156 Kant: A Biographytime, but little by little he learned to write philosophy like a bank draft,
and he kept hours for writing as well.
The two became very close, and Green's effect on Kant cannot be over¬
estimated. Like Kant, Green loved Hume and Rousseau. "The association
with the highly original and most righteous Englishman Green assuredly
had not just a small influence on Kant's way of thinking and especially on
his study of English authors."^43 When he was around Funk, Kant loved
to play cards, went to the theater, listened to concerts, and pursued other
diversions. He was a man of the town. Soon he gave up playing cards to
please Green.^44 His visits to the theater became rarer, and late in life they
ceased almost altogether. Green was completely tone deaf. Thus he could
distinguish poetry from prose only by the way it was printed on the page,
and he found the way poems were printed on the page disorienting. Kant,
"at least in his early years, listened to good music with pleasure." He gave
up that custom as well.^45 Borowski frequently contrasts in his biography
what Kant did "earlier" and what he did (or better: did not do) "later," bear¬
ing witness to the profound changes that took place after 1764. The elegant
Magister with a somewhat irregular and unpredictable lifestyle changed
into a man of principle with an exceedingly predictable way of life. He
became more and more like Green. Kant slowly adopted Green's way of
life - or so it would seem. The days of the whirlpool of social diversions
were coming to an end - not suddenly, but slowly: maxim by maxim.
They completely trusted each other, and they shared most of their
thoughts and feelings with each other. Yet their friendship did not, at least
if we are to believe Kant himself, rely on "mere feeling," but on "prin¬
ciples." It was a "moral" friendship, not a merely "aesthetic" one.^46 Kant's
view of maxims, as necessary for building character, was, at least in part,
indebted to Green's way of life. It was not an accident that in the lectures
on anthropology in which Kant spoke of maxims, he often claimed that the
English had the most solid understanding. He himself relied on the judg¬
ment of his English friend.
A close friend of both Kant and Green was Robert Motherby (1736—
1801) of Hull. He had come to Königsberg at the age of eighteen as the
result of an inquiry by Green, who was looking for a reliable assistant.
Motherby could not speak any German when he first arrived, but he soon
became indispensable to Green in all his business dealings. Green later made
him his partner in the firm, and when Green died, Motherby inherited the
firm. Kant continued to visit Motherby after Green's death and was a close
friend of the family. Through these English merchants Kant got to know