Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-08


straints and worries of domestic life. HIS
| soarings into the illimitable and d1vines
| after the unfathomable should never be sub
| jected to the commonplace detail of coa4
bill, or be brought to a shortstop by the un.
metaphysical demands of the butcher and
baker. He held, moreover, that he, a
missionary of truth, should maintain by his
example the doctrine he held as such, that
through asceticism will come the redemp-
tion of the world from pain and misery.
This doctrine, of course, would in time
bring the end of the world. Schopenhauer
and Tolstoi both ask: What of it?
Someone has said that Kant was the most
profound thinker that has appeared in all
the history of the human mind. Whether
1t was owing to this fact that he never en-
tered the holy estate of matrimony is not
known. With the idea of becoming church
man he began the study of theology, but
soon abandoned it in favor Of logic, meta
physics and mathematics, to which studies
he devoted his life, and through which, in
his writings, he has had vast influence in
the speculative German philosophy.
Kant Must Have Been a Crank.
Kant with all his powers of mind, his
immense knowledge and capacity for ''pure
reason" must have been a queer man, or
what in these irreverent days would be
called a "crank." His character was of
the highest. He was noted for the strict
ness OF his principles of morality. his firm,
unbending adherence to freedom of thought
and faith in the advancement of mankind to
higher, conditions. But while most men of
learning travel to improve their minds, he
was so set in his habits that he never, says
his biographer, travelled beyond seven
miles from his native town in his life. He
was like the good old woman in Plum town
ship who had lived there for 30 years and
had never been ''the length of Pittsburg" in
her life. He resembled Socrates, who was
so devoted to Athens that nowhere else had
any charms for him, and he found the sold
bores and Philistines" of that classic city
more to his taste than any people to be
found without its walls.
- Another of the eminent order of German
philosophers who also died q bachelor was
Leibnitz, whose discoveries in science were
almost coincident with those of Newton,
and between whom there was rivalry as
to priority of discovery equal to the dis
putes as to the telegraph and telephone,
and other great inventions of the present
day. Philosophers of his order, it would
seem, have no time for love, save as to
study it metaphysically. Leibnitz it
would seem, was too busy hunting out the
origin of evil, and evolving his theories as
to concrete motion, and to optimism to get
married.
swedenborg Was Too Busy.
Anybody who has time and taste in these
days to 60 through the 80 volumes of
Swedenborg's works will probably get some-
thing OF an idea of the man. He wrote
upon the subject of marriage, but was too
much occupied with the questions of
Whence? What? Whittier? ever to get
married himself He says of himself that
f0
thoughts were constantly engrossed BY re-
Elections upon God, on salvation, and on
the apiritual Affections Of man." From
this it will be seen what an infant 'prod-
igy" he must have been. Any healthy boy
at that stage of life in these days is en-
gagged in marbles playing baseball, reading
stories of history and adventure, going
to the circus, trudging unwillingly to
school and praying for vacation. Salvation
and the spiritual Affections of man have
very small place in his mind. 1t is little
wonder with such childhood that in ma
ture manhood Swedenborg was pronounced
mystic, an insane dreamer. Claiming all
the powers of spiritualism in unfolding the
future, he wrote numerous volumes upon the
mysteries of heaven, and gave the details of
life beyond the skies, all of which sustain
the idea that he was little ''of" in his
mind, as men who live solitary lives are
apt to be as they grow old. With wife
and children he would have found probably
that matters terrestrial were of closer mo-
ment than THE White Horse mentioned in
the Apocalypse, or the "Destruction of
Babylon" Without family, relieved by
pension from care as to living, he wrote
endless pages of what, says Emerson, but
few men can read, and what the ''crushers"
of to-day would bury in the consuming fire
of waste as "stuf. Having missed mate
here below, it may be that he hoped to
find her in heaven, since in opposition to
the teachings Of the New Testament he
maintains that the marriage relation exists
in heaven as it does on earth.
Humboldt Must Have Been Nice.
The great author of Cosmos" Hum
boldt, was pretty old bachelor when he
died at the age of 60 AS man of science,
traveller and explorer and as an author, he
achieved greatest honors As a man in So
ciety, it is said, he was of the sort so genial
in manners and pleasant in disposition that
he made friends everywhere. But he gave
up wife and children and the happiness of
domestic joys for Science" the mistress of
his mind, whom he loved first, last and all
his life. When the trosts of old age had
come upon him he pronounced himself "a
joyless old man." in that he had done so lit
tie in his pursuit of knowledge.
No fair German girl Lad power of beauty
or fascination to win him from his bent of
genius and his ardent devotion to learning.
But perhaps he did more tor the gain of civ
ilization through his Testament of
Science" than if he had left dozen stall
wart sons.
1t has been said of Washington that
providence made him childless that his
country might call him Father" so it
might be said of Humboldt that Providence
made him bachelor for the benefit of the
world. BESSIE BRAMBLE.