Kant's metaphysics had thus been exhibited by him- self in all its principal applications. It had attracted general notice; it had gathered around it numerous and enthusiastic disciples; it had secured for its author pro- found respect and earnest admiration. Distinguished men flocked to his lectures ; princes and sovereigns com- missioned learned scholars to hear his teacliings and to report his doctrines. His life was surroiuided witli case, and his days were crowned with honor. His salary had been increased, and had given what was wealth to one of his simple tastes and frugal habits. He liad been twice appointed rector of the university. His industri- ous and meditative career had passed its grand climac- teric, and was stretching serenely to its close. Just when the aims of life appeared to have been won, Kant was plunged into the only serious troubles wliich dis- turbed liis tranquil existence. He became involved in a grave religious controversy bj'^ some articles in a Ber- lin magazine, afterwards reproduced in a volume under the title of Religion within the Limits of Pure Reason Sfiie Religion inner halb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft, 1793). There was a ferment in the religious circles of Germany at this time, and Kant's philosophy had early excited alarms which appeared now to be justified. A doctrine which rejected the accepted arguments for the
being of God, the validity of revelation, the immortality of the soul, and the creation of the world, offended too many convictions, unsettled too many inveterate habits of thought, and substituted too shadowy and too ab- stract si)eculations for accredited precepts and dogmas, not to produce discontent and censure. Nor were the alarms entertained unreasonable, as was shown by the subsequent developments of the transcendental philoso- phy. The agitation excited by Kant's theological in- novations was partially allayed by a royal mandate di- recting him to observe silence on religious topics. The king's interference is supposed to have been induced by Kant's sympathies with the French Revolution, despite of the Reign of Terror. On the death of the king in 1797 he resumed his expositions, considering his engage- ment as a personal one with that monarch. But before this time he had narrowed the sphere of his activity. In 179i he withdrew from general society; in 1795 he discontinued aU his instructions except in logic and met- aphysics, and he closed his ifcademic labors altogether two years afterwards. In 1798 he composed his Strife of the Faculties {Der Sireit der Facultdten), reviving the religious dispute in which he had been entangled ; and he bade farewell to the public in his Pragmatical View of Anthropology {Anthropologic in pragmatischer Hin- sicht). The last work from his o\vn pen was a protest against Fichte's doctrine, which gave to the new philos- ophy the subjective or idealistic cast, against which his own -efforts had always been strenuously directed. In this paper were manifested his own failing powers, and his incapacity to appreciate other systems than his own — a natural consequence of his habitual disregard of the history of speculation. His pupils published several other works from his notes and papers during the last years of his life. Tliat life was not long extended after his retirement. His constitution gradually broke up; his health, so remarkably maintained, began to decline; appetite, teeth, strength, sight, voice, memory, all failed, and his pure, laborious, and honorable existence was ter- minated by an apopleetic attack, Feb. 12, 180i, vvdicn he had nearly completed his eightieth year. His death produced profound emotion throughout Germany. The whole city of Kiinigsbcrg put on mourning; multitudes flocked to liis funeral, and his remains were escorted to the grave by a solemn procession. A characteristic medal was struck to commemorate his fame. It liore an emblem and a motto appropriate to his doctrine, " Altius volantem coercuit." He was worthy of such honor. He left to his countrs'men the example of a career rich in wholesome fruits — simple, sincere, upright, laborious; devoted singly to the promotion of tnith, and to tlie re- moval of error in the highest and most perDous regions of speculation, illustrated by seventy years of unbroken industry, and by half a century faithfully given to tjie instruction of successive generations of the young in va- rious branches of learning, from the humblest rudiments of knowledge to tlio mostrccondite metaphysical research. Humble, modest, and true, his life was a nobler crown to his memory than all the honors that men could bestow. In person, Kant was small and delicately built. His blue eyes expressed benevolence, but his features were rugged, and seamed with the lines of habitual thought. Lavater mistook his portrait for that of a noted high- wajTiian. His manners were kindly and courteous. He was very genial in company, full of mirth and innocent wit, and scrupulously abstinent of learned or metajihys- ical discourse. As a lecturer he was easy and attrac- tive, displaying nothing of the repulsive aridity and elaborate awkwardness of his philosophical treatises. He was a reverential observer of all truth, and rigid in the practice of all justice. The like precise projiriety regulated all his habits. He was plain in his tastes, ab- stemious in eating and drinking, chary of indulgences, frugal in his expenditures, methodical in every arrange- ment. " Early to bed anil early to rise" was the rule of his hfe. His hour for rising was four in summer and live in winter; fur bed, ten in summer and nine in win-