OF KNOWLEDGE. 



351 



great works, nor did Kant ever carry out his intention 

 of giving the new metaphysic or reasoned philosophical 

 creed which he had in his mind, and which was im- 

 plicitly contained in what he modestly represented as 

 merely preparatory works. The result was that he was 

 often misunderstood and misrepresented. Some mis- 

 interpretations, even of his followers and admirers, he 

 tried to correct in his later writings, but it was left to 

 others to import unity into the seemingly disconnected 

 parts of his doctrine. As this unity was not that which 

 Kant himself had in view, it led away from the main 

 line of thought which he had marked out. 



So far as the second point is concerned, it is important 

 to note that the first successful attempt to introduce 

 the Kantian philosophy to the general intelligence of the 

 nation, and subsequently to the students of the German 

 universities, happened to issue from that centre which 

 had already become the home of the creative genius in 

 German poetry, literature, and art. It was there, in the 

 innermost circle of German culture, at Weimar and 

 Jena, that the earlier Kantian school of philosophy was 

 founded by a man who had started from entirely different 

 beginnings, but who was troubled by the same religious 

 and doctrinal perplexities as Kant himself had in view, 

 and who had personally experienced, in the depths of 

 his own soul, the reassuring and strengthening influ- 

 ence of the Kantian doctrine. This was Eeinhold 



1 Karl Leonhard Reinhoid was 

 born in Vienna and received his 

 education in a Jesuit College, 

 which he had to leave when the 

 Order was suspended by Pope 

 Clement XIV. in 1773. Thence 



he entered a freer atmosphere in 

 another Roman Catholic College, 

 in which he subsequently became a 

 teacher of philosophy. Carefully 

 watched by the Order to which he 

 still belonged, he escaped to Leipzig, 



