352 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



(1758-1823), who, as Kuno Fischer says, is "in a certain 

 sense a compendious expression of the development of 

 [German] philosophy during the last decade of the 

 eighteenth century." An ardent admirer of Kant's first 

 ' Critique,' which he had read five times, he set before 

 himself two distinct tasks. 



The first of these was to make Kant's doctrine more 

 easily and more generally understood, to mitigate the un- 

 couth terminology in which it had been propounded, bring- 

 ing the leading ideas of his teaching into contact with 

 the general thought of the age and making it a fit sub- 

 ject for academic instruction. The second was to import 

 a greater unity and harmony into the Kantian doctrine, to 

 fill up the gaps which had apparently been left between 

 the different parts of the system, and to arrange the 

 whole according to one all-embracing principle. The first 

 task he brilliantly accomplished in his ' Letters on the 

 Kantian Philosophy,' which were published in Wieland's 

 literary journal five years after the appearance of Kant's 

 first ' Critique,' and which may be said to have trans- 

 planted Kantian philosophy from its eccentric position 



and from there, through an intro- 

 duction of the Austrian poet Blu- 

 ni:iuer to Wieland, he came to Wei- 

 mar and became an inmate of the 

 family of AVieland, whose daughter 

 he subsequently married. A con- 

 tributor, and later on the editor of 

 AVieland's literary periodical, ' Der 

 Deutsche Merkur,' he first came 

 across Kant's writings in a review 

 ot Herder's ' Ideen ' which Kant 

 h:id published in the first volume 

 or the recently founded ' Jenaer 

 Litteraturzeitung.' To this he re- 

 plied, but was led to a pro- 

 found study of Kant's first 



' Critique. ' Captivated especi- 

 ally by the practical and religious 

 ideas contained therein, "he finds 

 here the foundations of faith inde- 

 pendent of all metaphysical know- 

 ledge, and, in consequence, the 

 doubts solved which free thought 

 creates. He is convinced tliat 

 the Kantian philosophy, correctly 

 understood, must produce a bene- 

 ficial and radical change of human 

 thought, and he determines to do 

 his part to let this light be kindled 

 in men's minds " (Kuno Fischer 

 ' Geschichte,' &c., vol. v. p. 43). 



