KANT 765 was one of the utmost regularity and simplicity. The " sage of Konigsberg " pursued his daily avocations in as fixed a routine as that of the humblest artisan or workman. In fact, it al- most seems as if his definite theory of morals shaped his whole career. He was never mar- ried ; metaphysics was the passion of his soul. Summer and winter he rose at 5 o'clock in the morning, not once failing to do so for 30 years. Two hours were spent in study, and two in lectures ; and then he studied and wrote till his early dinner at 1 o'clock. This meal was the great event of the day ; and he ate it leisurely, almost always in the society of friends. After dinner he would walk for an hour or two, spend the evening in society or lighter reading, revise his lectures for the next day, and be in bed before 10 o'clock. In gen- eral society in his earlier life he was sometimes odd, but also genial and animated. He was a capital listener, and dexterous in drawing out the knowledge of others; but he could tell a good story, and commented on all mat- ters of literary, philosophical, or political in- terest, with freedom and thoughtf ulness. Often a curt phrase, a satirical remark, or a sally of wit would prevent or close a long discussion. In general literature his reading was very large; the English and French classics were familiar to him ; and of all writers perhaps he was most fond of Rousseau, whose portrait was the only one that adorned his plain man- sion. Of poetry he was never enamored, though a great admirer of Milton's " Paradise Lost." In the history of philosophy he was less versed than in many other parts of litera- ture; considering, in fact, dogmatism, skepti- cism, and his own system to contain about all that could be well said on speculative matters. Kant was warmly enlisted in all that concerned the general interests of humanity and of jus- tice. In his political views he sympathized with the most thoughtful spirits of the age. " Liberty, law, and public power are the ele- ments of all social life. Law and liberty with- out power are anarchy ; law and force without liberty make a despotism ; force alone is bar- barism ; liberty and law, joined with force, make the republic, the only good civil consti- tution, which is not necessarily a democracy." He was opposed to involuntary servitude, and to a hereditary nobility. Man, he says, is born free. His great political idea was that there must be a separation of the powers in the state in order to a true social order. Princes he held to be for the people, and not the people for princes. He was also a zealous advocate of the freedom of opinion and the freedom of the press. " Liberty of thought is nothing without the liberty of speech and of writing. ... To take away the power of freely express- ing opinions is to deprive us of the only remedy for the evils which afflict humanity. . . . The prohibition of books of science and of pure theory is an offence against mankind." In his religious views, the feeling of pure obliga-
- ion, of an inexorable duty, was paramount ; in
'act, the sense of duty was so strong as to leave ittle room for the religious sentiments. His ethical theory made obligation supreme, and left
- o the affections a subordinate place. His mor-
al formulas are abstract ; love was not to him
- he chief of the virtues. He was the stoic of
the 18th century. His general theory of reli- gion, too, was abstract ; nor did the positive truths of Christianity as a redemptive system modify either his metaphysical or ethical the- ories. He gave to German rationalism a strong impulse, in making the merely moral element supreme. So far as he could, he modelled his own life upon the principles of a rigid code of ethics. He abhorred all deceit and lying ; he was upright and honest in the minutest mat- ters ; every day, every hour had its appointed work. " Whoever will tell me of a good action left undone, him will I thank, though it be in the last hour of life." And in the last hour of his life he could say : " My friends, I do not fear death ; I assure you before God, that if I was sure of being called away this night, I could raise my hands to heaven, and say, God be praised ! " No one who has lived long in the world, he used to say, would be willing on any account to begin and live his life over again. He was benevolent from principle, often giving away nearly as much as the sum required by his own frugal household. Strict economy enabled him to lay up enough for a comfortable old age. Though a warm friend, he did not like to visit those who were sick, nor to talk about the dead. He was most careful of his own life and health ; by rigid rules he kept his frail body in tolerable health, never having had a severe illness till worn out by advanced age. In 1 802 his powers began to fail rapidly, and he permitted a physi- cian to be summoned. He had frequent falling fits ; his sight gradually became dim ; his conver- sation was often incoherent. A few days before his death, he thanked his medical adviser, add- ing, " I have not yet lost my feeling for human- ity." The best editions of Kant's works are that of Hartenstein (10 vols., Leipsic, 1838-'9), of which a second improved edition in 8 vols. appeared in 1867-'9 ; that of Schubert and Ro- senkranz (11 vols., Leipsic, 1840-'42) ; and that of J. H. von Kirchmann, forming part of the Philosophische Bibliothek (Berlin, 1868-'74). The second contains a full biography by Schu- bert, and a " History of the Kantian Philoso- phy" by Rosenkranz. Kirchmann's edition also contains a biography, and an able analysis of the whole Kantian system, with introducto- ry dissertations on each of Kant's works. His life was written in 1804 by Borowsky, and by Jachmann in letters ; his last years were de- scribed by Wasiansky (1804). G. S. A. Mellin published an " Encyclopffidic Dictionary of the Kantian Philosophy " (6 vols., 1797). His phi- losophy was introduced into Holland in 1792 by Paulus van Hemert, and there elucidated by Van Bosch in 1798, and Kirker in 1800. Schmid and Phiseldek published an exposition
