Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/445

 FICHTE. 423 chair at Konigsberg, finding a permanent university posi- tion at the foundation of the University of Berlin in 1810- His glowing Addresses to the Germati Natioji, 1808, which essentially aided in arousing the national spirit, have caused his name to live as one of the greatest of orators and most ardent of patriots in circles of the German people where his philosophical importance cannot be understood. His death in 1814 was also a result of unselfish labor in the service of the Fatherland. He succumbed to a nervous fever contracted from his wife, who, with self-sacrifice equal to his own, had shared in the care of the wounded, and who had brought the contagion back with her from the hospital. On his monument is inscribed the beautiful text, " The t eachers shall sh jne ^s the bright ness of jhe^rmament, ajnd they that turn many to righ teousness as the stars tha t shine for ever and ever . ' Forb^ig in his journal records this estimate: The leadin|j trait in Fichte's character is his absolute integrity. All his words are weighty and important. His principles are stern and little modified by affability. The spirit of his^ philos ophy is proud and courageous, one which does not so much lead as possess us and carry us along. His philosophemes are inquiries in which we see the truth arise before our eyes, and which just for this reason lay the foundations of science and conviction. The philosopher's son, Immanuel Hermann Fichte (his own name was Johann Gottlieb), wrote a biography of his father (1830; 2d ed., 1862), and supervised the publica- tion of both the Posthumous Works (1834-35, 3 vols.) and the Collected Works (1845-46, 8 vols.). The simple and luminous Facts of Conscioiisness oi 181 1, or 1817 (not the lecture of 1813 with the same title), is especially valuable as an introduction to the system. Among the many redactions of the Wissenschaftslchrc, the epoch-making Foundation of the whole Science of Knowledge, 1794, with the two Introductions to the Science of Knoivledge, 1797, takes the first rank, while of the practical works the most im- portant are the Foundation of Natural Right according to the Principles of the Science of Knowledge, 1796, and the System of the Science of Ethics according to the Principles of thf