A Palingenesis and Its Consequences 157others within their circle of acquaintance, such as the Englishman Barcklay,
the Scottish merchant Hay, and the French merchants Toussaint and Laval.
Motherby married one of the ten daughters of Toussaint (Charlotte).^47 Still,
it was Green who became the most intimate friend Kant ever had.
In 1768, Hamann wrote: "I was day-dreaming several days ago when I
was at my friend Green's. Then, I heard Kant claim that we cannot expect
any new and important discoveries in astronomy because of its perfection.
I remembered, as if in a sleep, that I hated the new hypotheses of astron¬
omy so much that I could have annihilated them.. ,"^48 In practicing the
art of conversation, Green and Kant discussed most things. Such conver¬
sations probably followed more often than not the schema Kant describes
in his lectures on anthropology. A conversation, according to this view, has
three parts; a narrative or story, a discussion, and jest. The conversation
begins with someone telling a story, which is then discussed. This discus¬
sion may get heated. "If the discussion or raisonnement becomes too seri¬
ous and threatens to become an argument, then it would be lucky if there
is someone with wit at the table who might give the dispute a different di¬
rection."^49 The story might take an inordinately long time, but Kant was
confident that the conversation would sooner or later be directed to dis¬
cussion, and that therefore wit would have to be introduced sooner or later.
However, "a conversation that consists only of jest and joking is unbear¬
able and tasteless." Indeed, it is almost "like a dream" because it does not
have any coherence.^50 We may only hope that Kant's assurance that "we
cannot expect any new and important discoveries in astronomy because
of its perfection" was an expression of his wit, rather than a part of his
contribution to the discussion. Other topics of conversation in 1768 would
have been the London bread riots, during which government grain stores
were looted by the mob, and the fact that the price of bread in Paris had
reached the high price of four sous per pound. Green was a merchant af¬
ter all.
The firm of Green, Motherby & Co. also took care of most of Kant's
money. Indeed, Borowski claimed that Kant "invested his savings in the
most advantageous way — something in which his friend Green took one
hundred times greater care than he did himself."^51 While it is not known
when Kant began his investments in the firm, we do know that in 1798
he had accumulated 43,000 guilders in it, which was a very significant
amount of money.^52 Given the size of his savings, the meagerness of his
income throughout his life, and the power of compound interest, it is more
than likely that he started to invest small amounts of money early. Kant