Narrative and Miscellaneous PapersDe Quincey, Thomas
General
Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers
De Quincey, Thomas
English essays; English fiction
Henceforth all went right: or, if occasionally some little mistake
occurred, Kant showed himself very considerate and indulgent, and would
remark of his own accord, that a new servant could not be expected to
know all his peculiar ways and humors. In one respect, indeed, this man
adapted himself to Kant's scholarlike taste, in a way which Lampe
was incapable of doing. Kant was somewhat fastidious in matters of
pronunciation; and this man had a great facility in catching the true
sound of Latin words, the titles of books, and the names or designations
of Kant's friends: not one of which accomplishments could Lampe, the
most insufferable of blockheads, ever attain to. In particular, I have
been told by Kant's old friends, that for the space of more than thirty
years, during which he had been in the habit of reading the newspaper
published by Hartung, Lampe delivered it with the same identical blunder
on every day of publication.--'Mr. Professor, here is Hart_mann's_
journal.' Upon which Kant would reply--'Eh! what?--What's that you say?
Hartmann's journal? I tell you, it is not Hartmann, but Hartung: now,
repeat it after me--not Hartmann, but Hartung.' Then Lampe, looking
sulky, and drawing himself up with the stiff air of a soldier on guard,
and in the very same monotonous tone with which he had been used to sing
out his challenge of--_Who goes there?_ would roar--'not Hartmann, but
Hartung.' 'Now again!' Kant would say: on which again Lampe roared--'not
Hartmann, but Hartung.' 'Now a third time,' cried Kant: on which for
a third time the unhappy Lampe would howl out--'not Hartmann, but
Hartung.' And this whimsical scene of parade duty was continually
repeated: duly as the day of publication came, the irreclaimable old
dunce was put through the same manoeuvres, which were as invariably
followed by the same blunder on the next. In spite, however, of this
advantage, in the new servant, and his general superiority to his
predecessor, Kant's nature was too kind and good, and too indulgent to
all people's infirmities but his own, not to miss the voice and the 'old
familiar face' that he had been accustomed to for forty years. And I met
with what struck me as an affecting instance of Kant's yearning after
his old good-for-nothing servant in his memorandum-book: other people
record what they wish to remember; but Kant had here recorded what he
was to forget. 'Mem.: February, 1802, the name of Lampe must now be
remembered no more.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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