274 Kant: A Biographyonly truth, and why everyone engaged in the conversation of mankind should
be assured an equal say.
Though now in new quarters, Kant still usually lectured twelve hours
a week (four hours of public lectures, that is, either logic or metaphysics,
and eight hours of private lectures).^100 His lecturing became more and
more of a chore. One of his students described his lecture style during the
eighties as follows:
His oral presentation was simple and without affection. In Physical geography and in
anthropology he was lively. The former had a more general appeal, and it was well
suited to his talent as a story-teller. The latter gained from his incidental observations
of minute details either drawn from his own experience or from his readings - espe¬
cially from that of the best English novelists. One never left his lectures without having
learned something, or without having been pleasantly entertained. The same was true
for those who were able to follow his logic and his metaphysics. But Kant probably wished
that the greater part of his students, no matter how industrious they were, should have
exhibited greater interest in this subject. It cannot be denied that his presentation lost
already during the early eighties... much of its liveliness, so that one could believe
at times that he would fall asleep. One was re-enforced in this view by observing how at
times he suddenly caught himself and gathered his apparently exhausted faculties.. ..
Yet he never missed even an hour.^101
Kant, contrary to other professors, not only was very strict in collecting
his fees, but also had those students who attended his lectures free, or who
were repeating them, sign up, and "did not allow those who wanted to re¬
peat them for the second time."^102 His main reason for this was that there
was limited space, and that those who repeated took away chairs from those
who came for the first time. This does not mean that monetary consider¬
ations did not play a role. He was making every effort to deliver a good
product, and he deserved to be paid. His product might be different from
that of his father, but just as a tradesman would, he insisted on being paid
for his work.
In 1783, Kant was no longer a young man, and it showed in his lectures.
At sixty, he had taught the same courses for almost thirty years — year af¬
ter year. He had complained during his earliest years (when he had to teach
many more courses) about the mind-numbing difficulty of this enterprise.
It reminded him at times of the punishment of Sisyphus. How much harder
it must have been when he was sixty — and there was no end in sight, as re¬
tirement in the sense in which it is known today did not exist. A professor
taught as long as he could. In Kant's case, that would be another fifteen
years; and then there were all his concerns about the success of his criti¬
cal project, which was not doing as well as he had hoped it would. He had