The Old Man 393masons. Then freemasonry was used for all kinds of purposes. Now it
seems to be only a way to spend one's time and a play."^44
Scheffner said: "Kant was very admirable in society and in some hours he still is. What
is peculiar is that as soon as he takes up his feather he can write coherently and with
his old force, just not as long anymore. How good it would be if he had a better style."
Borowski answered: "Words are only the clothes," but Scheffner added, "clothes make
the person." Borowski does not seem to be very endeared with Kant's philosophy.^45
Even though he never went to its meetings, Kant was still a member of
the academic senate. Reccard, a theologian, was essentially in the same po¬
sition. Too old to attend the meetings, he still had not resigned. Member¬
ship in the senate was not a trivial matter, if only because the members of
this body received certain perquisites from foundations connected with the
university.^46 In June 1798 some of the younger members of the senate felt
that it was necessary to complete their numbers by allowing the next two
professors to join the senate as adjuncts. Kant felt that such a course of
action amounted to a violation of his rights. Accordingly, he publicly
protested in July 1798. Neither he nor Reccard had given up their right to
vote by not appearing at the meetings. All the privileges that pertained to the
position were still rightfully theirs. The matter was brought to the atten¬
tion of the king by the university official Holtzhauer. The king took the
side of Kant and Reccard, "who served the academy for many years with
glory and usefulness, and who we trust will continue to do so insofar as their
faculties allow them." Reccard died later that year. Kant continued to be
a member of the senate for another three years.
Finishing Up: "Tying the Bundle"Goeschen wrote to his son on February 2, 1797, that Kant was not lec¬
turing and would never lecture again. "He intends to spend the small re¬
mainder of his life ordering his papers and to give his literary estate to his
publishers. Those who had asked him about his literary works three years
earlier he had already answered: 'What could they be? Sarcinas colligere.
That's all I can think of now.'"^47 Kant was planning to "tie his bundle" at
least from that time on. He did not expect much from himself any longer.
Between 1794 and 1796 he had not published much. There would be more
during 1797 and 1798, but most of these books were the results of "or¬
dering his papers." He had long before conceived The Metaphysical Foun¬
dations of the Doctrine of Right (1797) and The Metaphysical Foundations of