from Letters 1781–1789
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
Esteemed Friend and Teacher,
I learn from you every week, so once again I submit my sincerest thanks for your excellent essay in the January issue of the Berlinische Monatschrift.
I beseech you now most respectfully for
the review of Dr. Hufeland's book, please send it soon,
a declaration stating whether Privy Councillor Jacobi has misunderstood you when, in his book on Spinoza, he introduces your ideas about space and says that they are “wholly in the spirit of Spinoza.”
It is truly incomprehensible how often you are misunderstood; there exist people who are really in other respects not imbeciles yet who take you to be an atheist.
I am sure that you too sincerely regret the unexpected death of the excellent Mendelssohn. But can that be why you hesitate to publish your work? You can tell how diligently the students here are studying your Critique of Pure Reason from the fact that, a few weeks ago, two students fought a duel because one of them had said to the other that he didn't understand your book and that it would take another thirty years of study before he would understand it and another thirty before he would be able to say anything about it.
If I should die before long, I think the only thing to which I could not easily reconcile myself would be to have missed seeing the completion of your labors. I await Easter with the most intense longing.
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