"Which will surely be fulfilled," his friend broke in; and then, after a short pause, added, "You maintained not long ago that here we cannot reach further than to mere _legality_. Let this be admitted; and now perhaps you are about to pass over soon into a condition, in which you will rise to the stage of _morality_, since you and all of us have a natural capacity for it. Why? Should you not wish now to come into the society of one whom you honoured so much as Mendelssohn?" The zealous pastor says he gave the conversation this turn on purpose, in order to touch this side of the philosopher's heart. After a while the dying man exclaimed, "Ay me! I have been a foolish man, the most foolish among the most foolish--and how earnestly I wished it otherwise!" "This utterance," observed the pastor, "is also a proof that you are not yet in complete accord with your unbelief. No," he added, taking Maimon by the hand, "you will not all die; your spirit will surely live on." "So far as mere faith and hope are concerned, I can go a good way; but what does that help us?" was Maimon's reply. "It helps us at least to peace," urged the pastor. "I am at peace (_Ich bin ruhig_)," said the dying man, completely exhausted. Here Tscheggey broke off the conversation, as the sufferer was evidently unable to continue it. When he rose to leave, Maimon begged him to stay, or at least to come back again soon. He came back the following morning, but found the patient unconscious. At ten o'clock on the same evening--it was the 22nd of November, 1800--this strangely tossed life had reached its haven. "He died at peace," says the kindly clergyman, "though I do not venture to say from what source the peace was derived. When a few days afterwards I passed the castle of his noble friend, I looked up with sadness to the window of his former room, and blessed his ashes." It is to be regretted that the generous piety of the friendly minister was not universal, and that the ashes of the unfortunate doubter were only with a grudge allowed to find a decent resting-place. FOOTNOTES: [1] Vol. iii., p. 370, note. [2] See the Preface to his _Philosophy of Reflection_, pp. 16-18. [3] Vol. v., chap. 7. [4] The volume bears the somewhat quaint title in full:--_Maimoniana, oder Rhapsodien Zur Charakteristik Salomon Maimon's_. Aus Seinem Privatleben gesammelt von Sabattia Joseph Wolff, M.D. Berlin, gedruckt bei G. Hayn, 1813.