II. TWO LETTERS (1798) {XII.245-246}
(Translated from the German by Stephen Palmquist)
Letter #808 (769).
From John Richardson [to Kant].
Altenburg1
21 June 1798.
You will receive with this post the first volume of your Essays and
Treatises, wherein I have taken the trouble, to the best of my ability, to
translate your sense, and to grasp the spirit of your works. I do not know
whether I have been fortunate enough to make clear to others that which has
[been] not only my highest interest and informed [me], but has also
enlightened me, yes, I say it candidly, has made me into a better man.
Under the ordinary title: Essays, I have concealed a lot of
metaphysical matter. By this means I hope to move my countrymen, who
are still always drowning in the empirical, [to recognize] that you [have] a
more well-grounded, and in my humble opinion, the only truly well-
grounded philosophy to study. The passage from the empirical to critical
idealism seems to be very difficult (and I confess to have found it thus
myself, and that I appreciate the assistance to me of [your] learned friend,
Prof. Beck, and owe much to [him]), and I will therefore still endure with
patience for several years the trifling criticisms of my countrymen. Even in
Germany, where the learned have the advantage to read your works in the
original, throughout at least twelve years your System remained
unintelligible, and what is still worse, has given opportunity to absurd
theories and monstrous aberrations. A demonstration of this is Fichte, under
whom I, enticed by the great reputation of this man, wished to study
philosophy, but in less than ten days his philosophy so disgusted me that I
never again visited his auditorium.
I express to you a thousand thanks for the kind reply to the inquiry
from me put before [you] by Prof. Jakob, and for the obliging manner with
which you mentioned me in your letter to Prof. Beck.2 However, I must
now request from you one great kindness to me, namely, some few lines
directly from your own hand, and the kind explanation of the following
passages:3
In your Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful {246} and
Sublime, p.90, where you say of a beautiful [feeling]: It is a pity that the
lilies do not spin.
In: The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures Evinced,
towards the end of ¤5, where you compare the one who hides his head in
the clouds of antiquity with a Colossus, [adding] and whose feet are of
clay.
I would not have troubled you with these questions, if I had found
anybody but you to reply to me. Now I will never again rob you of your
valuable time, but only be assured that you have no greater admirer in the
world than me, and that nobody honours you with more sincere gratitude.
I am,
John Richardson.
P.S. My address is: at Baron von MŸhlen's in Altenburg.
Letter #809 (770).
To (John Richardson) [from Kant].
(Fragment of a draft.)
After 21 June 1798.
The first volume of Essays and Treatises, which you, dearest man,
wished to send me under the date[line], Altenburg 21 June 1798, has not
come into my hands.
Your intere4 ...
NOTES:
1 Altenburg is about 40 km south of Leipzig, which is about 30 km
southeast of Halle.
2 No explicit mention appears in any of the letters from Kant to Beck
included in Ak. Jakob made inquiries on Richardson's behalf in letters dated
10 May and 8 Sept. 1797 (Ak. XII.161, 196-99); but Kant's replies to
these are not extant (cf. XII.162).
3 These two passages are located at Ak. II.247 and II.57, respectively.
4 This fragment of Kant's draft breaks off here, presumably in the middle
of the word 'interest' [Intere]. Kant probably went on to thank Richardson
for his 'interest' in presenting his works to the English public. The
remainder of the draft would then have been a response to Richardson's
queries, 'directly from [Kant's] own hand'. Whether or not this or any
other letter was ever sent to Richardson is unknown. But the first paragraph
suggests that Richardson's letter arrived before the book he had sent 'with
this post'. So it seems likely that Kant would have abandoned this first
paragraph of the initial draft once the book actually arrived, perhaps only a
few days later. Indeed, this would explain why the fragment includes only
the first paragraph: Kant probably ripped off the rest of this draft to copy it
onto the final version of his letter, which would have included a different
opening paragraph.