318 Kant: A Biographyproper. Reusch, the son of one of Kant's colleagues, reported that students
watched when
Kant walked across the square of the Albertinum to go to a senate meeting, or some ac¬
ademic festivity.... He was always very cleanly dressed. His serious face, somewhat
tilted to the side, and his regular gait not too slow, drew respectfully admiring
looks.... The light sand-colored coat, which later was replaced by one of a deeper
brown, should not be thought remarkable. Light colors of all kinds were in vogue then,
and black coats were reserved for funerals and mourning. In warm days he went, ac¬
cording to the fashion of the day, with his hat on the golden knob of his wooden staff.
His head was adorned with a finely powdered wig. Silk stockings and shoes also be¬
longed to the usual outfit of a well-dressed gentleman.... But when, after the act of
inaugurating the rector, the new rector and the professors, all in the order of the dif¬
ferent faculties, walked to the cathedral, Kant would walk past the entrance of the
church, unless he had just become rector himself.^193
Religious observances played no part of his life. In conversations Kant would
say: "I do not understand the catechism, but I once did understand it."^194
Kant was gaining a reputation, not just in Königsberg, as an atheist.^195
He himself was reported to have feared that he could lose his position.^196
Indeed, his Critique of Pure Reason was becoming notorious. By this time,
there had already been books written for and against Kant. There had
been Schulz's Exposition (1784), K. Chr. Schmid's Lexicon for the Easier Use
of Kant's Critique (1786), and his Extract from Kant's Critique of Reason
(1786).^197 Johann Bering taught Kant's philosophy in Marburg, though this
was almost immediately prohibited by a government order.^198 In Halle, it
was Jakob who taught Kant's works. In Göttingen, Feder and Christoph
Meiners were arguing against Kant. In many other places, Kant's philos¬
ophy was hotly debated. Mendelssohn had referred in his influential Morn¬
ing Hours of 1785 to the "all-crushing" Kant. The volume of literature for
and against Kant was increasing exponentially. By 1786, Kant was famous,
if not infamous. His philosophy, difficult as it is, was in vogue.
Some of his contemporaries were very upset. They accused Kant of
spreading a dangerous philosophy. Just as there were people in Königsberg
who thought that Kant's philosophy had made a young student insane,
there were philosophers at other universities who drew similar conclusions.
Meiners wrote in the Preface to his Outline of Psychology of 1786:
Anyone who has had occasion to notice the impression which the Kantian writings have
made upon young people will really feel the truth of the remarks which Beattie made
on the occasion of similar experiences: nothing is more injurious to taste and good judg¬
ment than the subtleties of the older and newer metaphysicians, which favor verbal dis¬
putes and lead to nothing but doubt and obscurity. These musings exhaust the power