Founder of a Metaphysics of Morals 317Kant never needed those mean-spirited devices to get students that are regrettably still
common at the university today. Never did he belittle his colleagues, never did he want
to impress by rodomontades, never did he seek approval by making questionable jokes
and sexual innuendo. ... I still feel insulted when I remember how an otherwise hon¬
orable man, who was once present as a witness, and who saw and heard all this him¬
self, could allow himself to be carried away by passion and put the character of this
noble sage into a different and less positive light.... Peace be with the ashes of both.
Both were searching for the truth, though each in a very different way; here they did not
meet as sister stars; there they will.
His colleagues were never and especially in earlier times {durchweg und in älteren
Zeiten) as peaceable toward him as Kant was toward them. Yet there were only a few who
felt they were over-shadowed by him. ... Since his unquestionable good character did
not offer any target... they aimed at his religious principles.... But all his younger
colleagues, most of whom had been his students, loved and honored him.^186
Kant still taught almost every day, but after 1787 he gave only four hours
of public lectures and four hours of private lectures a week.^187 Even if his
lectures were no longer exciting, his fame and his role in the university as¬
sured that he had many students. His lectures were packed. Students had to
come an hour early in order to reserve a place in his lecture room.^188 Some
of his most important students during this time were Hamann's son, Jo¬
hann Michael (1769—1813), and Jachmann, his amanuensis and later biog¬
rapher. Once, Kant planned to use Schulz's Exposition as his textbook in
metaphysics, but he never did so.^189 He liked to lecture on rational theol¬
ogy - and especially if there were many theologians among his listeners.
He "hoped that especially from this course, in which he spoke so clearly
and convincingly, the bright light of rational religious convictions would
spread though his entire fatherland, and he was not deceived, for many
apostles went from there and taught the gospel of the realm of reason."^190
By this time, age had already taken its toll. Kant, now in his early six¬
ties, suffered from a number of ailments. None of them were serious. Still,
taken together, they made life bothersome and teaching more difficult. Thus
Rink observed that at this time Kant could no longer see well with one
of his eyes (thinking it was probably the left), and that he constantly com¬
plained about the fad of using gray paper in books rather than white and
said that the print was often much too faint.^191 Kant also had serious prob¬
lems with digestion. Indeed, Hamann found that this problem "was one
of the most important anecdotes with which the critic entertains his morn¬
ing guests, which he even must retell the count Keyserlingk before dinner,
much to the hearty laughter of my satirical friend.. ,"^192
Despite such problems, Kant's public demeanor was nothing if not