xviii KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



in Kant was still mainly philosophical even in 

 Germany, and it was predominantly Hegelian, as 

 we see in Rosenkranz, who gave but a meagre 

 account of Kant's scientific work in his otherwise 

 excellent sketch of Kant's system of Philosophy. 

 Even Schubert, who edited the scientific writings, 

 includes the Cosmogony in vol. vi., under the 

 general rubric of 'Physical Geography' (!), with a 

 still very imperfect appreciation of the value of 

 Kant's scientific work in detail. But the scientists 

 proper now took up Kant, with adequate knowledge, 

 from their own point of view. The distinguished 

 French astronomer, M. Arago, in 1842, first called 

 the attention of scientists to Kant, whom he calls 

 'the Astronomer of Konigsberg,' and declared that 

 his name in that connection did not deserve the 

 oblivion into which it had fallen, while he was quite 

 astonished at the inexplicable silence of Herschel 

 regarding him. 1 In 1845, Alexander von Humboldt, 

 who may have directed the attention of Arago to 

 Kant when studying at Paris, in the first volume 

 of the Kosmos recognises the place occupied by 

 Kant along with Wright, Lambert, and Sir William 

 Herschel ; refers to him as ' the great philosopher ' 

 who had so admirably investigated the earthquake 

 of Lisbon ; and afterwards designated him as ' one 

 of the greatest spirits of the eighteenth century,' and 

 'the immortal philosopher of Konigsberg.' 2 Two 



1 Anmiaire pour Pan 1842, 2nd edition, Paris. 

 2 Kosmos, I. 90; I. 217; III. 558. 



