xlii KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



escaped all the editors, and which can only be 

 accounted for by the hurry of the composition, of 

 itself proves this (see p. 9 n.). Moreover, the result 

 of Kant's calculation of the amount of the consequent 

 retardation is very vaguely reached, and is much too 

 large. The probability is that Kant delayed the 

 statement of his solution until the time for the 

 publication of the decision of the Academy's prize 

 had almost arrived, and that he hurriedly wrote this 

 paper, and published it at once in the Konigsberg 

 journal lest he should be forestalled by some of the 

 essayists. A remarkable parallel to this in the 

 present century, in the publication of what is 

 commonly regarded as the greatest scientific dis- 

 covery in the evolutionism of the nineteenth century, 

 will occur to every one, although this generally 

 believed parallel has been denied. 



(2) Kant was therefore keenly alive to the novelty 

 and importance of his solution, but he did not 

 introduce it into the greater work on which he was 

 engaged. He seems to have regarded it as not 

 so satisfactorily worked out in detail, as to justify 

 the introduction of it. He was apparently satisfied 

 with the publication of his idea in the journal, so 

 that he could point to it and claim it at any 

 time; and although he did not so claim it publicly 

 at any time, as we have seen, he did not forget 

 it. At the same time, he used it as the medium 

 through which he announced the forthcoming pub- 

 lication of his Cosmogony, with an indication of 



