Confutation without
bitterness
is never unacceptable
to me.
to me.
Fichte - Nature of the Scholar
" The hour of divine service in the University was
11 A. M. Fichte therefore fixed upon nine in the morning as
H
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? 82
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
his hour of lecture, and commenced his course with most
favourable prospects. A large concourse of students from all
the different classes thronged his hall, and several professors,
who took their places among the audience, willingly ac-
knowledged the benefit which they derived from his dis-
courses. But he soon discovered that the best intentions,
and the most prudent conduct, are no protection against
calumny. A political print, which had attained an unenvi-
able notoriety for anonymous slander, and had distinguished
itself by crawling sycophancy towards power, now exhibited
its far-seeing sagacity by tracing the intimate connexion
between the Sunday-lectures and the French Revolution,
and proclaimed the former to be a "formal attempt to over-
turn the public religious services of Christianity, and to
erect the worship of Reason in their stead"! Strange to
tell, the Consistory of Jena saw it to be their duty to forward
a complaint on this subject to the High-Consistory at
Weimar; and finally an assembly in which a Herder sat
lodged an accusation before the Duke and Privy-council
against Professor Fichte for "a deliberate attempt against
the public religious services of the country. " Fichte was
directed to suspend his lectures in the meantime, until in-
quiry could be made. He immediately met the accusation
with a powerful defence, in which he indignantly hurled
back the charge, completely demolishing, by a simple narra-
tive of the real facts, every vestige of argument by which it
could be supported; and took occasion to make the Govern-
ment acquainted with his projects for the moral improvement
of the students. The judgment of the Duke is dated 25th
January 1795, and by it, Fichte "is freely acquitted of the
utterly groundless suspicion which had been attached to
him," and confidence is expressed, "that in his future pro-
ceedings he will exhibit such wisdom and prudence as shall
entitle him to the continued good opinion" of the Prince.
Permission was given him to resume his Sunday-lectures,
avoiding the hours of divine service.
But in the meantime the outrageous proceedings of that
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? DEATH OF HARTJIAXN RAHN.
83
party of the students which was opposed to him rendered it
impossible for him to entertain any hope of conciliating
them, and soon made his residence at Jena uncomfortable
and even dangerous. His wife was insulted upon the public
street, and both his person and property subjected to re-
peated outrages. He applied to the Senate of the Univer-
sity for protection, but was informed that the treatment he
had received was the result of his interference in the affairs
of the Orders upon the authority of the State, and without
the cooperation of the Senate; that they could do nothing
more than authorize self-defence in case of necessity; and
that if he desired more protection than the Academy could
give him, he might apply to his friends at Court. At last,
when at the termination of the winter session an attack was
made upon his house in the middle of the night, in which
his venerable father-in-law narrowly escaped with life, Fichte
applied to the Duke for permission to leave Jena. This
was granted, and he took up his residence during the sum-
mer at the village of Osmanstadt, about two miles from
Weimar.
In delightful contrast to the stormy character of his public
life at this time, stands the peaceful simplicity of his domes-
tic relations. In consequence of the suddenness of his re-
moval from Zurich, his wife did not accompany him at the
time, but joined him a few months afterwards. Her vener-
able father, too, was persuaded by his love for his children
to leave his native land, and take up his residence with them
at Jena This excellent old man was the object of Fichte's
deepest respect and attachment, and his declining years were
watched with all the anxiety of filial tenderness. He died
on 29th September 1795, at the age of 76. His remains
were accompanied to the grave by Fichte's pupils as a mark
of respect for their teacher's grief; and a simple monument
records the affectionate reverence of those he left behind him.
It bears the following interesting inscription from the pen
of Fichte:--
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? SlEMOIR OF FICHTF. .
HARTMANN RAHN,
BORX AT ZCRICII, 1>IKI) AT JRSA 29th SEPTEMBER 1795, AOKD 7C VFARS.
He lived amid the most eminent men of his time; was beloved liy the
good; sometimes troubled by others; hated by none.
Intelligence, kindliness, faith in God and man, gave new life to his ape,
and guided him peacefully to the grave.
None knew his worth better than we, whom the old man followed from his father-land, whom he loved even to the end, and of whose grief this memorial
bears record.
JOHANNA FICHTE, his Dacohter
JOH. GOTT. FICHTE, his Son.
Farewell! thou dear Father!
Be not ashamed, 0 Stranger! if a gentle emotion stir within thee:
were he alive, he would clasp thy hand in friendship!
After the death of their venerable parent, Fichte and his
wife were left alone to enjoy, in pure and unbroken attach-
ment, the calm sunshine of domestic felicity; but at a later
period the smile of childhood added a new charm to their
home. A son who was born at Jena was their only child. *
Fichte's intercourse with the eminent men who adorned
this brilliant period of German literary history was extensive
and important. Preeminent among these stands Goethe, in
many respects a remarkable contrast to the philosopher.
The one, calm, sarcastic, and oracular; the other, restless, en-
thusiastic, impetuously eloquent;--the one, looking on men
only to scan and comprehend them; the other, waging cease-
less war with their vices, their ignorance, their unworthiness;
--the one, seating himself on a chilling elevation above
human sympathy, and even exerting all the energies of his
mighty intellect to veil the traces of every feeling which
bound him to his fellow-men; the other, from an eminence
no less exalted, pouring around him a rushing tide of moral
power over his friends, his country, and the world. To the
one, men looked up with a painful and hopeless sense of
inferiority; they crowded around the other to participate
* Now Professor of Philosophy in the University of Tubingen.
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? LITERARY INTERCOURSE--GOETHE.
85
in his wisdom, and to grow strong in gazing on his Titanic
might. And even now, when a common destiny has laid the
proud gray column in the dust, and stayed the giant's arm
from working, we look upon the majesty of the one with
astonishment rather than reverence, while at the memory of
the other the pulse of hope beats more vigorously than be-
fore, and the tear of patriotism falls heavily on his grave.
Goethe welcomed the "Wissenschaftslehre" with his usual
avidity for new acquisitions. The bold attempt to infuse a
living spirit into philosophical formulas, and give reality to
speculative abstractions, roused his attention. He requested
that it might be sent to him, sheet by sheet, as it went
through the press. This was accordingly done, and the
following passage from a letter to Fichte will show that he
was not disappointed in the expectations he had formed of
it:--
"What you have sent me contains nothing which I do not
understand, or at least believe that I understand,--nothing
that does not readily harmonize with my accustomed way
of thinking; and I see the hopes which I had derived from
the introduction already fulfilled.
"In my opinion you will confer a priceless benefit on the
human race, and make every thinking man your debtor, by
giving a scientific foundation to that upon which Nature
seems long ago to have quietly agreed with herself. For
myself, I shall owe you my best thanks if you reconcile me
to the philosophers, whom I cannot do without, and with
whom, notwithstanding, I never could unite.
"I look with anxiety for the continuation of your work to
adjust and confirm many things for me; and I hope, when
you are free from urgent engagements, to speak with you
about several matters, the prosecution of which I defer until
I clearly understand how that which I hope to accomplish
may harmonize with what we have to expect from you. "
The personal intercourse of these two great men seems to
have been characterized by mutual respect and esteem, with-
out any approach to intimacy. Of one interview Fichte
says,--"He was politeness, friendship itself; he showed me
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? S(i
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
unusual attention. " But no correspondence was maintained
between them after Fichte left Jena, in consequence of the
proceedings which led to his departure.
Of a more enduring nature was his intimacy with Jacobi.
It commenced in a literary correspondence soon after his
arrival at Jena, from which some extracts have already been
given. Entertaining a deep respect for this distinguished
man, derived solely from the study of his works, Fichte sent
him a copy of the Wissenschaftslehre, with a request that
he would communicate his opinion of the system it contained.
In a long and interesting correspondence, extending over
many years, the points of opposition between them were
canvassed; and although a radical difference in mental con-
stitution prevented them from ever thinking altogether alike,
yet it did not prevent them from cultivating a warm and
steadfast friendship, which continued unbroken amid vicissi-
tudes by which other attachments were sorely tried.
Fichte had formed an acquaintance with Schiller at Tu-
hbingen when on his journey to Jena Schiller's enthusiastic
nature assimilated more closely to that of Fichte than did
the dispositions of the other great poet of Germany, and a
cordial intimacy sprang up between them. Fichte was a
contributor to the "Horen" from its commencement--a jour-
nal which Schiller began soon after Fichte's arrival at Jena.
This gave rise to a singular but short-lived misunderstand-
ing between them . A paper entitled "Briefe iiber Geist und
Buchstaben in der Philosophie" had been sent by Fichte
for insertion in the Horen. Judging from the commence-
ment alone, Schiller conceived it to be an imitation, or still
worse, a parody, of his "Briefe iiber die ^Esthetische Erzie-
hung des Menschen," and, easily excited as he was, demand-
ed with some bitterness that it should be re-written. Fichte
did not justify himself by producing the continuation of the
article, but referred the accusation of parody to the arbitra-
tion of Goethe and Humboldt. Schiller was convinced of
his error, and soon apologized for it; but Fichte did not
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? TREATMENT OF OPPONENTS.
S7
return the essay, and it appeared afterwards in the Philo-
sophical Journal. After this slight misunderstanding they
continued upon terms of confidence and friendship, and, to-
wards the close of his life, Schiller became a zealous student
of the Wissenschaftslehre.
Fichte likewise carried on an extensive correspondence
with Reinhold (who has been already mentioned), Schelling,
W. von Humboldt, Schaumann, Paulus, Schmidt, the Schle-
gels, Novalis, Tieck, Woltmann, besides a host of minor
writers, so that his influence extended throughout the whole
literary world of Germany at that period.
Fichte has been accused of asperity and superciliousness
towards his literary opponents. It may easily be conceived
that, occupying a point of view altogether different from
theirs, his philosophy should appear to him entirely un-
touched by objections to which they attached great weight.
Nor is it surprising that he should choose rather to proceed
with the development of his own system, from his own prin-
ciples, than to place himself in the mental position of other
men, and combat their arguments upon their own grounds.
That diversity of ground was the essential cause of their
difference. Those who could take their stand beside him,
would see the matter as he saw it; those who could not do
this, must remain where they were. Claiming for his system
the certainty of mathematical demonstration,--asserting that
with him philosophy was no longer mere speculation, but
had now become knowledge,--he could not bend or accommo-
date himself or his doctrines to the prejudices of others;--
they must come to him, not he to them. "My philosophy,"
he says, "is nothing to Herr Schmidt, from incapacity; his
is nothing to me, from insight. From this time forth I look ('upon all that Herr Schmidt may say, either directly or in-
directly, about my philosophy, as something which, so far as
I am concerned; has no meaning, and upon Herr Schmidt
himself as a philosopher who, in relation to me, is nobody. "
Such language, although necessarily irritating in the highest
11
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? MEMOIR OF I'K'HTE.
degree to its objects, and easily susceptible of being regarded
as the expression of a haughty and vain-glorious spirit, was
in reality the natural utterance of a powerful and earnest
intellect, unused to courtly phrase, or to the gilded insin-
cerity of fashion. He spoke strongly, because he thought
and felt deeply. He was the servant of truth, and it was
not for him to mince his language towards her opponents.
But it is worthy of remark that on these occasions he was
never the assailant. In answer to some of Reinhold's expos-
tulations he writes thus :--" You say that my tone touches
and wounds persons who do not deserve it. That I sincerely
regret. But they must deserve it in some degree, if they
will not permit one to tell them honestly of the errors in
which they wander, and are not willing to suffer a slight
shame for the sake of a great instruction. With him to
whom truth is not above all other things,--above his own
petty personality,--the Wissenschaftslehre can have nothing
to do. The internal reason of the tone which I adopt is
this: It fills me with scorn which I cannot describe, when I
look on the present want of any truthfulness of vision; on
the deep darkness, entanglement, and perversion which now
prevail. The external reason is this: How have these men
(the Kantists) treated me ? --how do they continue to treat
me ? --There is nothing that I have less pleasure in than
controversy. Why then can they not be at peace ? --For
example, friend Schmidt? I have indeed not handled him
tenderly;--but every just person who knew much that is
not before the public, would give me credit for the mildness
of an angel. " *
* The following amusing passage, from the commencement of an anony-
mous publication on this controversy, may serve to show the kind of reputation which Fichte had acquired among his opponents:--
"After the anathemas which the dreadful Fichte has hurled from the
height of his philosophic throne upon the ant-hills of the Kantists; look-
ing at the stigma forever branded on the foreheads of these unhappy crea-
tures, which must compel them to hide their existence from the eye of an
astonished public; amid the general fear and trembling which, spreading
over all philosophic sects, casts them to the earth before the thunder-tread of
this destroying god,--who dare now avow himself a Kuntint? I dare! --
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? CONTROVERSY WITH JAKOB.
89
The true nature of Fichte's controversialism is well exhi-
bited in a short correspondence with Jakob, the Professor of
Philosophy at Halle. Jakob was editor of the "Annalen der
Philosophie," the chief organ of the Kantists--a journal
which had distinguished itself by the most uncompromising
attacks upon the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte had replied in
the Philosophical Journal in his usual style. Sometime
afterwards Jakob, who was personally unknown to Fichte,
addressed a letter to him, full of the most noble and gene-
rous sentiments, desiring that, although opposed to each
other in principle, all animosity between them might cease.
The following passages are extracted from Fichte's reply:--
jFtcfjte to fakob.
"I have never hated you, nor believed that you hated me.
It may sound presumptuous, but it is true,--that I do not
know properly what hate is, for I have never hated any one.
And I am by no means so passionate as I am commonly said
to be. . . . That my Wissenschaftslehre was not under-
stood,--that it is even now not understood (for it is supposed
that I now teach other doctrines), I freely believe;--that it
was not understood on account of my mode of propounding
it in a book which was not designed for the public but for
my own students, that no trust was reposed in me, but that
I was looked upon as a babbler whose interference in the
affairs of philosophy might do hurt to science, that it was
therefore concluded that the system which men knew well
enough that they did not understand was a worthless system,
--all this I know and can comprehend . But it is surely to
be expected from every scholar, not that he should under-
stand everything, but that he should at least know whether
one of the most insignificant creatures ever dropped from the hand of fate.
In the deep darkness which surrounds me, and which hides me from every
eye in Germany,--even from the eagle-glance of a Fichte; from this quiet
retreat, every attempt to break in upon the security of which is ridiculous in
the extreme,--from hence I may venture to raise my voice, and cry, / am a
Kan tut! --and to Fichte--Thou canst err, and thou hast erred," &c. &c.
N
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? 90
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
he understand a subject or not; and of every honest man,
that he should not pass judgment on anything before he is
conscious of understanding it. Dear
Jakob! I have unlimited reverence for openness and upright-
ness of character. I had heard a high character of you, and
I would never have suffered myself to pronounce such a
judgment on your literary merit, had I not been afterwards
led to entertain an opposite impression . Now, however, by
the impartiality of your judgment upon me,--by the warm
interest you take in me as a member of the republic of
letters,--by your open testimony in my behalf,* you have
completely won my personal esteem. It shall not be my
fault--(allow me to say this without offence)--if you do not
also possess my entire esteem as an author, publicly ex-
pressed. I have shown B and E that I can do
justice even to an antagonist. "
Jakob's reply is that of a generous opponent:--
"Your answer, much-esteemed Professor, has been most
acceptable to me. In it I have found the man whom I
wished to find. The differences between us shall be erased
from my memory. Not a word of satisfaction to me. If
anything that I do or write shall have the good fortune to
meet your free and unpurchased approbation, and you find
it good to communicate your opinion to the public, it will be
gratifying to me;--for what joy have people of our kind in
public life, that is not connected with the approbation of
estimable men? But I shall accept your candid refutation
as an equally sure mark of your esteem, and joyfully profit
by it .
Confutation without bitterness is never unacceptable
to me. "
Gradually disengaging himself from outward causes of dis-
turbance, Fichte now sought to devote himself more exclu-
sively to literary exertion, in order to embody his philosophy
in a more enduring form than that of oral discourses. In
1795 he became joint-editor of the "Philosophical Journal,"
? Jakob had espoused his cause in an important dispute, of which we shall soon have to treat.
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? ACCUSATION OF ATHEISM.
91
which had for some years been conducted by his friend and
colleague Niethammer. His contributions to it form a most
important part of his works, and are devoted to the scientific
development of his system. In 1796 he published his
"Doctrine of Law," and in 1798 his " Doctrine of Morals,"
--separate parts of the application which he purposed to make of the fundamental principles of the Wissenschaftslehre to the complete circle of knowledge. But this period of literary tranquillity was destined to be of short duration, for
a storm soon burst upon him more violent than any he had
hitherto encountered, which once more drove him for a long
time from the path of peaceful inquiry into the angry field
of polemical discussion.
Atheism is a charge which the common understanding has repeatedly brought against the finer speculations of philosophy, when, in endeavouring to solve the riddle of
existence, they have approached, albeit with reverence and
humility, the Ineffable Source from which all existence pro-
ceeds. Shrouded from human comprehension in an obscu-
rity from which chastened imagination is awed back, and
thought retreats in conscious weakness, the Divine Nature is surely a theme on which man is little entitled to dogma- \tize. Accordingly, it is here that the philosophic intellect
becomes most painfully aware of its own insufficiency. It
feels that silence is the most fitting attitude of the finite
being towards its Infinite and Incomprehensible Original,
and that when it is needful that thought should shape itself
into words, they should be those of diffidence and modest
self-distrust. But the common understanding has no such
humility;--its God is an Incarnate Divinity; imperfection
imposes its own limitations on the Illimitable, and clothes
the inconceivable Spirit of the Universe in sensuous and in-
telligible forms derived from finite nature. In the world's
childhood,--when the monstrous forms of earth were looked
upon as the visible manifestations of Deity, or the unseen
essences of nature were imagined to contain His presence;--
in the world's youth,--when stream and forest, hill and
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? 92
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
valley, earth, air, and ocean, were peopled with divinities,
graceful or grotesque, kind or malevolent, pure or polluted;
in the world's ages of toil,--when the crushed soul of the
slave looked to his God for human sympathy, and sometimes
fancied that he encountered worse than human oppression;
--in all ages, men have coloured the brightness of Infinity
with hues derived from their own hopes and fears, joys and
sorrows, virtues and crimes. And he who felt that the
Eidolon of the age was an inadequate representative of his
own deeper thoughts of God, had need to place his hopes of
justice in futurity, and make up his mind to be despised and
rejected by the men of his own day. Socrates drank the
poisoned cup because his conception of divine things sur-
passed the common mythology of Greece; Christ endured
the cross at the hands of the Jews for having told them the
truth which he had heard from the Father; Paul suffered
persecution, indignity, and death, for he was a setter forth
of strange Gods. Modern times have not been without their
martyrs. Descartes died in a foreign land for his bold
thought and open speech; Spinoza--the brave, kind-hearted,
incorruptible Spinoza--was the object both of Jewish and
Christian anathema. In our own land popular fanaticism
drove Priestley from his home to seek refuge in a far distant
clime;--and in our own days legalized bigotry tore asunder
the sacred bonds which united one of the purest and most
sensitive of living beings to his offspring,--the gentle, imagi-
native, deeply-religious Shelley was "an atheist! " And so,
too, Fichte--whose ardent love of freedom made him an
object of distrust and fear to timorous statesmen, and whose
daring speculations struck dismay into the souls of creed-
bound theologians--found himself assailed at once by reli-
gious and political persecution. But in him tyranny once
more found a man who had the courage to oppose himself,
alone and unfriended, against its hate; and whose steadfast
devotion to truth remained unshaken amid all the dangers
and difficulties which gathered round his way.
Fichte's doctrine concerning God has already been spoken
of in a general way. It was the necessary result of his
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? ACCUSATION OF ATHEISM.
93
speculative position. The consciousness of the individual
reveals itself alone; his knowledge cannot pass beyond the
limits of his own being. His conceptions of other things and
other beings are only his conceptions,--they are not those
things or beings themselves. Consciousness is here alone
with itself, and the world is nothing but the necessary limits
which are set to its activity by the absolute law of its own
being. From this point of view the common logical argu-
ments for the existence of God, and in particular what is
called the "argument from design" supposed to exist in the
material world, entirely disappear. We invest the outward
universe with attributes, qualities, and relations, which are
the growth and product of our own minds, and then build
up our faith in the Divine on an argument founded upon the
phenomena we have ourselves called into being. However
plausible and attractive such an argument may appear to
those who do not look below the mere surface of things, it
will not bear the light of strict scientific investigation. Only
from our idea of duty, and our faith in the inevitable conse-
quences of moral action, arises the belief in a principle of
moral order in the world;--and this principle is God. But
this living principle of a living universe must be Infinite;
while all our ideas and conceptions are finite, and applicable
only to finite beings--not to the Infinite. Thus we cannot,
without inconsistency, apply to the Divinity the common
predicates borrowed from finite existence. Consciousness,
personality, and even substance, carry with them the idea of
necessary limitation, and are the attributes of relative and
limited beings; to affirm these of God is to bring him down
to the rank of relative and limited being. The Divinity can
thus only be thought of by us as pure Intelligence, spiritual
life and energy;--but to comprehend this Intelligence in a
conception, or to describe it in words, is manifestly impos-
sible. All attempts to embrace the Infinite in the conceptions
of the Finite are, and must be, only accommodations to the
frailties of man. God is not an object of Knowledge but of
Faith,--not to be approached by the understanding, but by
the moral sense. Our intuition of a Moral Law, absolutely
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? 94
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
imperative in its authority and universal in its obligation, is
the most certain and incontrovertible fact of our conscious-
ness. This law, addressed to free beings, must have a free
and rational foundation:--in other words, there must be a
living source of the moral order of the universe,--and this
source is God. Our faith in God is thus the necessary con-
sequence of our faith in the Moral Law; the former possesses
the same absolute certainty which all men admit to belong
to the latter. --In his later writings Fichte advanced beyond
this argument to a more comprehensive demonstration of the
Divine Existence than that by which the being of a lawgiver
is inferred from our intuition of the Moral Law. Of this
later view, however, we shall have to speak more fully in a
subsequent part of this memoir.
The Philosophical Journal for 1798 contained an essay by
Forberg "On the Definition of the Idea of Religion. " Fichte
found the principles of this essay not so much opposed to his
own, as only imperfect in themselves, and deemed it neces-
sary to prefix to it a paper "On the grounds of our faith in
a Divine Government of the world," in which, after pointing
out the imperfections and merely human qualities which are
attributed to the Deity in the common conceptions of His
being, and which necessarily flow from the "cause and effect"
argument in its ordinary applications, he proceeds to state
the true grounds of our faith in a moral government, or moral
order, in the universe,--not for the purpose of inducing faith
by proof, but to discover and exhibit the springs of a faith
already indestructibly rooted in our nature. The business
of philosophy is not to create but to explain; our faith in
the Divine exists without the aid of philosophy,--it is hers
only to investigate its origin, not for the conversion of the
infidel, but to explain the conviction of the believer. The
general results of the essay may be gathered from the con-
cluding paragraph :--
"Hence it is an error to say that it is doubtful whether or
not there is a God. It is not doubtful, but the most certain
of all certainties,--nay, the foundation of all other certainties,
--the one absolutely valid objective truth,--that there is a
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? THEORY OF GOD.
95
moral order in the world; that to every rational being is
assigned his particular place in that order, and the work
which he has to do; that his destiny, in so far as it is not
occasioned by his own conduct, is the result of this plan;
that in no other way can even a hair fall from his head, nor
a sparrow fall to the ground around him; that every true
and good action prospers, and every bad action fails; and
that all things must work together for good to those who
truly love goodness. On the other hand, no one who reflects
a moment, and honestly avows the result of his reflection,
can remain in doubt that the conception of God as a parti-
cular substance is impossible and contradictory: and it is
right candidly to say this, and to silence the babbling of the
schools, in order that the true religion of cheerful virtue may
be established in its room.
Two great poets have expressed this faith of good and
thinking men with inimitable beauty. Such an one may
adopt their language:--
"'Who darea to say,
"I believe in God"?
Who dares to name him--[seek ideas and words for him. ] ,
And to profess,
"I believe in him "?
Who can feel,
And yet affirm,
"I believe him not"?
The All-Embracer,--[when lie it approached through the moral
sense, not through theoretical speculation, and the world is
looked upon as the scene of living moral activity. ]
The All-Sustainer,
Doth he not embrace, support,
Thee, me, himself 1
Doth not the vault of heaven arch o'er us there 1
Doth not the earth lie firmly here below?
And do not the eternal stars
Rise on us with their friendly beams 1
Do not I see mine image in thine eyes?
And doth not the All
Press on thy head and heart,
And weave itself around thee, visibly and invisibly,
In eternal mystery 1
Fill thy heart with it till it overflow;
And in the feeling when thou'rt wholly blest,
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? 90
MKMOIR OF FICHTE.
Then call it what thou wilt,--
Happiness! Heart! Love! 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.
11 A. M. Fichte therefore fixed upon nine in the morning as
H
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? 82
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
his hour of lecture, and commenced his course with most
favourable prospects. A large concourse of students from all
the different classes thronged his hall, and several professors,
who took their places among the audience, willingly ac-
knowledged the benefit which they derived from his dis-
courses. But he soon discovered that the best intentions,
and the most prudent conduct, are no protection against
calumny. A political print, which had attained an unenvi-
able notoriety for anonymous slander, and had distinguished
itself by crawling sycophancy towards power, now exhibited
its far-seeing sagacity by tracing the intimate connexion
between the Sunday-lectures and the French Revolution,
and proclaimed the former to be a "formal attempt to over-
turn the public religious services of Christianity, and to
erect the worship of Reason in their stead"! Strange to
tell, the Consistory of Jena saw it to be their duty to forward
a complaint on this subject to the High-Consistory at
Weimar; and finally an assembly in which a Herder sat
lodged an accusation before the Duke and Privy-council
against Professor Fichte for "a deliberate attempt against
the public religious services of the country. " Fichte was
directed to suspend his lectures in the meantime, until in-
quiry could be made. He immediately met the accusation
with a powerful defence, in which he indignantly hurled
back the charge, completely demolishing, by a simple narra-
tive of the real facts, every vestige of argument by which it
could be supported; and took occasion to make the Govern-
ment acquainted with his projects for the moral improvement
of the students. The judgment of the Duke is dated 25th
January 1795, and by it, Fichte "is freely acquitted of the
utterly groundless suspicion which had been attached to
him," and confidence is expressed, "that in his future pro-
ceedings he will exhibit such wisdom and prudence as shall
entitle him to the continued good opinion" of the Prince.
Permission was given him to resume his Sunday-lectures,
avoiding the hours of divine service.
But in the meantime the outrageous proceedings of that
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? DEATH OF HARTJIAXN RAHN.
83
party of the students which was opposed to him rendered it
impossible for him to entertain any hope of conciliating
them, and soon made his residence at Jena uncomfortable
and even dangerous. His wife was insulted upon the public
street, and both his person and property subjected to re-
peated outrages. He applied to the Senate of the Univer-
sity for protection, but was informed that the treatment he
had received was the result of his interference in the affairs
of the Orders upon the authority of the State, and without
the cooperation of the Senate; that they could do nothing
more than authorize self-defence in case of necessity; and
that if he desired more protection than the Academy could
give him, he might apply to his friends at Court. At last,
when at the termination of the winter session an attack was
made upon his house in the middle of the night, in which
his venerable father-in-law narrowly escaped with life, Fichte
applied to the Duke for permission to leave Jena. This
was granted, and he took up his residence during the sum-
mer at the village of Osmanstadt, about two miles from
Weimar.
In delightful contrast to the stormy character of his public
life at this time, stands the peaceful simplicity of his domes-
tic relations. In consequence of the suddenness of his re-
moval from Zurich, his wife did not accompany him at the
time, but joined him a few months afterwards. Her vener-
able father, too, was persuaded by his love for his children
to leave his native land, and take up his residence with them
at Jena This excellent old man was the object of Fichte's
deepest respect and attachment, and his declining years were
watched with all the anxiety of filial tenderness. He died
on 29th September 1795, at the age of 76. His remains
were accompanied to the grave by Fichte's pupils as a mark
of respect for their teacher's grief; and a simple monument
records the affectionate reverence of those he left behind him.
It bears the following interesting inscription from the pen
of Fichte:--
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? SlEMOIR OF FICHTF. .
HARTMANN RAHN,
BORX AT ZCRICII, 1>IKI) AT JRSA 29th SEPTEMBER 1795, AOKD 7C VFARS.
He lived amid the most eminent men of his time; was beloved liy the
good; sometimes troubled by others; hated by none.
Intelligence, kindliness, faith in God and man, gave new life to his ape,
and guided him peacefully to the grave.
None knew his worth better than we, whom the old man followed from his father-land, whom he loved even to the end, and of whose grief this memorial
bears record.
JOHANNA FICHTE, his Dacohter
JOH. GOTT. FICHTE, his Son.
Farewell! thou dear Father!
Be not ashamed, 0 Stranger! if a gentle emotion stir within thee:
were he alive, he would clasp thy hand in friendship!
After the death of their venerable parent, Fichte and his
wife were left alone to enjoy, in pure and unbroken attach-
ment, the calm sunshine of domestic felicity; but at a later
period the smile of childhood added a new charm to their
home. A son who was born at Jena was their only child. *
Fichte's intercourse with the eminent men who adorned
this brilliant period of German literary history was extensive
and important. Preeminent among these stands Goethe, in
many respects a remarkable contrast to the philosopher.
The one, calm, sarcastic, and oracular; the other, restless, en-
thusiastic, impetuously eloquent;--the one, looking on men
only to scan and comprehend them; the other, waging cease-
less war with their vices, their ignorance, their unworthiness;
--the one, seating himself on a chilling elevation above
human sympathy, and even exerting all the energies of his
mighty intellect to veil the traces of every feeling which
bound him to his fellow-men; the other, from an eminence
no less exalted, pouring around him a rushing tide of moral
power over his friends, his country, and the world. To the
one, men looked up with a painful and hopeless sense of
inferiority; they crowded around the other to participate
* Now Professor of Philosophy in the University of Tubingen.
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? LITERARY INTERCOURSE--GOETHE.
85
in his wisdom, and to grow strong in gazing on his Titanic
might. And even now, when a common destiny has laid the
proud gray column in the dust, and stayed the giant's arm
from working, we look upon the majesty of the one with
astonishment rather than reverence, while at the memory of
the other the pulse of hope beats more vigorously than be-
fore, and the tear of patriotism falls heavily on his grave.
Goethe welcomed the "Wissenschaftslehre" with his usual
avidity for new acquisitions. The bold attempt to infuse a
living spirit into philosophical formulas, and give reality to
speculative abstractions, roused his attention. He requested
that it might be sent to him, sheet by sheet, as it went
through the press. This was accordingly done, and the
following passage from a letter to Fichte will show that he
was not disappointed in the expectations he had formed of
it:--
"What you have sent me contains nothing which I do not
understand, or at least believe that I understand,--nothing
that does not readily harmonize with my accustomed way
of thinking; and I see the hopes which I had derived from
the introduction already fulfilled.
"In my opinion you will confer a priceless benefit on the
human race, and make every thinking man your debtor, by
giving a scientific foundation to that upon which Nature
seems long ago to have quietly agreed with herself. For
myself, I shall owe you my best thanks if you reconcile me
to the philosophers, whom I cannot do without, and with
whom, notwithstanding, I never could unite.
"I look with anxiety for the continuation of your work to
adjust and confirm many things for me; and I hope, when
you are free from urgent engagements, to speak with you
about several matters, the prosecution of which I defer until
I clearly understand how that which I hope to accomplish
may harmonize with what we have to expect from you. "
The personal intercourse of these two great men seems to
have been characterized by mutual respect and esteem, with-
out any approach to intimacy. Of one interview Fichte
says,--"He was politeness, friendship itself; he showed me
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? S(i
MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
unusual attention. " But no correspondence was maintained
between them after Fichte left Jena, in consequence of the
proceedings which led to his departure.
Of a more enduring nature was his intimacy with Jacobi.
It commenced in a literary correspondence soon after his
arrival at Jena, from which some extracts have already been
given. Entertaining a deep respect for this distinguished
man, derived solely from the study of his works, Fichte sent
him a copy of the Wissenschaftslehre, with a request that
he would communicate his opinion of the system it contained.
In a long and interesting correspondence, extending over
many years, the points of opposition between them were
canvassed; and although a radical difference in mental con-
stitution prevented them from ever thinking altogether alike,
yet it did not prevent them from cultivating a warm and
steadfast friendship, which continued unbroken amid vicissi-
tudes by which other attachments were sorely tried.
Fichte had formed an acquaintance with Schiller at Tu-
hbingen when on his journey to Jena Schiller's enthusiastic
nature assimilated more closely to that of Fichte than did
the dispositions of the other great poet of Germany, and a
cordial intimacy sprang up between them. Fichte was a
contributor to the "Horen" from its commencement--a jour-
nal which Schiller began soon after Fichte's arrival at Jena.
This gave rise to a singular but short-lived misunderstand-
ing between them . A paper entitled "Briefe iiber Geist und
Buchstaben in der Philosophie" had been sent by Fichte
for insertion in the Horen. Judging from the commence-
ment alone, Schiller conceived it to be an imitation, or still
worse, a parody, of his "Briefe iiber die ^Esthetische Erzie-
hung des Menschen," and, easily excited as he was, demand-
ed with some bitterness that it should be re-written. Fichte
did not justify himself by producing the continuation of the
article, but referred the accusation of parody to the arbitra-
tion of Goethe and Humboldt. Schiller was convinced of
his error, and soon apologized for it; but Fichte did not
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? TREATMENT OF OPPONENTS.
S7
return the essay, and it appeared afterwards in the Philo-
sophical Journal. After this slight misunderstanding they
continued upon terms of confidence and friendship, and, to-
wards the close of his life, Schiller became a zealous student
of the Wissenschaftslehre.
Fichte likewise carried on an extensive correspondence
with Reinhold (who has been already mentioned), Schelling,
W. von Humboldt, Schaumann, Paulus, Schmidt, the Schle-
gels, Novalis, Tieck, Woltmann, besides a host of minor
writers, so that his influence extended throughout the whole
literary world of Germany at that period.
Fichte has been accused of asperity and superciliousness
towards his literary opponents. It may easily be conceived
that, occupying a point of view altogether different from
theirs, his philosophy should appear to him entirely un-
touched by objections to which they attached great weight.
Nor is it surprising that he should choose rather to proceed
with the development of his own system, from his own prin-
ciples, than to place himself in the mental position of other
men, and combat their arguments upon their own grounds.
That diversity of ground was the essential cause of their
difference. Those who could take their stand beside him,
would see the matter as he saw it; those who could not do
this, must remain where they were. Claiming for his system
the certainty of mathematical demonstration,--asserting that
with him philosophy was no longer mere speculation, but
had now become knowledge,--he could not bend or accommo-
date himself or his doctrines to the prejudices of others;--
they must come to him, not he to them. "My philosophy,"
he says, "is nothing to Herr Schmidt, from incapacity; his
is nothing to me, from insight. From this time forth I look ('upon all that Herr Schmidt may say, either directly or in-
directly, about my philosophy, as something which, so far as
I am concerned; has no meaning, and upon Herr Schmidt
himself as a philosopher who, in relation to me, is nobody. "
Such language, although necessarily irritating in the highest
11
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? MEMOIR OF I'K'HTE.
degree to its objects, and easily susceptible of being regarded
as the expression of a haughty and vain-glorious spirit, was
in reality the natural utterance of a powerful and earnest
intellect, unused to courtly phrase, or to the gilded insin-
cerity of fashion. He spoke strongly, because he thought
and felt deeply. He was the servant of truth, and it was
not for him to mince his language towards her opponents.
But it is worthy of remark that on these occasions he was
never the assailant. In answer to some of Reinhold's expos-
tulations he writes thus :--" You say that my tone touches
and wounds persons who do not deserve it. That I sincerely
regret. But they must deserve it in some degree, if they
will not permit one to tell them honestly of the errors in
which they wander, and are not willing to suffer a slight
shame for the sake of a great instruction. With him to
whom truth is not above all other things,--above his own
petty personality,--the Wissenschaftslehre can have nothing
to do. The internal reason of the tone which I adopt is
this: It fills me with scorn which I cannot describe, when I
look on the present want of any truthfulness of vision; on
the deep darkness, entanglement, and perversion which now
prevail. The external reason is this: How have these men
(the Kantists) treated me ? --how do they continue to treat
me ? --There is nothing that I have less pleasure in than
controversy. Why then can they not be at peace ? --For
example, friend Schmidt? I have indeed not handled him
tenderly;--but every just person who knew much that is
not before the public, would give me credit for the mildness
of an angel. " *
* The following amusing passage, from the commencement of an anony-
mous publication on this controversy, may serve to show the kind of reputation which Fichte had acquired among his opponents:--
"After the anathemas which the dreadful Fichte has hurled from the
height of his philosophic throne upon the ant-hills of the Kantists; look-
ing at the stigma forever branded on the foreheads of these unhappy crea-
tures, which must compel them to hide their existence from the eye of an
astonished public; amid the general fear and trembling which, spreading
over all philosophic sects, casts them to the earth before the thunder-tread of
this destroying god,--who dare now avow himself a Kuntint? I dare! --
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? CONTROVERSY WITH JAKOB.
89
The true nature of Fichte's controversialism is well exhi-
bited in a short correspondence with Jakob, the Professor of
Philosophy at Halle. Jakob was editor of the "Annalen der
Philosophie," the chief organ of the Kantists--a journal
which had distinguished itself by the most uncompromising
attacks upon the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte had replied in
the Philosophical Journal in his usual style. Sometime
afterwards Jakob, who was personally unknown to Fichte,
addressed a letter to him, full of the most noble and gene-
rous sentiments, desiring that, although opposed to each
other in principle, all animosity between them might cease.
The following passages are extracted from Fichte's reply:--
jFtcfjte to fakob.
"I have never hated you, nor believed that you hated me.
It may sound presumptuous, but it is true,--that I do not
know properly what hate is, for I have never hated any one.
And I am by no means so passionate as I am commonly said
to be. . . . That my Wissenschaftslehre was not under-
stood,--that it is even now not understood (for it is supposed
that I now teach other doctrines), I freely believe;--that it
was not understood on account of my mode of propounding
it in a book which was not designed for the public but for
my own students, that no trust was reposed in me, but that
I was looked upon as a babbler whose interference in the
affairs of philosophy might do hurt to science, that it was
therefore concluded that the system which men knew well
enough that they did not understand was a worthless system,
--all this I know and can comprehend . But it is surely to
be expected from every scholar, not that he should under-
stand everything, but that he should at least know whether
one of the most insignificant creatures ever dropped from the hand of fate.
In the deep darkness which surrounds me, and which hides me from every
eye in Germany,--even from the eagle-glance of a Fichte; from this quiet
retreat, every attempt to break in upon the security of which is ridiculous in
the extreme,--from hence I may venture to raise my voice, and cry, / am a
Kan tut! --and to Fichte--Thou canst err, and thou hast erred," &c. &c.
N
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MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
he understand a subject or not; and of every honest man,
that he should not pass judgment on anything before he is
conscious of understanding it. Dear
Jakob! I have unlimited reverence for openness and upright-
ness of character. I had heard a high character of you, and
I would never have suffered myself to pronounce such a
judgment on your literary merit, had I not been afterwards
led to entertain an opposite impression . Now, however, by
the impartiality of your judgment upon me,--by the warm
interest you take in me as a member of the republic of
letters,--by your open testimony in my behalf,* you have
completely won my personal esteem. It shall not be my
fault--(allow me to say this without offence)--if you do not
also possess my entire esteem as an author, publicly ex-
pressed. I have shown B and E that I can do
justice even to an antagonist. "
Jakob's reply is that of a generous opponent:--
"Your answer, much-esteemed Professor, has been most
acceptable to me. In it I have found the man whom I
wished to find. The differences between us shall be erased
from my memory. Not a word of satisfaction to me. If
anything that I do or write shall have the good fortune to
meet your free and unpurchased approbation, and you find
it good to communicate your opinion to the public, it will be
gratifying to me;--for what joy have people of our kind in
public life, that is not connected with the approbation of
estimable men? But I shall accept your candid refutation
as an equally sure mark of your esteem, and joyfully profit
by it .
Confutation without bitterness is never unacceptable
to me. "
Gradually disengaging himself from outward causes of dis-
turbance, Fichte now sought to devote himself more exclu-
sively to literary exertion, in order to embody his philosophy
in a more enduring form than that of oral discourses. In
1795 he became joint-editor of the "Philosophical Journal,"
? Jakob had espoused his cause in an important dispute, of which we shall soon have to treat.
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? ACCUSATION OF ATHEISM.
91
which had for some years been conducted by his friend and
colleague Niethammer. His contributions to it form a most
important part of his works, and are devoted to the scientific
development of his system. In 1796 he published his
"Doctrine of Law," and in 1798 his " Doctrine of Morals,"
--separate parts of the application which he purposed to make of the fundamental principles of the Wissenschaftslehre to the complete circle of knowledge. But this period of literary tranquillity was destined to be of short duration, for
a storm soon burst upon him more violent than any he had
hitherto encountered, which once more drove him for a long
time from the path of peaceful inquiry into the angry field
of polemical discussion.
Atheism is a charge which the common understanding has repeatedly brought against the finer speculations of philosophy, when, in endeavouring to solve the riddle of
existence, they have approached, albeit with reverence and
humility, the Ineffable Source from which all existence pro-
ceeds. Shrouded from human comprehension in an obscu-
rity from which chastened imagination is awed back, and
thought retreats in conscious weakness, the Divine Nature is surely a theme on which man is little entitled to dogma- \tize. Accordingly, it is here that the philosophic intellect
becomes most painfully aware of its own insufficiency. It
feels that silence is the most fitting attitude of the finite
being towards its Infinite and Incomprehensible Original,
and that when it is needful that thought should shape itself
into words, they should be those of diffidence and modest
self-distrust. But the common understanding has no such
humility;--its God is an Incarnate Divinity; imperfection
imposes its own limitations on the Illimitable, and clothes
the inconceivable Spirit of the Universe in sensuous and in-
telligible forms derived from finite nature. In the world's
childhood,--when the monstrous forms of earth were looked
upon as the visible manifestations of Deity, or the unseen
essences of nature were imagined to contain His presence;--
in the world's youth,--when stream and forest, hill and
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MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
valley, earth, air, and ocean, were peopled with divinities,
graceful or grotesque, kind or malevolent, pure or polluted;
in the world's ages of toil,--when the crushed soul of the
slave looked to his God for human sympathy, and sometimes
fancied that he encountered worse than human oppression;
--in all ages, men have coloured the brightness of Infinity
with hues derived from their own hopes and fears, joys and
sorrows, virtues and crimes. And he who felt that the
Eidolon of the age was an inadequate representative of his
own deeper thoughts of God, had need to place his hopes of
justice in futurity, and make up his mind to be despised and
rejected by the men of his own day. Socrates drank the
poisoned cup because his conception of divine things sur-
passed the common mythology of Greece; Christ endured
the cross at the hands of the Jews for having told them the
truth which he had heard from the Father; Paul suffered
persecution, indignity, and death, for he was a setter forth
of strange Gods. Modern times have not been without their
martyrs. Descartes died in a foreign land for his bold
thought and open speech; Spinoza--the brave, kind-hearted,
incorruptible Spinoza--was the object both of Jewish and
Christian anathema. In our own land popular fanaticism
drove Priestley from his home to seek refuge in a far distant
clime;--and in our own days legalized bigotry tore asunder
the sacred bonds which united one of the purest and most
sensitive of living beings to his offspring,--the gentle, imagi-
native, deeply-religious Shelley was "an atheist! " And so,
too, Fichte--whose ardent love of freedom made him an
object of distrust and fear to timorous statesmen, and whose
daring speculations struck dismay into the souls of creed-
bound theologians--found himself assailed at once by reli-
gious and political persecution. But in him tyranny once
more found a man who had the courage to oppose himself,
alone and unfriended, against its hate; and whose steadfast
devotion to truth remained unshaken amid all the dangers
and difficulties which gathered round his way.
Fichte's doctrine concerning God has already been spoken
of in a general way. It was the necessary result of his
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? ACCUSATION OF ATHEISM.
93
speculative position. The consciousness of the individual
reveals itself alone; his knowledge cannot pass beyond the
limits of his own being. His conceptions of other things and
other beings are only his conceptions,--they are not those
things or beings themselves. Consciousness is here alone
with itself, and the world is nothing but the necessary limits
which are set to its activity by the absolute law of its own
being. From this point of view the common logical argu-
ments for the existence of God, and in particular what is
called the "argument from design" supposed to exist in the
material world, entirely disappear. We invest the outward
universe with attributes, qualities, and relations, which are
the growth and product of our own minds, and then build
up our faith in the Divine on an argument founded upon the
phenomena we have ourselves called into being. However
plausible and attractive such an argument may appear to
those who do not look below the mere surface of things, it
will not bear the light of strict scientific investigation. Only
from our idea of duty, and our faith in the inevitable conse-
quences of moral action, arises the belief in a principle of
moral order in the world;--and this principle is God. But
this living principle of a living universe must be Infinite;
while all our ideas and conceptions are finite, and applicable
only to finite beings--not to the Infinite. Thus we cannot,
without inconsistency, apply to the Divinity the common
predicates borrowed from finite existence. Consciousness,
personality, and even substance, carry with them the idea of
necessary limitation, and are the attributes of relative and
limited beings; to affirm these of God is to bring him down
to the rank of relative and limited being. The Divinity can
thus only be thought of by us as pure Intelligence, spiritual
life and energy;--but to comprehend this Intelligence in a
conception, or to describe it in words, is manifestly impos-
sible. All attempts to embrace the Infinite in the conceptions
of the Finite are, and must be, only accommodations to the
frailties of man. God is not an object of Knowledge but of
Faith,--not to be approached by the understanding, but by
the moral sense. Our intuition of a Moral Law, absolutely
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MEMOIR OF FICHTE.
imperative in its authority and universal in its obligation, is
the most certain and incontrovertible fact of our conscious-
ness. This law, addressed to free beings, must have a free
and rational foundation:--in other words, there must be a
living source of the moral order of the universe,--and this
source is God. Our faith in God is thus the necessary con-
sequence of our faith in the Moral Law; the former possesses
the same absolute certainty which all men admit to belong
to the latter. --In his later writings Fichte advanced beyond
this argument to a more comprehensive demonstration of the
Divine Existence than that by which the being of a lawgiver
is inferred from our intuition of the Moral Law. Of this
later view, however, we shall have to speak more fully in a
subsequent part of this memoir.
The Philosophical Journal for 1798 contained an essay by
Forberg "On the Definition of the Idea of Religion. " Fichte
found the principles of this essay not so much opposed to his
own, as only imperfect in themselves, and deemed it neces-
sary to prefix to it a paper "On the grounds of our faith in
a Divine Government of the world," in which, after pointing
out the imperfections and merely human qualities which are
attributed to the Deity in the common conceptions of His
being, and which necessarily flow from the "cause and effect"
argument in its ordinary applications, he proceeds to state
the true grounds of our faith in a moral government, or moral
order, in the universe,--not for the purpose of inducing faith
by proof, but to discover and exhibit the springs of a faith
already indestructibly rooted in our nature. The business
of philosophy is not to create but to explain; our faith in
the Divine exists without the aid of philosophy,--it is hers
only to investigate its origin, not for the conversion of the
infidel, but to explain the conviction of the believer. The
general results of the essay may be gathered from the con-
cluding paragraph :--
"Hence it is an error to say that it is doubtful whether or
not there is a God. It is not doubtful, but the most certain
of all certainties,--nay, the foundation of all other certainties,
--the one absolutely valid objective truth,--that there is a
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? THEORY OF GOD.
95
moral order in the world; that to every rational being is
assigned his particular place in that order, and the work
which he has to do; that his destiny, in so far as it is not
occasioned by his own conduct, is the result of this plan;
that in no other way can even a hair fall from his head, nor
a sparrow fall to the ground around him; that every true
and good action prospers, and every bad action fails; and
that all things must work together for good to those who
truly love goodness. On the other hand, no one who reflects
a moment, and honestly avows the result of his reflection,
can remain in doubt that the conception of God as a parti-
cular substance is impossible and contradictory: and it is
right candidly to say this, and to silence the babbling of the
schools, in order that the true religion of cheerful virtue may
be established in its room.
Two great poets have expressed this faith of good and
thinking men with inimitable beauty. Such an one may
adopt their language:--
"'Who darea to say,
"I believe in God"?
Who dares to name him--[seek ideas and words for him. ] ,
And to profess,
"I believe in him "?
Who can feel,
And yet affirm,
"I believe him not"?
The All-Embracer,--[when lie it approached through the moral
sense, not through theoretical speculation, and the world is
looked upon as the scene of living moral activity. ]
The All-Sustainer,
Doth he not embrace, support,
Thee, me, himself 1
Doth not the vault of heaven arch o'er us there 1
Doth not the earth lie firmly here below?
And do not the eternal stars
Rise on us with their friendly beams 1
Do not I see mine image in thine eyes?
And doth not the All
Press on thy head and heart,
And weave itself around thee, visibly and invisibly,
In eternal mystery 1
Fill thy heart with it till it overflow;
And in the feeling when thou'rt wholly blest,
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? 90
MKMOIR OF FICHTE.
Then call it what thou wilt,--
Happiness! Heart! Love! 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.
