we cannot gainsay; the
source of that authority is not in us, but in the Eternal
Fountain of all moral order,--shrouded from our intellectual
vision by the impenetrable glories of the Infinite. But this
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? FINAL DEVELOPMKNT OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. 105
inference of a Moral Lawgiver from our intuition of a Moral
Law is, after all, but the ordinary " cause and effect" argu-
ment applied to moral phenomena, and is not, strictly
speaking, more satisfactory than the common application of
the same course of reasoning to the phenomena of the phy-
sical world. Besides, it does not wholly meet the facts of
the case, for there can be no doubt that in all men, and
more especially among savages and half-civilized people, the
recognition of a Divinity precedes any definite conception of
a Moral Law. And therefore we do not reach the true and
ultimate ground of this Faith until we penetrate to that in-
nate feeling of dependence, underlying both our emotional
and intellectual nature, which, in its relation to the one,
gives birth to the Religious Sentiments, and, when recog-
nised and elaborated by the other, becomes the basis of a
scientific belief in the Absolute or God,--the materials of
the edifice being furnished by our intuitions of the Good,
the Beautiful, and the True. Fichte's thoughts being now
directed more steadily to the strictly religious aspect of his
theory, he sought to add such an intellectual validity to our
moral convictions, to raise our Faith in the Divine from the
rank of a mere inference from the Moral Sense, to that of a
direct intuition of Reason. This he accomplished by a
deeper analysis of the fact of consciousness. What is the
essential character of our knowledge--that which it pre-
serves amid all the diversities of the individual mind 1 It
is this:--that it announces itself as a representation of
something else, a picture of something superior to, and inde-
pendent of, itself. It is thus composed of a double concep-
tion :--a Higher Being which it imperfectly represents; and
itself, inferior to, derived from, and dependent upon the first.
Hence, it must renounce the thought of itself as the only
being whose existence it reveals, and regard itself rather as
the image or reflection of a truly Highest and Ultimate
Being revealed in human thought, and indeed its essential
foundation. And this idea cannot be got rid of on the
ground that it is a merely subjective conception; for we have
here reached the primitive essence of thought itself,--and to
p
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? 106
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
deny this would be to deny the very nature and conditions
of knowledge, and to maintain an obvious contradiction;
this namely,--that there can be a conception without an
object conceived, a manifestation without substance, and
that the ultimate foundation of all things is nothing. By
this reconciliation, and indeed essential union of the sub-
jective with the objective, Reason finally bridges over the
chasm by which analysis had formerly separated it from the
simple Faith of common humanity. Consciousness becomes
the manifestation,--the self-revelation of the Absolute;--
and the Absolute itself is the ground and substance of the
phenomena of Consciousness,--the different forms of which
are but the various points wherein God is recognised, with
greater or less degrees of clearness and perfection, in this
manifestation of himself;--while the world itself, as an infi-
uite assemblage of concrete existences, conscious and uncon-
scious, is another phase of the same Infinite and Absolute
Being. Thus Consciousness, far from being a purely sub-
jective and empty train of fancies, contains nothing which
does not rest upon and image forth a Higher and Infinite
Reality; and Idealism itself becomes a sublime and Abso-
lute Realism.
This change in the spirit of his philosophy has been
ascribed to the influence of a distinguished contemporary,
who afterwards succeeded to the chair at Berlin of which
Fichte was the first occupant. It seems to us that it was
the natural and inevitable result of his own principles and
mode of thought; and that it was even theoretically con-
tained in the very first exposition of his doctrine, although
it had not then attained in his own mind that vivid reality
with which it shines, as a prophet-like inspiration, through-
out his later writings. In this view we are fully borne out
by the letter to Jakobi in 1795, and the article from the
Literatur Zeitung, already quoted. * In the development of
the system, whether in the mind of its author or in that of
any learner, the starting point is necessarily the individual
* See pages 60 and 62.
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? FINAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. 107
consciousness,--the finite Ego. But when the logical pro- } \cesses of the understanding have performed their office, and led us from this, the nearest of our spiritual experiences, to /\ ' . that higher point in which all finite individuality disappears
in the great thought of an all-embracing consciousness,--an
Infinite Ego,--it becomes unnecessary to reiterate the initial
steps of the investigation,--to imitate the gropings of the schoolboy rather than the comprehensive vision of the man.
From this higher point of view Fichte now looked forth on
the universe and human life, and saw there no longer the
subjective phenomena of a limited and finite nature, but the
harmonious, although diversified, manifestation of the One Universal Being,--the self-revelation of the Absolute,--the
infinitely varied forms under which God becomes " manifest
in the flesh. "
The first traces of this change in his speculative position
are observable in his "Bestimmung des Menschen," pub-
lished in 1799, in which, as we have already said, may be
found the most systematic exposition of his philosophy
which has been attempted in a popular form. In 1801 ap-
peared his "Antwortschreiben an Reinhold" (Answer to
Reinhold), and his "Sonnenklarer Bericht an das grossere
Publicum iiber das eigentliche Wesen der neuesten Philoso-
phic" (Sun-clear Intelligence to the general public on the
essential nature of the New Philosophy. ) These he intended
to follow up in 1802 with a more strictly scientific and com- yplete account of the Wissenschaftslehre, designed for the
philosophical reader only. But he was induced to postpone
this purpose, partly on account of the recent modification of
his own philosophical point of view, and partly because the attention of the literary world was now engrossed by the. >>*
brilliant and poetic Natur-Philosophie of Schelling. Before \'communicating to the world the work which should be
handed down to posterity as the finished institute of his
theory, it appeared to him necessary, first of all to prepare
the public mind for its reception by a series of introductory applications of his system to subjects of general interest.
But this purpose was likewise laid aside for a time,--princi-
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? 108
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
pally, it would seem, from dissatisfaction with the reception
which his works had hitherto received, from the harassing
misconceptions and misrepresentations which he had en-
countered, and from a doubt, amounting almost to hopeless-
ness, of making his views intelligible to the general public.
These feelings occasioned a silence of four years on his part,
and are characteristically expressed in the prefaces to seve-
ral of his subsequent works.
In the meantime, although Fichte retired for a season
from the prominent position which he had hitherto occupied
in the public eye, it was impossible for him to remain inact-
ive. Shut out from communication with the "reading pub-
lic," he sought to gather around him fit hearers to whom he
might impart the high message with which he was charged.
This was indeed his favourite mode of communication: in
the lecture-room his fiery eloquence found a freer scope than
the form of a literary work would permit. A circle of pupils
soon gathered around him at Berlin. His private lectures
were attended by the most distinguished scholars and states-
men: W. Schlegel, Kotzebue, the Minister Schrotter, the
High Chancellor Beyme, and the Minister von Altenstein,
were found among his auditory.
In 1804 an opportunity presented itself of resuming his
favourite vocation of an academic teacher. This was an in-
vitation from Russia to assume the chair of Philosophy in
the University of Charkow. The existing state of literary
culture in that country, however, did not seem to offer a
promising field for his exertions; and another proposal, which
appeared to open the way to a more useful application of his
powers, occurring at the same time, he declined the invitation
to Charkow. The second invitation was likewise a foreign
one,--from Bavaria, namely, to the Philosophic chair at
Landshut. It was accompanied by pecuniary proposals of a
most advantageous nature. But experience had taught
Fichte to set a much higher value upon the internal condi-
tions of such an office, than upon its outward advantages. In
desiring an academic chair, he sought only an opportunity
of carrying out his plan of a strictly philosophical education,
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? ACADEMIC PROJECTS.
109
with a view to the future reception of the Wissenschaftslehre
in its most perfect form. To this purpose he had devoted
his life, and no pecuniary considerations could induce him
to lay it aside. But its thorough fulfilment demanded ab-
solute freedom of teaching and writing as a primary condi-
tion, and therefore this was the first point to which Fichte
looked in any appointment which might be offered to him.
He frankly laid his views on this subject before the Bava-
rian Government. "The plan," he says, "might perhaps be
carried forward without the support of any government, al-
though this has its difficulties. But if any enlightened
government should resolve to support it, it would, in my
opinion, acquire thereby a deathless fame, and become the
benefactor of humanity. " Whether the Bavarian Govern-
ment was dissatisfied with the conditions required does not
appear,--but the negotiations on this subject were shortly
afterwards broken off.
At last, however, an opportunity occurred of carrying out
his views in Prussia itself. Through the influence of his
friends, Beyme and Altenstein, with the Minister Harden-
berg, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Erlangen, with the liberty of returning to Berlin
during the winter to continue his philosophical lectures there.
In May 1805 he entered upon his new duties with a brilliant
success which seemed to promise a repetition of the epoch
of Jena. Besides the course of lectures to his own students,
in which he took a comprehensive survey of the conditions
and method of scientific knowledge in general, he delivered
a series of private lectures to his fellow professors and others,
in which he laid down his views in a more abstract form.
In addition to these labours, he delivered to the whole stu-
dents of the University his celebrated lectures on the "Nature
of the Scholar. " These remarkable discourses must have
had a powerful effect on the young and ardent minds to
which they were addressed. Never, perhaps, were the moral
dignity and sacredness of the literary calling set forth with
more impressive earnestness.
Encouraged by the brilliant success which had attended
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? 110
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
his prelections at Erlangen, Fichte now resolved to give forth
to the world the results of his later studies, and especially
to embody, in some practical and generally intelligible form,
his great conception of the eternal revelation of God in con-
sciousness. Accordingly, on his return to Berlin in the win-
ter of 1805-6, he published the course of lectures to which we have just alluded, "Ueber das Wesen des Gelehrten" (On the
Nature of the Scholar), a translation of which forms a part of
the present volume. The Scholar is here represented as he
who, possessed and actuated by the Divine Idea, labours to
obtain for that Idea an outward manifestation in the world,
either by cultivating in his fellow-men the capacity for its re-
ception (as Teacher); or by directly embodying it in visible
forms (as Artist, Ruler, Lawgiver, &c. ) This publication was
immediately followed by another course, which had been de-
livered at Berlin during the previous year under the title of
*'Grundziige des gegenwartigen Zeitalters" (Characteristics
of the Present Age), of which an English version has also been
published by the present writer. It is an attempt to apply
the great principles of Transcendentalism to General History,
and abounds in searching and comprehensive views of the
progress, prospects, and destiny of man. This series of po-
pular works was completed by the publication, in the spring
of 1806, of the "Anweisung zum Seligen Leben, oder die
Religionslehre" (The Doctrine of Religion),--the most impor-
tant of all his later writings, which contains the final re-
sults of his philosophy in their most comprehensive and ex-
alted application. A translation of this admirable work is
also included in the present volume.
Fichte's long-cherished hopes of founding an academi-
cal institution in accordance with his philosophical views,
seemed now about to be realized. During the winter vaca-
tion, Hardenberg communicated with him on the subject of
a new organization of the University of Erlangen. Fichte
drew up a plan for this purpose, which was submitted to
the Minister in 1806. But fortune again interposed: the
outhreak of the war with France prevented his resuming
the duties which had been so well begun.
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? WAR OF LIBERATION.
Ill
The campaign of 1805 had subjected the greater part of
Germany to the power of Napoleon. Prussia, almost alone,
maintained her independence, surrounded on every side by
the armies or vassals of France. Her struggle with the giant-
power of the continent was of short duration. On the 9th
October 1806 war was declared,--on the 14th the double
battle of Auerstadt and Jena was fought,--and on the 25th
Napoleon entered Berlin. In rapid succession, all the fort-
resses of Prussia fell into the hands of the invader.
Fichte eagerly desired permission to accompany the army
which his country sent forth against her invaders. The hopes
of Germany hung upon its progress; its success would bring freedom and peace,--its failure, military depotism with all
its attendant horrors. Opposed to the well-trained troops
of France, elated with victory and eager for new conquests,
the defenders of Germany needed all the aid which high
principle and ardent patriotism could bring to their cause.
To maintain such a spirit in the army by such addresses as
afterwards appeared under the celebrated title of "Reden
an die Deutschen," Fichte conceived to be his appropriate
part in the general resistance to the enemy;--and for that
purpose he desired to be near the troops. "If the orator,"
he said, "must content himself with speech--if he may not
fight in your ranks to prove the truth of his principles by his
actions, by his contempt of danger and of death, by his pre-
sence in the most perilous places of the combat,--this is but
the fault of his age, which has separated the calling of the
scholar from that of the warrior. But he feels that if he
had been taught to carry arms, he would have been behind
none in courage; he laments that his age has denied him
the privilege accorded to ^Eschylus and Cervantes, to make
good his words by manly deeds . He would restore that time
if he could; and in the present circumstances, which he looks
upon as bringing with them a new phase of his existence, he
would proceed rather to deeds than to words. But since he
may only speak, he would speak fire and sword . Nor would
he do this securely and away from danger. In his discourses
he would give utterance to truths belonging to this subject
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? 112
'MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
with all the clearness with which he himself sees them, with
all the earnestness of which he is capable,--utter them a-
vowedly and with his own name,--truths which should cause
him to be held worthy of death before the tribunal of the
enemy. And on that account he would not faintheartedly
conceal himself, but speak boldly before your face, that he
might either live free in his fatherland, or perish in its
overthrow. "
The rapid progress of the war prevented compliance with
his wish, but the spirit which gave it birth was well appre-
ciated by Frederick-William. "Your idea, dear Fichte," says
the reply to his proposal, "does you honour. The King
thanks you for your offer;--perhaps we may make use of it
afterwards. But the King must first speak to his army by
deeds: your eloquence may turn to account the advantages
of victory. "
The defeat of Jena on the 14th October, and the rapid
march of Napoleon upon Berlin, which remained defenceless,
rendered it necessary for all who had identified themselves
with the cause of their country to seek refuge in instant
flight. Fichte's resolution was soon taken:--he would share
the dangers of his fatherland, rather than purchase safety
by submission. He left Berlin on the 18th October, in
company with his friend and physician Hufeland, a few
days before the occupation of the city by the French army.
Fichte's wife remained in Berlin to take charge of their
own and of Hufeland's household, while the two friends fled
beyond the Oder.
Fichte took up his residence at KSnisberg to await the
result of the war. The uncertainty of his future prospects,
and the dangerous situation in which he had left his family,
did not prevent him from pursuing his vocation as a public
teacher, even in the face of many hindrances. During the
winter he delivered a course of philosophical lectures in the
University, having been appointed provisional professor of
philosophy during his residence. He steadfastly resisted the
earnest desire of his wife to return to Berlin during its oc-
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? RESIDENCE AT KONIGSBERG.
113
cupancy by the French, conceiving it to be his duty to sub-
mit to every privation and discomfort rather than give an
indirect sanction to the presence of the enemy by sitting
down quietly under their rule, although he could now do so
with perfect safety to himself. "Such a return," he says,
"would stand in direct contradiction to the declarations made
in my address to the King, of which address my present cir-
cumstances are the result . And if no other keep me to my
word, it is just so much more my duty to hold myself to it.
It is precisely when other scholars of note in our country are
wavering, that he who has hitherto been true should stand
the firmer in his uprightness. "
During his residence in Konigsberg, he renewed many of
the friendships which he had formed there in early life, and
he now sought to add to his comfort by the removal of his
wife and child from Berlin. This plan was frustrated by a
dangerous illness by which his wife was overtaken, and which
is referred to in the following extracts from letters written
at this time:--
dFtrfjte an Sehu\ jFrau.
"Yesterday I received the intelligence of thy illness. Thy
few lines have drawn from me tears,--I know not whether
of grief, joy, or love. How blind we are! I have dreaded
everything but this. Naturally thou canst not have fallen
into serious illness; something extraordinary must have be-
fallen thee. I hoped that thou wouldst have borne our short
separation well, especially on account of the duties which
were laid upon thee. I recommended these thoughts to thee
at our parting, and I have, since that time, enforced them in my letters. Strong souls,--and thou art no weak one,--
make themselves stronger thus:-- and yet!
"Yet think not, dearest, that I would chide about thy
illness. Rather, in faith and trust, do I already receive thee
into my arms, as if thou wert really present, a new gift given
unto me, with even added value. Thou wert recovering,
although thy lines are feeble; at least I trust to thy own as-
surance rather than to that of friends who would reach me
Q
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? 114 MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
I have no name for it:
Feeling is all; name is but sound and smoke,
Veiling the glow of heaven. ' *
"And the second sings:--
"'And God is ! --a holy will that abides,
Though the human will may falter;
High over both Space and Time it rides,
The high Thought that will never alter:
And while all things in change eternal roll,
It endures, through change, a motionless soul. ' "t
The publication of this essay furnished a welcome oppor-
tunity to those States to which Fichte was obnoxious on
account of his democratic opinions, to institute public pro-
ceedings against him. The note was sounded by the publi-
cation of an anonymous pamphlet, entitled "Letters of a
Father to his Son on the Atheism of Fichte and Forberg,"
which was industriously and even gratuitously circulated
throughout Germany. The first official proceeding was a
decree of the Electoral Government, prohibiting the sale of
the Philosophical Journal, and confiscating all copies of it
found in the electorate. This was followed up by a requisi-
tion addressed to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, as the Conser-
vator of the University of Jena, in which Fichte and Forberg
were accused of "the coarsest atheism, openly opposed not
only to the Christian, but even to natural, religion;"--and
their severe punishment was demanded; failing which, it
was threatened that the subjects of the Elector should be
prohibited from resorting to the University. These pro-
ceedings were imitated by the other Protestant Courts of
Germany, that of Prussia excepted.
In answer to the official condemnation of his essay, Fichte
sent forth his "Appeal to the Public against the accusation
of Atheism," Jena 1799;--in which, with his accustomed
* Goethe's "Faust. "
t The above stanza of Schiller's "Worte des Glaubens" is taken from
Mr. Merivale's excellent translation.
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? APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC.
97
boldness, he does not confine himself to the strict limits of
self-defence, but exposes with no lenient hand the true cause
which rendered him obnoxious to the Electoral Government,
--not the atheism of which he was so absurdly accused, but
the spirit of freedom and independence which his philosophy
inculcated. He did not desire, he would not accept of any
compromise;--he demanded a free acquittal, or a public
condemnation. He adopted the same high tone in his de-
fence before his own Government. The Court of Saxe-
Weimar had no desire to restrain the liberty of thought, or
to erect any barrier against free speculation. It was too
wise not to perceive that a Protestant University in which
secular power should dare to invade the precincts of philo-
sophy, or profane the highest sanctuaries of thought, how-
ever great its reputation for the moment, must infallibly
decline from being a temple of knowledge into a mere
warehouse for literary, medical, or theological merchandize,
--a school-room for artizans,--a drill-yard for hirelings.
But, on the other hand, it was no part of the policy of the
Ducal Court to give offence to its more powerful neighbours,
or to enter upon a crusade in defence of opinions obnoxious
to the masses, because unintelligible to them. It was there-
fore intended to pass over this matter as smoothly as possible,
and to satisfy the complaining governments by administering
to Fichte a general rebuke for imprudence in promulgating
his views in language liable to popular misconstruction.
The appearance of his "Appeal to the Public," however,
rendered this arrangement less easy of accomplishment.
The opinion of the Government with respect to this publica-
tion was communicated to Fichte in a letter from Schiller,
--" that there was no doubt that he had cleared himself of the
accusation before every thinking mind; but that it was sur-
prising that he had not consulted with higher quarters before
he sent forth his appeal: why appeal to the public at all,
when he had to do only with a favourable and enlightened
Government 1" The obvious answer to which was, that the
"Appeal to the Public" was a reply to the public confiscation
of his work, while the private accusation before his Prince
o
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? 98
MEMOIR OB' FICHTE.
was answered by a private defence. In that defence the
Court found that the accused was determined to push the
investigation as far as his accusers could desire;--that he
demanded either an honourable and unreserved acquittal, or
deposition from his office as a false teacher. A further
breach between the Court and Fichte was caused by a letter
which, in the course of these proceedings, he addressed to a
member of the Council,-- his private friend,--in which he an-
nounced that a resignation of his professorship would be the
result of any reproof on the part of the Government. This
letter, addressed to an individual in his private capacity, was
most unjustifiably placed among the official documents con-
nected with the proceedings. Its tone, excusable perhaps in a
private communication, seemed presumptuous and arrogant
when addressed to the supreme authority;--it was the
haughty defiance of an equal, rather than the remonstrance
of a subject. This abuse of a private letter,--this betrayal
of the confidence of friendship,--cost Jena its most distin-
guished professor. On the 2d of April 1799, Fichte received
the decision of the Ducal Court. It contained a reproof for
imprudence in promulgating doctrines so unusual and so of-
fensive to the common understanding, and accepted Fichte's
resignation as a recognised consequence of that reproof.
It is much to be regretted that the timid policy of the
government, and the faults of individuals, prevented in
this instance the formal recognition of the great principle
involved in the contest, i. e. that civil governments have no
right to restrain the expression of any theoretical opinion what-
ever, when propounded in a scientific form and addressed to the
scientific world.
During these trying occurrences, the most enthusiastic
attachment was evinced towards Fichte by the students.
Two numerously signed petitions were presented to the Duke,
praying for his recall. These having proved unavailing, they
caused a medallion of their beloved teacher to be struck, in
testimony of their admiration and esteem.
Fichte's position was now one of the most difficult which
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? REMOVAL TO BERLIN.
99
can well be imagined. A prolonged residence at Jena was
out of the question,--he could no longer remain there. But
where to turn ? --where to seek an asylum? No neighbouring
state would afford him shelter; even the privilege of a private
residence was refused. At length a friend appeared in the
person of Dohm, Minister to the King of Prussia. Through
him Fichte applied to Frederick-William for permission to
reside in his dominions, with the view of earning a livelihood
by literary exertion and private teaching. The answer of
the Prussian monarch was worthy of his high character:--
"If," said he, "Fichte is so peaceful a citizen, and so free
from all dangerous associations as he is said to be, I willingly
accord him a residence in my dominions. As to his religious
principles, it is not for the State to decide upon them. " *
Fichte arrived in Prussia in July 1799, and devoted the
summer and autumn to the completion of a work in which
his philosophy is set forth in a popular form, but with ad-
mirable lucidity and comprehensiveness,--we allude to his
"Bestimmung des Menschen" (the Vocation of Man), an es-
say in which all the great phases of metaphysical specula-
tion are condensed into an almost dramatic picture of the
successive stages in the development of an individual mind.
A translation of the "Bestimmung des Menschen" forms a
part of the present volume. Towards the end of the year
he returned to Jena for the purpose of removing his family to
Berlin, where, henceforward, he fixed his place of residence.
The following extracts are from letters written to his wife
during their temporary separation:--
jFtctjte an Seeing jFrau.
"You probably wish to know how I live. For many
reasons, the weightiest of which lie in myself and in my
cough, I cannot keep up the early rising. Six o'clock is ge-
nerally my earliest. I go then to my writing desk, so that I
* The original phraseology of this last passage is peculiarly characteristic:
"3ft rt reobr, tap a mit ban titben (C)ofte in getnbfeltgreitrn bfgriffm Ifl; fo mag tut
Nr Vitit (Soft mit tbm abmadjen; mir tyut ba< nidjtf. "
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? 100
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
am not altogether idle, although I do not get on as I could
wish. I am now working at the "Bestimmung des Men-
schen. " At half-past twelve I hold my toilet (yes! --get
powdered, dressed, &c. ), and at one I call on M. Veit, where
I meet Schlegel and a reformed preacher, Schlegel's friend. *
At three I return, and read a French novel, or write as I do
now to you. If the piece be at all tolerable, which is not
always the case, I go to the theatre at five. If it be not, I
walk with Schlegel in the suburbs, in the zoological gardens,
or under the linden trees before the house. Sometimes I
make small country parties with Schlegel and his friends.
So we did, for example, the day before yesterday, with the
most lively remembrance of thee and the little one. We had
no wine to drink your health,--only sour beer, and a slice of
black bitter bread with a thin bit of half-decayed ham stuck
upon it with dirty butter. Politeness makes me put up with
many things here which are scarcely tolerable. But I have
thought of a better method for country parties.
"In the evening I sup on a roll of bread and a quart of
Medoc wine, which are the only tolerable things in the
house; and go to bed between ten and eleven, to sleep
without dreaming. Only once,--it was after thy first alarm-
ing letter,--I had my Hermann in my arms, full of joy that
he was well again, when suddenly he stretched himself out,
turned pale, and all those appearances followed which are
indelibly fixed on my memory.
"I charge thee, dearest, with thy own health and the
health of the little one. --Farewell. "
******
"I am perfectly secure here. Yesterday I visited the
Cabinet Councillor Beyme, who is daily engaged with the
King, and spoke to him about my position. I told him
honestly that I had come here in order to take up my abode,
and that I sought for safety because it was my intention
that my family should follow me. He assured me, that far
from there being any desire to hinder me in this purpose, it
Schleiermacher.
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? LETTERS TO HIS WIFE.
101
would be esteemed an honour and advantage if I made my
residence here,--that the King was immovable upon certain
principles affecting these questions, &c. "
******
"I work with industry and pleasure. My work on the
'Vocation of Man' will, I think, be ready at Michaelmas,--
written, not printed,--and it seems to me likely to succeed.
You know that I am never satisfied with my works when
they are first written, and therefore my own opinion on this
point is worth something By my
residence in Berlin I have gained this much, that I shall
thenceforth be allowed to live in peace elsewhere ;--and this is
much. I venture to say that I should have been teased and
perhaps hunted out of any other place. But it is quite another thing now that I have lived in Berlin under the eye of the King. By and by, I think, even the Weimar Court
will learn to be ashamed of its conduct, especially if I make
no advances to it. In the meantime something advan-
tageous may happen . So be thou calm and of good courage,
dear one, and trust in thy Fichte's judgment, talent, and
good fortune. Thou laughst at the last word. Well, well!
--I assure you that good fortune will soon come back
again. "
******
"I have written to Reinhold a cold, somewhat upbraiding
letter. The good weak soul is full of lamentation. I shall
immediately comfort him again, and take care that he be
not alienated from me in future. If I was beside thee, thou
wouldst say--'Dost thou hear, Fichte? thou art proud--I
must tell it thee, if no one else will. ' Very well, be thou
glad that I am proud. Since I have no humility, I must be
proud, so that I may have something to carry me through
the world. "
******
"Of all that thou writest to me, I am most dissatisfied
with this, that thou callest our Hermann an ill-bred boy.
No greater misfortune could befall me on earth than that
this child should be spoiled; and I would lament my absence
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? 102
MEMOIE OF FICHTE.
from Jena only if it should be the cause of that. I adjure
thee by thy maternal duties, by thy love to me, by all that
is sacred to thee, let this child be thy first and only care,
and leave everything else for him. Thou art deficient in
firmness and coolness;--hence all thy errors in the educa-
tion of the little one. Teach him that when thou hast once
denied him anything, it is determined and irrevocable, and
that neither petulance nor the most urgent entreaties will
be of any avail:--once fail in this, and you have an ill-
taught obstinate boy, particularly with the natural disposi-
tion to strength of character which our little one possesses;
and it costs a hundred times more labour to set him right
again. For indeed it should be our first care not to let his
character be spoiled; and believe me, there is in him the
capacity of being a wild knave, as well as that of being an
honest, true, virtuous man. In particular, do not suppose
that he will be led by persuasion and reasoning. The most
intelligent men err in this, and thou also in the same way.
He cannot think for himself yet, nor will he be able to do so
for a long time;--at present, the first thing is that he should
learn obedience and subjection to a foreign mind. Thou
mayst indeed sometimes gain thy immediate purpose by
persuasion, not because he understands thy reasons and is
moved by them, but because thou in a manner submittest
thyself to him and makest him the judge. Thus his pride
is flattered; thy talk employs his vacant time and dispels
his caprices. But this is all;--while for the future thou
renderest his guidance more difficult for thee, and confirmest
thyself in a pernicious prejudice. "
? >>>>***
"Cheerfulness and good courage are to me the highest
proof that thou lovest me as I should be loved. Dejection
and sorrow are distrust in me, and make me unhappy
because they make thee unhappy. It is no proof of love
that thou shouldst feel deeply the injustice done to me;--
to me it is a light matter, and so must it be to thee, for thou
and I are one.
"Do not speak of dying; indulge in no such thoughts;
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? RESIDENCE AT BERLIN.
103
for they weaken thee, and thus might become true. No!
we shall yet live with each other many joyful and happy
days; and our child shall close our eyes when he is a mature
and perfect man: till then he needs us.
"In the progress of my present work, I have taken a
deeper glance into religion than ever I did before. In me
the emotions of the heart proceed only from perfect intel-
lectual clearness:--it cannot be but that the clearness I
have now attained on this subject shall also take possession
of my heart.
"Believe me, that to this disposition is to be ascribed, in
a great measure, my steadfast cheerfulness, and the mildness
with which I look upon the injustice of my opponents. I do
not believe that, without this dispute and its evil conse-
quences, I should ever have come to this clear insight, and
the disposition of heart which I now enjoy; and so the
violence we have experienced has had a result which neither
you nor I can regret.
"Comfort the poor boy, and dry thy tears as he bids thee.
Think that it is his father's advice, who indeed would say
the same thing. And do with our dear Hermann as I wrote
thee before. The child is our riches, and we must use him
welL"
If the spectacle of the scholar contending against the hin-
drances of fortune and the imperfections of his own nature,
--struggling with the common passions of mankind and the
weakness of his own will,--soaring aloft amid the highest
speculations of genius, and dragged down again to earth by
its coarsest attractions;--if this be one of the most painful
spectacles which the theatre of life presents, surely it is one
of the noblest when we see such a man pursuing some lofty
theme with a constancy which difficulties cannot shake, nor
the whirlwind of passion destroy. Nor is the scene less in-
teresting and instructive, if the inherent nobility of its
central figure have drawn around him a few souls of kindred
nobleness, whose presence sheds a genial brilliance over a
path otherwise solitary, although never dark or doubtful.
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MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
Such was now Fichte's position. The first years of his resi-
|dence at Berlin were among the most peaceful in his life of
vicissitude and storm. Withdrawn from public duties, and
uninterrupted by the sources of outward annoyance to which
he had lately been exposed, he now enjoyed a period of tran-
quil retirement, surrounded by a small circle of friends
worthy of his attachment and esteem. Friedrich and Wil-
Ihelm Schlegel, Tieck, Woltmann, Reichhardt, and Jean
Paul Friedrich Richter, were among his chosen associates;
Bernhardi, with his clear and acute yet discursive thought,
his social graces and warm affections, was his almost daily
companion. Hufeland, the king's physician, whom he had
known at Jena, now became bound to him by the closest
ties, and rendered him many kind offices, over which the
delicacy of friendship has thrown a veil.
Amid the amenities of such society, and withdrawn from
the anxieties and disturbances of public life, Fichte now
devoted himself to the development and completion of his
philosophical theory. The period of danger and difficulty
through which he had lately passed, the loss of many valued
and trusted friends, and the isolation of his own mental
position, naturally favoured the fuller development of that
profound religious feeling which lay at the root of his cha-
racter. It was accordingly during this season of repose,
that the great leading idea of his system first revealed itself
to his mind in perfect clearness, and impressed upon his
subsequent writings that deeply religious character to which
we have already adverted.
The passage from subjective
reflection to objective and absolute being, had hitherto, as
we have seen, been attempted by Fichte on the ground of
moral feeling only. Our Faith in the Divine is the inevi-
table result of our sense of duty; it is the imperative
demand of our moral nature. We are immediately conscious
of a Moral law within us, whose behests are announced to
us with an absolute authority which we cannot gainsay; the
source of that authority is not in us, but in the Eternal
Fountain of all moral order,--shrouded from our intellectual
vision by the impenetrable glories of the Infinite. But this
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? FINAL DEVELOPMKNT OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. 105
inference of a Moral Lawgiver from our intuition of a Moral
Law is, after all, but the ordinary " cause and effect" argu-
ment applied to moral phenomena, and is not, strictly
speaking, more satisfactory than the common application of
the same course of reasoning to the phenomena of the phy-
sical world. Besides, it does not wholly meet the facts of
the case, for there can be no doubt that in all men, and
more especially among savages and half-civilized people, the
recognition of a Divinity precedes any definite conception of
a Moral Law. And therefore we do not reach the true and
ultimate ground of this Faith until we penetrate to that in-
nate feeling of dependence, underlying both our emotional
and intellectual nature, which, in its relation to the one,
gives birth to the Religious Sentiments, and, when recog-
nised and elaborated by the other, becomes the basis of a
scientific belief in the Absolute or God,--the materials of
the edifice being furnished by our intuitions of the Good,
the Beautiful, and the True. Fichte's thoughts being now
directed more steadily to the strictly religious aspect of his
theory, he sought to add such an intellectual validity to our
moral convictions, to raise our Faith in the Divine from the
rank of a mere inference from the Moral Sense, to that of a
direct intuition of Reason. This he accomplished by a
deeper analysis of the fact of consciousness. What is the
essential character of our knowledge--that which it pre-
serves amid all the diversities of the individual mind 1 It
is this:--that it announces itself as a representation of
something else, a picture of something superior to, and inde-
pendent of, itself. It is thus composed of a double concep-
tion :--a Higher Being which it imperfectly represents; and
itself, inferior to, derived from, and dependent upon the first.
Hence, it must renounce the thought of itself as the only
being whose existence it reveals, and regard itself rather as
the image or reflection of a truly Highest and Ultimate
Being revealed in human thought, and indeed its essential
foundation. And this idea cannot be got rid of on the
ground that it is a merely subjective conception; for we have
here reached the primitive essence of thought itself,--and to
p
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MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
deny this would be to deny the very nature and conditions
of knowledge, and to maintain an obvious contradiction;
this namely,--that there can be a conception without an
object conceived, a manifestation without substance, and
that the ultimate foundation of all things is nothing. By
this reconciliation, and indeed essential union of the sub-
jective with the objective, Reason finally bridges over the
chasm by which analysis had formerly separated it from the
simple Faith of common humanity. Consciousness becomes
the manifestation,--the self-revelation of the Absolute;--
and the Absolute itself is the ground and substance of the
phenomena of Consciousness,--the different forms of which
are but the various points wherein God is recognised, with
greater or less degrees of clearness and perfection, in this
manifestation of himself;--while the world itself, as an infi-
uite assemblage of concrete existences, conscious and uncon-
scious, is another phase of the same Infinite and Absolute
Being. Thus Consciousness, far from being a purely sub-
jective and empty train of fancies, contains nothing which
does not rest upon and image forth a Higher and Infinite
Reality; and Idealism itself becomes a sublime and Abso-
lute Realism.
This change in the spirit of his philosophy has been
ascribed to the influence of a distinguished contemporary,
who afterwards succeeded to the chair at Berlin of which
Fichte was the first occupant. It seems to us that it was
the natural and inevitable result of his own principles and
mode of thought; and that it was even theoretically con-
tained in the very first exposition of his doctrine, although
it had not then attained in his own mind that vivid reality
with which it shines, as a prophet-like inspiration, through-
out his later writings. In this view we are fully borne out
by the letter to Jakobi in 1795, and the article from the
Literatur Zeitung, already quoted. * In the development of
the system, whether in the mind of its author or in that of
any learner, the starting point is necessarily the individual
* See pages 60 and 62.
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? FINAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. 107
consciousness,--the finite Ego. But when the logical pro- } \cesses of the understanding have performed their office, and led us from this, the nearest of our spiritual experiences, to /\ ' . that higher point in which all finite individuality disappears
in the great thought of an all-embracing consciousness,--an
Infinite Ego,--it becomes unnecessary to reiterate the initial
steps of the investigation,--to imitate the gropings of the schoolboy rather than the comprehensive vision of the man.
From this higher point of view Fichte now looked forth on
the universe and human life, and saw there no longer the
subjective phenomena of a limited and finite nature, but the
harmonious, although diversified, manifestation of the One Universal Being,--the self-revelation of the Absolute,--the
infinitely varied forms under which God becomes " manifest
in the flesh. "
The first traces of this change in his speculative position
are observable in his "Bestimmung des Menschen," pub-
lished in 1799, in which, as we have already said, may be
found the most systematic exposition of his philosophy
which has been attempted in a popular form. In 1801 ap-
peared his "Antwortschreiben an Reinhold" (Answer to
Reinhold), and his "Sonnenklarer Bericht an das grossere
Publicum iiber das eigentliche Wesen der neuesten Philoso-
phic" (Sun-clear Intelligence to the general public on the
essential nature of the New Philosophy. ) These he intended
to follow up in 1802 with a more strictly scientific and com- yplete account of the Wissenschaftslehre, designed for the
philosophical reader only. But he was induced to postpone
this purpose, partly on account of the recent modification of
his own philosophical point of view, and partly because the attention of the literary world was now engrossed by the. >>*
brilliant and poetic Natur-Philosophie of Schelling. Before \'communicating to the world the work which should be
handed down to posterity as the finished institute of his
theory, it appeared to him necessary, first of all to prepare
the public mind for its reception by a series of introductory applications of his system to subjects of general interest.
But this purpose was likewise laid aside for a time,--princi-
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? 108
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
pally, it would seem, from dissatisfaction with the reception
which his works had hitherto received, from the harassing
misconceptions and misrepresentations which he had en-
countered, and from a doubt, amounting almost to hopeless-
ness, of making his views intelligible to the general public.
These feelings occasioned a silence of four years on his part,
and are characteristically expressed in the prefaces to seve-
ral of his subsequent works.
In the meantime, although Fichte retired for a season
from the prominent position which he had hitherto occupied
in the public eye, it was impossible for him to remain inact-
ive. Shut out from communication with the "reading pub-
lic," he sought to gather around him fit hearers to whom he
might impart the high message with which he was charged.
This was indeed his favourite mode of communication: in
the lecture-room his fiery eloquence found a freer scope than
the form of a literary work would permit. A circle of pupils
soon gathered around him at Berlin. His private lectures
were attended by the most distinguished scholars and states-
men: W. Schlegel, Kotzebue, the Minister Schrotter, the
High Chancellor Beyme, and the Minister von Altenstein,
were found among his auditory.
In 1804 an opportunity presented itself of resuming his
favourite vocation of an academic teacher. This was an in-
vitation from Russia to assume the chair of Philosophy in
the University of Charkow. The existing state of literary
culture in that country, however, did not seem to offer a
promising field for his exertions; and another proposal, which
appeared to open the way to a more useful application of his
powers, occurring at the same time, he declined the invitation
to Charkow. The second invitation was likewise a foreign
one,--from Bavaria, namely, to the Philosophic chair at
Landshut. It was accompanied by pecuniary proposals of a
most advantageous nature. But experience had taught
Fichte to set a much higher value upon the internal condi-
tions of such an office, than upon its outward advantages. In
desiring an academic chair, he sought only an opportunity
of carrying out his plan of a strictly philosophical education,
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? ACADEMIC PROJECTS.
109
with a view to the future reception of the Wissenschaftslehre
in its most perfect form. To this purpose he had devoted
his life, and no pecuniary considerations could induce him
to lay it aside. But its thorough fulfilment demanded ab-
solute freedom of teaching and writing as a primary condi-
tion, and therefore this was the first point to which Fichte
looked in any appointment which might be offered to him.
He frankly laid his views on this subject before the Bava-
rian Government. "The plan," he says, "might perhaps be
carried forward without the support of any government, al-
though this has its difficulties. But if any enlightened
government should resolve to support it, it would, in my
opinion, acquire thereby a deathless fame, and become the
benefactor of humanity. " Whether the Bavarian Govern-
ment was dissatisfied with the conditions required does not
appear,--but the negotiations on this subject were shortly
afterwards broken off.
At last, however, an opportunity occurred of carrying out
his views in Prussia itself. Through the influence of his
friends, Beyme and Altenstein, with the Minister Harden-
berg, he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Erlangen, with the liberty of returning to Berlin
during the winter to continue his philosophical lectures there.
In May 1805 he entered upon his new duties with a brilliant
success which seemed to promise a repetition of the epoch
of Jena. Besides the course of lectures to his own students,
in which he took a comprehensive survey of the conditions
and method of scientific knowledge in general, he delivered
a series of private lectures to his fellow professors and others,
in which he laid down his views in a more abstract form.
In addition to these labours, he delivered to the whole stu-
dents of the University his celebrated lectures on the "Nature
of the Scholar. " These remarkable discourses must have
had a powerful effect on the young and ardent minds to
which they were addressed. Never, perhaps, were the moral
dignity and sacredness of the literary calling set forth with
more impressive earnestness.
Encouraged by the brilliant success which had attended
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? 110
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
his prelections at Erlangen, Fichte now resolved to give forth
to the world the results of his later studies, and especially
to embody, in some practical and generally intelligible form,
his great conception of the eternal revelation of God in con-
sciousness. Accordingly, on his return to Berlin in the win-
ter of 1805-6, he published the course of lectures to which we have just alluded, "Ueber das Wesen des Gelehrten" (On the
Nature of the Scholar), a translation of which forms a part of
the present volume. The Scholar is here represented as he
who, possessed and actuated by the Divine Idea, labours to
obtain for that Idea an outward manifestation in the world,
either by cultivating in his fellow-men the capacity for its re-
ception (as Teacher); or by directly embodying it in visible
forms (as Artist, Ruler, Lawgiver, &c. ) This publication was
immediately followed by another course, which had been de-
livered at Berlin during the previous year under the title of
*'Grundziige des gegenwartigen Zeitalters" (Characteristics
of the Present Age), of which an English version has also been
published by the present writer. It is an attempt to apply
the great principles of Transcendentalism to General History,
and abounds in searching and comprehensive views of the
progress, prospects, and destiny of man. This series of po-
pular works was completed by the publication, in the spring
of 1806, of the "Anweisung zum Seligen Leben, oder die
Religionslehre" (The Doctrine of Religion),--the most impor-
tant of all his later writings, which contains the final re-
sults of his philosophy in their most comprehensive and ex-
alted application. A translation of this admirable work is
also included in the present volume.
Fichte's long-cherished hopes of founding an academi-
cal institution in accordance with his philosophical views,
seemed now about to be realized. During the winter vaca-
tion, Hardenberg communicated with him on the subject of
a new organization of the University of Erlangen. Fichte
drew up a plan for this purpose, which was submitted to
the Minister in 1806. But fortune again interposed: the
outhreak of the war with France prevented his resuming
the duties which had been so well begun.
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? WAR OF LIBERATION.
Ill
The campaign of 1805 had subjected the greater part of
Germany to the power of Napoleon. Prussia, almost alone,
maintained her independence, surrounded on every side by
the armies or vassals of France. Her struggle with the giant-
power of the continent was of short duration. On the 9th
October 1806 war was declared,--on the 14th the double
battle of Auerstadt and Jena was fought,--and on the 25th
Napoleon entered Berlin. In rapid succession, all the fort-
resses of Prussia fell into the hands of the invader.
Fichte eagerly desired permission to accompany the army
which his country sent forth against her invaders. The hopes
of Germany hung upon its progress; its success would bring freedom and peace,--its failure, military depotism with all
its attendant horrors. Opposed to the well-trained troops
of France, elated with victory and eager for new conquests,
the defenders of Germany needed all the aid which high
principle and ardent patriotism could bring to their cause.
To maintain such a spirit in the army by such addresses as
afterwards appeared under the celebrated title of "Reden
an die Deutschen," Fichte conceived to be his appropriate
part in the general resistance to the enemy;--and for that
purpose he desired to be near the troops. "If the orator,"
he said, "must content himself with speech--if he may not
fight in your ranks to prove the truth of his principles by his
actions, by his contempt of danger and of death, by his pre-
sence in the most perilous places of the combat,--this is but
the fault of his age, which has separated the calling of the
scholar from that of the warrior. But he feels that if he
had been taught to carry arms, he would have been behind
none in courage; he laments that his age has denied him
the privilege accorded to ^Eschylus and Cervantes, to make
good his words by manly deeds . He would restore that time
if he could; and in the present circumstances, which he looks
upon as bringing with them a new phase of his existence, he
would proceed rather to deeds than to words. But since he
may only speak, he would speak fire and sword . Nor would
he do this securely and away from danger. In his discourses
he would give utterance to truths belonging to this subject
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? 112
'MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
with all the clearness with which he himself sees them, with
all the earnestness of which he is capable,--utter them a-
vowedly and with his own name,--truths which should cause
him to be held worthy of death before the tribunal of the
enemy. And on that account he would not faintheartedly
conceal himself, but speak boldly before your face, that he
might either live free in his fatherland, or perish in its
overthrow. "
The rapid progress of the war prevented compliance with
his wish, but the spirit which gave it birth was well appre-
ciated by Frederick-William. "Your idea, dear Fichte," says
the reply to his proposal, "does you honour. The King
thanks you for your offer;--perhaps we may make use of it
afterwards. But the King must first speak to his army by
deeds: your eloquence may turn to account the advantages
of victory. "
The defeat of Jena on the 14th October, and the rapid
march of Napoleon upon Berlin, which remained defenceless,
rendered it necessary for all who had identified themselves
with the cause of their country to seek refuge in instant
flight. Fichte's resolution was soon taken:--he would share
the dangers of his fatherland, rather than purchase safety
by submission. He left Berlin on the 18th October, in
company with his friend and physician Hufeland, a few
days before the occupation of the city by the French army.
Fichte's wife remained in Berlin to take charge of their
own and of Hufeland's household, while the two friends fled
beyond the Oder.
Fichte took up his residence at KSnisberg to await the
result of the war. The uncertainty of his future prospects,
and the dangerous situation in which he had left his family,
did not prevent him from pursuing his vocation as a public
teacher, even in the face of many hindrances. During the
winter he delivered a course of philosophical lectures in the
University, having been appointed provisional professor of
philosophy during his residence. He steadfastly resisted the
earnest desire of his wife to return to Berlin during its oc-
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? RESIDENCE AT KONIGSBERG.
113
cupancy by the French, conceiving it to be his duty to sub-
mit to every privation and discomfort rather than give an
indirect sanction to the presence of the enemy by sitting
down quietly under their rule, although he could now do so
with perfect safety to himself. "Such a return," he says,
"would stand in direct contradiction to the declarations made
in my address to the King, of which address my present cir-
cumstances are the result . And if no other keep me to my
word, it is just so much more my duty to hold myself to it.
It is precisely when other scholars of note in our country are
wavering, that he who has hitherto been true should stand
the firmer in his uprightness. "
During his residence in Konigsberg, he renewed many of
the friendships which he had formed there in early life, and
he now sought to add to his comfort by the removal of his
wife and child from Berlin. This plan was frustrated by a
dangerous illness by which his wife was overtaken, and which
is referred to in the following extracts from letters written
at this time:--
dFtrfjte an Sehu\ jFrau.
"Yesterday I received the intelligence of thy illness. Thy
few lines have drawn from me tears,--I know not whether
of grief, joy, or love. How blind we are! I have dreaded
everything but this. Naturally thou canst not have fallen
into serious illness; something extraordinary must have be-
fallen thee. I hoped that thou wouldst have borne our short
separation well, especially on account of the duties which
were laid upon thee. I recommended these thoughts to thee
at our parting, and I have, since that time, enforced them in my letters. Strong souls,--and thou art no weak one,--
make themselves stronger thus:-- and yet!
"Yet think not, dearest, that I would chide about thy
illness. Rather, in faith and trust, do I already receive thee
into my arms, as if thou wert really present, a new gift given
unto me, with even added value. Thou wert recovering,
although thy lines are feeble; at least I trust to thy own as-
surance rather than to that of friends who would reach me
Q
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? 114 MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
