Kant's reading was of the most extensive and miscellaneous kind. He
cared comparatively little for the history of speculation, but his
acquaintance with books of science, general history, travels and belles
lettres was boundless. He was well versed in English literature, chiefly
of the age of Queen Anne, and had read English philosophy from Locke to
Hume, and the Scottish school. He was at home in Voltaire and Rousseau,
but had little or no acquaintance with the French sensational
philosophy. He was familiar with all German literature up to the date of
his _Kritik_, but ceased to follow it in its great development by Goethe
and Schiller. It was his habit to obtain books in sheets from his
publishers Kanter and Nicolovius; and he read over for many years all
the new works in their catalogue, in order to keep abreast of universal
knowledge. He was fond of newspapers and works on politics; and this was
the only kind of reading that could interrupt his studies in philosophy.
As a lecturer, Kant avoided altogether that rigid style in which his
books were written. He sat behind a low desk, with a few jottings on
slips of paper, or textbooks marked on the margin, before him, and
delivered an extemporaneous address, opening up the subject by partial
glimpses, and with many anecdotes or familiar illustrations, till a
complete idea of it was presented. His voice was extremely weak, but
sometimes rose into eloquence, and always commanded perfect silence.
Though kind to his students, he refused to remit their fees, as this, he
thought, would discourage independence. It was another principle that
his chief exertions should be bestowed on the intermediate class of
talent, as the geniuses would help themselves, and the dunces were
beyond remedy.
Simple, honourable, truthful, kind-hearted and high-minded as Kant was
in all moral respects, he was somewhat deficient in the region of
sentiment. He had little enthusiasm for the beauties of nature, and
indeed never sailed out into the Baltic, or travelled more than 40 miles
from Konigsberg. Music he disregarded, and all poetry that was more than
sententious prose. His ethics have been reproached with some justice as
setting up too low an ideal for the female sex. Though faithful in a
high degree to the duties of friendship, he could not bear to visit his
friends in sickness, and after their death he repressed all allusion to
their memory. His engrossing intellectual labours no doubt tended
somewhat to harden his character; and in his zeal for rectitude of
purpose he forgot the part which affection and sentiment must ever play
in the human constitution.
On the 12th of February 1904, the hundredth anniversary of Kant's death,
a Kantian society (_Kantgesellschaft_) was formed at Halle under the
leadership of Professor H. Vaihinger to promote Kantian studies. In 1909
it had an annual membership of 191; it supports the periodical
_Kantstudien_ (founded 1896; see BIBLIOGRAPHY, _ad init._).
THE WRITINGS OF KANT
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