Student and Private Teacher 99if only because it would immediately be recognized as belonging to the
tradition of "Lucretius or his predecessors Epicurus, Leucippus, and
Democritus." Not denying its heritage, he argued that he "did not begin
to plan this enterprise until he was certain that he was safe with regard to
the duties of religion."^173 He claimed he knew that he was again (or still?)
treading on dangerous ground, but that he had to continue on his course:
"I see all these difficulties, yet I do not despair. I feel the whole strength
of these hindrances, which stand in the way, but I do not give up."^174 Kant
also must have known that the despair and the difficulties were not neces¬
sarily as great as all that, if only because the king — and he was the one who
ultimately was going to make or break his career — would not be overly
worried by "the duties of religion." It was hardly an accident that the
book was dedicated to him. What was an accident was that the publisher
of the book went bankrupt, and that the court impounded his entire stock.
The General Natural History did not cause so much as a murmur among
the zealots — only a review. The book was even less successful than his first,
but by this time he had also planned his academic advancement at the
university.