388 Kant: A Biographywith wet towels.^9 Scheffner, whose "obscene" poems were not yet forgot¬
ten, found it necessary to distance himself from Hippel, explaining why it
was that he never suspected anything about Hippel's sexual proclivities or
his other shortcomings. He, Scheffner that is, had lived far away, had known
nothing of his youth, and had viewed him as his superior. Hippel, on the
other hand, had done everything to remove any traces that could have al¬
lowed Scheffner to draw conclusions about Hippel's "way of thinking and
acting." He was never egotistical, and hardly ever showed any of his short¬
comings. "Of his proclivity to satisfy his sexual needs I never found any
evidence in his household."^10 That Hippel could not have been his friend
"in the way in which he had assured me became clear only after I saw proof
after his death and others told me."^11 Hippel was a disappointment to his
friends. He was materialistic, deceptive, stingy, and sex-crazed.^12 What
made these shortcomings worse in the eyes of many of his friends was that
he had successfully hidden them for such a long time.
While Hippel was sick, Kant inquired about his status every day, but he
did not visit him. On the day the old friend died, Kant said: "It is indeed
sad for those close to the deceased, but we should let the dead rest with the
dead," thus cutting off any further conversation about Hippel.^13 Kant did
not belong among those who reviled Hippel, and continued to refer to him
as a former "intimate" and "beloved" friend. We may be sure that he had
always been much more aware of the complex, even self-contradictory,
nature of this man, who was as successful in the pursuit of worldly success
as in his secret career of "scribbling."
Hippel had remained a Pietist all his life, had written hymns that can
still be found in the Gesangbuch of the Protestant churches in Germany,
yet he was also a Freemason, adhering to Enlightenment principles, and
a skeptical writer of satires and comedies in the style of Sterne. In Decem¬
ber 1793 he had written to Kant
Since you know how much I adore you, I may not say to you how much I miss your
learned society, which - as you know yourself - gives more to me than anything that
Königsberg has to give. ... I have had the Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason
read to me during my illness.... There should truly not be any reservations that the
name Immanuel Kant precedes this work, which can and will do much good.^14
Though Hippel was a religious believer in the way that Kant was not, he did
not see the kind of danger in the work that so many other public officials
saw in it. Jachmann asked Kant in 1794 to use his influence with Hippel,
"whom you can convince of anything," to get him a position in Königsberg.