Bavarian system of finance made him many enemies, and he retired to liis estate at Pempelfort, near Diis- seldorf, where his hospitable nature soon gathered about him " celebrated guests from all quarters of the cultiva- ted world," and it was only natural that he should now continue his literary productions. Among other liter- ary enterprises which he ventured upon was a contro- versy with Mendelssohn (in Briefe iiber d. Lehre d. Sxn- noza [Bresl. 1785, and often]). on the doctrines that had been advocated by the pantheist Spinoza, whose philos- ophy had at this time been almost forgotten. This he further and most ably prosecuted in Wider Mendels- sohns Beschuldif/ungen (Lpz. 1786) ; (comp. Kahnis, Hisi. of German Protestantism, p. 156 sq.). It was this con- troversy with Mendelssohn, which had originated mth the discovery by Jacobi that the friend of the former, Lessing, the author of Nathan, was a Spinozitt, which Mendelssohn was determined to refute, but whicli actu- ally laid even the latter open to the charge of advoca- ting pantheistical doctrines, that first brought clearly to light the philosophical opinions of Jacobi, and stamped him as the "philosopher of faith." The points of Ja- cobi's position are thus stated by Schwcgler {History of Philosophy, transl. by Seelye, p. 272) : " (1.) Spinozism is fatalism and atheism ; (2.) Everj' path of philosophic demonstration leads to fatalism and atheism ; (3.) In or- der that we may not fall into these, we must set a limit to demonstrating, and recognise faith as the element of all metaphysical knowledge." Principles like these, ad- vocated at a time when atheism was enthroned all over Germany and France, naturally enough aroused universal opposition in the philosophical world. " It was charged upon him that he was an enemy of reason, a preacher of blind faith, a despiser of science and of philosophy, a fanatic and a papist." To controvert these opinions, he determined to develop his principle of faith or immedi- ate knowledge ; he published David Hume iiber d. Glau- ben, oder Idealismus v. Realismus (Bresl. 1787, 8vo). This brought down upon him the followers of Kant, and shortly after he also estranged the admirers of Fichteby his Sendschreiben an Fichte (1799). His controversial opponents, however, never failed to acknowledge the great abilities of Jacobi, and the smcerity of his charac- ter and opinions. When the troubles arising out of the French Revolution extended to Germany, Jacobi retired to Holstein, whence he removed successively to 'Wands- beck and Hamburg; from the latter he was called, in 1804, to Munich, to assist in the formation of the new Academy of Sciences, of which he was, in 1807, appoint- ed president. In 1811 he further involved himself in a controversy with another philosophical school, that of Schelling, bj' the imblication of a ^vork Von d.c/ottlichen Dingen u. ihrer OJfenbarung (Lpz. 1811). This time the dispute was waged rather bitterly; but, notwithstanding the unfavorable estimate which Schelling drew, in his reply, of the literary and philosophical merits of Jacobi, the latter continued to maintain a high rank among sincere and honest inquirers after truth ; and even if it must be confessed that Jacobi was exclusively oc- cupied with detached speculations, and that he rather prepared than established a system of philosophy, yet it remains undisputed that the profoundness and orig- inality of his views have furnished materials of which more systematic muids have not scrupled to avail them- selves for the construction of their own theories. Ja- cobi died at ]\Iunich March 10, 1819. Besides the phil- osophical productions already mentioned, he wrote Ueber d. Villi rill IniwH d. Kriticismus d. Vernunft z. Verstande zii liriiif/i II { liresl. 1802, 8vo). All his works were pub- lished colkci ively at Leipzig in 1812. " Jacobi stood to the philosophy of his day, as it had flowed down from Kant to Schelling, in a very pecuUar relation. He was incited by each of these systems ; he learned from each, and on each of them he exercised his strength. But he was not satisfied by either of them ; yet he was most strongly repelled by pantheism, whether the earlier pan- theism of Spinoza, whom he highly esteemed as a man.
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