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Document number: 2842
Date: 12 Mar 1834
Dating: see 02854
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Constance, née Mundy
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA34(MW)-33
Last updated: 22nd January 2011

Lacock Abbey
March 12. –

My dear Henry

Having discovered by the assistance of Made de Staël <1> in what consisted the great merit of the celebrated Kant, <2> I lose no time in imparting it to you in case you should not have already viewed it in the same light. – I will give you her own words. – “La philosophie de Platon est plus poétique que celle de Kant, la philosophie de Malebranche plus religieuse: mais le grand mérite du philosophe allemand a été de relever la dignité morale; en donnant[?] pour base à tout ce qu’il y a de beau dans le coeur [sic] une théorie fortement raisonnée. L’opposition qu’on a voulu mettre entre la raison et le sentiment, conduit nécessairement la raison à l’égoisme, et le sentiment à la folie: mais Kant, qui semblait appelé à conclure toutes les grandes alliances intellectuelles, a fait de l’âme un seul foyer où toutes les facultés sont d’accord entre elles.” <3> His greatest fault seemed to be the unnecessary obscuring of his language. – “Il s’est servi d’une terminologie très difficile à comprendre, et [illegible deletion] du néologisme le plus fatigant. Il vivait seul avec ses pensées, et se persuadait qu’il fallait des mots nouveaux pour des idées nouvelles. – Dans les objets les plus clairs par euxmêmes, Kant prend souvent pour guide une metaphysique fort obscure. . . .l’attention du lecteur s’épuise à comprendre le langage avant d’arriver aux idées; et le connu ne sert jamais d’échelon pour parvenir à l’inconnu.” <4>

I do not know whether you will like all this, but at least you will find it full [sic] as interesting as my own private thoughts would be; & events worthy of notice have not occurred here, since yesterday morning. – Mlle Amélina <5> & I scrambled about the fields yesterday till both we & our 2 canine attendants were quite fatigued. – It grew quite hot in the afternoon, & so bright that I rejoiced in the idea of there being no fog to greet you this time, on your entrance into London. –

yr affecte
Constance. –


Notes:

1. Anne Louise Germaine Necker de Staël-Holstein (better known as Madame de Staël), (1766–1817), critic and writer.

2. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), philosopher.

3. The philosophy of Plato is more poetic than that of Kant, the philosophy of Malebranche more religious; but the great merit of the German philosopher was to re-establish moral dignity, giving as the basis for all the best qualities of the heart and a strongly reasoned theory. The opposition which it had been desired to place between reason and feeling, necessarily drove reason into egotism and feeling into folly: but Kant, who seemed called to establish all the great intellectual alliances, made the soul a unified centre where all the faculties are in agreement with one another.

4. He used a terminology that is very difficult to understand, and the most tiresome neologisms. He lived alone with his thoughts, and convinced himself that new words were needed for new ideas. In matters that are themselves perfectly clear, Kant often took deeply obscure metaphysics as a guide. The reader’s attention is exhausted in grasping the language before arriving at the ideas; and the known never serves as a step to reach the unknown.

5. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].

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