Soren Kierkegaard

A new topic seemed necessary, hence the king asked something about
Schelling’s philosophy, and Kierkegaard quickly tried to give him an idea
of what it entailed .Schelling’s relation to the Prussian court, which of
course had previously been steeped in Hegelian philosophy, was also on the
king’s mind, and Kierkegaard was quick to remark that “Schelling’s situa-
tion was probably like that of the Rhine, which becomes stagnant at its
mouth—so he is becoming anemic in his capacity as a Royal Prussian Excel-
lency.” And since they were speaking of prophetic visions, the king found
it appropriate to direct “the conversation to communism, which clearly
made him worried and fearful.” As far as Kierkegaard could see, there was
no ground for alarm, since the impending movement would have nothing
to do with kings: “It will be a battle between one class and another, but it
would always be in the interest of the hostile parties to have good relations
with the monarch .The same problem had occurred in ancient times and
was recurring now, and it was easy to see that the king would in a way be
beyond the fray .There would be hostilities like those in a house, between
the cellar and the ground floor and between these two and the next floor,
et cetera, but they would not attack the landlord.” After several tactical
remarks about how one always ought to struggle only indirectly against
“the multitude,” which should be regarded as the “woman” in this drama,
Kierkegaard concluded his improvised lecture with the remark that what
the times really required was quite simply an “upbringing,” for what in
larger countries easily ends in “violence” will in Denmark merely end up
as “naughtiness.” Of course he was right about this, and when the king
seemed to be reassured and went on to praise his little court philosopher
for his brilliant words of wisdom, Kierkegaard seized on the opportunity to
play his trump card: “Your Majesty can certainly see by looking at me that
what I say is true, because for me everything really stems from having been
well brought up—and therefore it really stems from my father.”
Kierkegaard’s visit in October 1847 was to be his last .Christian VIII died
three months later .He, too, had been well brought up, and in January 1848
he had therefore been incautious enough to defy the fierce winter cold and
gone on board the frigateValkyrieto say farewell to the crew, who were
about to sail the ship to the Far East .The king, warm from the walk out to
the ship, removed his hat and stood bareheaded as he addressed the crew,
but since he was already somewhat weak he got a bad cold, which his
court physician tried to cure by bleeding him .This led to an infection that
developed into blood poisoning, and the king died of it on January 20 at
the age of sixty-one .The very next day Frederick VII, the son of Christian
VIII, was proclaimed the new king .He had been a drinker and carouser
since his early youth, and as the years went by he had developed into an out-