Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/568



, the profoundest of German metaphysicians, was born at Stuttgart on the 27th August 1770. He could trace his descent through a long line of Carinthian and Swabian ancestors who had filled respectable places in the middle ranks of society, and some of whom, in the time of the Thirty Years' War, had suffered persecution and expatriation on account of their attachment to the Protestant cause. His father was superintendent of the ducal finances—a post, it may be supposed, of much trust and responsibility. The Swabian temperament—its gravity, straightforwardness, and perseverance—is said to have declared itself at an early period in the life and conversation of the future philosopher. While still in his teens he went by the nickname of "the old man." His school and college diaries, extracts from which have been published by his biographer Rosenkranz, attest the extent and variety of his studies. They afford evidence of indefatigable industry, of pains and