Kant: A Biography

A Palingenesis and Its Consequences 165

as K* has told me about it, I cannot find anything new in them. In other respects W*

was very reserved, according to Kant and Goeschen. But I thought it was a small town

attitude. Kanter's wife, who undoubtedly does not like it that every day they eat and

drink at their house, made a terrible scene.^84

Nothing staid and reserved about this meeting! Even if Kant would have
found at least some of the goings-on tasteless and might have felt uncom¬
fortable at times, there he was. He knew what he was talking about when
he later condemned such diversions. Still, he probably enjoyed himself.
The influence of Green and his own maxims was still clearly circum¬
scribed and limited, and the social pleasures still held a great deal of at¬
traction for him.
The most important members of the society, at least as far as Kant was
concerned, were Johann Julius Goeschen (1736-1798), Johann Konrad
Jacobi (1717—1774), and his wife Maria Charlotta Jacobi (1739—1795)-
Goeschen had come to Königsberg after the Russian occupation as the
new master of the mint. His friends therefore usually simply called him the
"master of the mint" or "Münzmeister.'''' Kant and Goeschen were close
during these years. The two undertook many things together, especially
between 1764 and 1768. Thus they were often seen together.^83 Jacobi, a
dealer in metals, had come to Königsberg in 1751, and Kant's friendship
with him went back to his earliest years as a Magister; he was obviously
quite intimate with him.^86 He could ask for favors and did receive them.
In 1767 he influenced Jacobi to arrange for Hamann the position of sec¬
retary and translator at the customs office.^87 He also was close enough to
him to reject other favors. When Jacobi offered to buy him a new coat be¬
cause the one he was always wearing was threadbare, Kant did not accept.^88
He also was somewhat close to Jacobi's younger wife. In any case, there is
a note by Jacobi's wife to Kant on June 12, 1762:

Dear friend: Aren't you surprised that I am undertaking to write to you as a great

philosopher? I believed to find you yesterday in my garden, but since my girlfriend and

I sneaked through all the avenues and could not find you in this circle of the sky, I

busied myself with making you a band for a sword, which is dedicated to you. I lay

claim to your society tomorrow afternoon. "Yes, yes, I will be there," I hear you say.

Good, then, I will expect you, and then my clock will be wound as well. Please forgive

this reminder. My girlfriend and I send to you a kiss by sympathy. The air in Kneiphoff

is hopefully the same as here so that the kiss does not lose its sympathetic force. Live

happy and well, Mrs. Jacobi (Jacobin).^89

Kant visited the house of the Jacobis frequently. Therefore, not too much

should be made of the playful tone of the letter. It has been suggested that