THE I' RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



81 



to roads, crops., agriculture, also received attention. In 1782 Cothenius 

 left 1,000 thalers ($750), the income of which was to be used every 

 alternate year for a prize on some 

 economic, agricultural or horticul- 

 tural topic. 



It was in an era of empiricism 

 in philospphy, or with some en- 

 lightened thinkers, of eclecticism, 

 in a time when the influence of 

 romanticism w T as showing itself 

 in such men as Xicolai, the orig- 

 inator of Die allgemeine deutschen 

 Bibliothek, and in an extensively 

 circulated Berlin monthly maga- 

 zine, that Kant's critiques ap- 

 peared. Empiricism quailed be- 

 fore them. The eclectics were 

 startled. The academy was com- 

 pelled to recognize the appearance 

 of a new and a great thinker. 

 Some of the more eminent philos- 

 ophers in the academy, like Merian, 

 Ancillon and Selle, brought forward what they regarded as weighty ob- 



jections to Kant's positions. A 



few, far from sympathizing with 

 Kant, did not fail to perceive his 

 power and hesitated to enter the 

 field against him, while others, 

 like Nicolai and his friends, were 

 hostile and ready to fight from 

 the first. The majority in the 

 academy distrusted the a priori 

 and the practical reason upon 

 which Kant laid such stress. 

 But in spite of the determina- 

 tion of the philosophical element 

 in the academy to defend em- 

 piricism, a change in feeling 

 toward it began to show itself 

 as early as 1800. This change 

 was due, certainly in part, to the 

 mental attitude of those classes 

 in the academy which devoted thought and time to other subjects than 

 those that were metaphysical. Such men as Hufeland, Dr. Walter, 

 vol. lxv. — 6. 



