tion, and it may be said that we are convinced; or the motives are subjective, i. e. they exist only in the mind of him who judges, and he is persuaded. TRUTH, then, consists in the agreement of our notions with the objects, in such a manner as that all men are obliged to form the same judgment. BELIEF consists in holding a thing for true in a subjective manner, in consequence of a persuasion which is entirely personal, and has not its basis in an object submitted to experience. There is a belief of doctrine, of which Kant gives, as an example, this assertion: "There are inhabitants in the planets." We must acknowledge, he adds, that the ordinary mode of teaching the existence of God belongs to the belief of doctrine, and that it is the same with the immortality of the soul. The belief of doctrine has in itself something staggering; but it is not the same with moral belief. In moral belief there is something necessary; it is, says Kant, that I should obey the law of morality in all its parts. The end is strongly established; and I can perceive only one condition, by means of which this end may be in accord with all the other ends, i. e. that there is a God. I am certain that no man knows any other condition which can conduct to the same unity of end under the moral law; which law is a law of my reason. I will consequently believe certainly the existence of God, and a future life; because this persuasion renders immoveable my moral principles: principles which I cannot reject without rendering myself contemptible in my own eyes. I wish for happiness, but I do not wish for it without morality; and as it depends on nature, I cannot wish it with this condition, except by believing that nature depends on a Being who causes this connection between morality and happiness. This suppoșition is founded on the want (or necessity) of my reason, and not on my duty. We have, however, no certainty, says Kant, in our knowledge of God, because certainty cannot exist except it is founded on an object of experience. The philosopher acknowledges, that pure reason is too weak to prove the existence of a Being beyond the reach of our senses. The necessity The necessity of believing in God is therefore only subjective, although necessary and general for all those beings who conform to their duty. This is not knowledge, but only a belief of reason, which supplies the place of a knowledge which is impossible. The proofs of natural theology, according to our philosopher, taken from the order and beauty of the universe, are proofs only in at pearance. They resolve themselves into a bias of our reason to suppose an infinite intelligence as the author of all that is possible; but from this bias it does not follow that there really is such an author. To say, that whatever exists must have a cause, is indeed a maxim a priori; but it is a maxim applicable only to experience; for one knows not how to subject to the laws of our perceptions that which is absolutely independent of them. It is as if we were to say, that whatever exists in experience must have an experience; but the world, taken as a whole, is without experience as well as it's cause. It is much better to draw the proof of the existence of God from morality, than to weaken it by such reasoning. This proof is relative. It is impossible to know that God exists; but we can comprehend how it is possible to act morally on the supposition of the existence (although incomprehensible) of an intelligent Creator: an existence which PRACTICAL REASON forces THEORETICAL REASON to adopt. This proof not only persuades, but even acts on the CONVICTION, in proportion as the motives of our actions are conformable to the law of morality. Religion dught to be the means of virtue, and not its object. Man has not in himself the idea of religion, as he has that of virtue. The latter has its principle in the mind; it exists in itself, and not as the means of happiness; and it may be taught without the idea of a God, for the pure law of morality is a priori. He who does good by inclination, does not act morally. The converse of the principle of morality is to make personal happiness the basis of the will. There are compassionate minds which feel an internal pleasure in communicating joy around them, and who thus enjoy the satisfaction of others; but their actions, however just, however good, have no moral merit, and may be compared to other inclinations; to that of honour, for example, which, while it meets with that which is just and useful, is worthy of praise and encouragement, but not of any high degree of esteem. According to Kant, we ought not even to do good, either for the pleasure which we feel in doing it, or in order to be happy, or to render others happy; for any one of these additions (perhaps motives) would be empyric, and injure the purity of our morals. ought to act after the maxims derived a priori from the faculty of knowledge, which carry with them the idea of necessity, and are independent of all experience; after the maxims which, it is to be wished, could be erected into GENERAL LAWS for all beings endowed We with reason." For further information relative to the critical philosophy, the English reader may consult F. A. Nitsch's "General and introductory View of Professor Kant's Principles concerning Man, the World, and the Deity, &c. ;" and Dr. Willich's "Elements of the critical Philosophy, containing a concise Account of its Origin and Tendency, a View of all the Works published by its Founder, &c." Monthly Magaz. May 1805. English Encycl. Encycl. Britan.-M. years of the sixteenth century. KARNKOWSKI, STANISLAUS, (Lat. Carncovius), a Polish writer and statesman, was born in 1525. He became bishop of Uladislaw about 1563; and upon the death of Sigismond Augustus, king of Poland, in 1572, he promoted the election of Henry of Valois, and, on his reception, made an eloquent harangue to him in the name of the states. After the abdication of this prince, Karnkowski nominated Anne, the sister of the late Sigismond, queen of Poland, and crowned her husband, Stephen KAUNITZ, WENZEL ANTONY, prince of Battori, upon the refusal of the primate to per- the holy Roman empire, count of Rietberg, form this office. For his reward he was made knight of the Golden Fleece, the royal order of coadjutor to the archbishop of Gnesna, and in St. Stephen, &c., was born in Vienna in 1711. 1581 he succeeded to that see and to the Being the fifth son of nineteen children, he was primacy. On the death of king Stephen, he destined for the church; but as the greater part sat as president of the directory during the of his brothers had either died a natural death interregnum, and opposed the election, made or fallen in the army, he quitted the ecclesiastic by a party, of Maximilian, archduke of Austria. profession to enter into the service of the state, He placed the crown upon the head of Sigis- in which his ancestors had made a considerable mond III. prince of Sweden, who was acknow- figure. He laid the foundation of his studies ledged by the kingdom. The primate, in 1590, at Vienna; in 1737 was made a counsellor of joined a party who were in opposition to the state, and two years after, imperial comgreat-chancellor, Zamoisky, and convoked an missioner at the diet of Ratisbon. As the emextraordinary assembly at Kiow, in which he peror, Charles VI., died the year following, endeavoured to cancel the ordonances of the and as his commission thereby ceased, he relast general diet. This step rendered him un- tired to his estates in Moravia; but he did not popular, and he found himself obliged to be re- I ong remain unemployed, being appointed, in conciled to the chancellor. He died in 1603, the year 1742, minister plenipotentiary to the at the age of seventy-eight, and was interred in court of Sardinia, which had entered into a the Jesuit's college at Kalish, which he had new alliance with Austria. This treaty was founded. He established seminaries for edu- brought to a conclusion by Kaunitz; and the cation both at Uladislaw and Gnesna, and favourable specimen of his talents which he occupied himself with success in the reform gave on this occasion induced the court to of his clergy. The works of this prelate are confer upon him offices of more importance. "Historia Interregni Polonici," being a rela- On the marriage of the archduke Charles of Lortion of the affairs of the interregnum succeeding rain with the arch-duchess Mary Ann, governthe abdication of Henry of Valois: "De ess general of the Netherlands, in 1744, KauJure Provinciarum, Terrarum, Civitatumque nitz was appointed to a place of honour during Prussia:" "Epistolæ Illustrium Virorum Libr. the ceremony; and at the same time made III." this collection of letters is very rare, and minister for the kingdoms of Hungary and is said to contain many important particulars Bohemia, in the room of count Konigsegge. relative to the history of Poland, from 1564 to In the month of October he went to Brussels, 1577. Moreri.-A. to undertake the chief management of public affairs, which at that time required a man of talents, as the king of France had already de KAROLI, JASPER, a Hungarian Calvinist divine, who flourished within the last twenty clared war, and the Netherlands were the first confidence of the empress Mary Theresa, and afterwards of Joseph II., Leopold II., and Francis II. His great age, during the latter part of his life, prevented him from taking any share in public business; and therefore he lived in a kind of philosophical retirement, amusing himself chiefly with riding, which was his favourite exercise, and in which he was very expert. He died on the 27th of June, 1794, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, with the consciousness of having discharged his duty, to the best of his ability, for the good of his country. Gallerie interessanter Personen, von K. A. Schiller. J. KEATING, GEOFFREY, an Irish historian, was a native of Tipperary, and flourished in the earlier part of the seventeenth century. He was educated to the priesthood in the Roman catholic church; and having received at a foreign university the degree of D.D., returned to his native country, and became a celebrated preacher. Being extremely well versed in the ancient Irish language, he undertook to collect all the remains of the early history and antiquities of the island, and form them into a regular narrative. This he drew up in the Irish language, and finished about the time of the accession of Charles I. to the throne. Few histories embrace a longer period of time; for it commences from the first planting of Ireland after the deluge, and goes on without interruption to the seventeenth year of king Henry II. It states the year of the world in which the posterity of Gathelus and Scota settled in the island, and gives an account of the lives and reigns of one hundred and seventy-four kings of the Milesian race. This work remained in manuscript in the original language, till it was translated into English by Dermot O'Connor, and published at London in 1723, folio. A new edition, with splendid plates of the arms of the principal Irish families, was printed in 1738. Several copies of the original are to be found in the public libraries of Great Britain and Ireland. It is needless to observe, that great part of a work of such pretensions must be founded on fable; and it has accordingly been generally considered as little better than a mass of idle fiction. It has been alleged in defence of the veracity of Keating himself, that he has given his extraordinary relations merely as fables, and not as true history; and that he only supposes real facts to be disguised under them. This writer probably died between 1640 and 1650. Nicolson's Hist. Library. Moreri.-A. KEBLE, JOSEPH, a law-writer of meritorious industry, was the son of Richard Keble, esq. a lawyer of reputation at Ipswich. He was born in London, in 1632, and studied at Jesus and All-Souls colleges, in Oxford. After leaving the university he settled at Gray's-Inn, and was admitted a barrister. He attended with great assiduity at the King's-bench bar from 1661 to 1710; though it is not known that he ever had a cause, or made a motion. He was, however, extremely diligent in taking notes, which furnished him with matter for several publications, as well as for a vast collection of manuscript papers. He died suddenly, as he was getting into a coach at Holborn-gate, in 1710, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His publications were "A new Table to the Statute-book," 1674: "An Explanation of the Laws against Recusants," 8vo. 1681; "An Assistance to Justices of Peace," folio, 1683: "Reports taken at the King's-bench from the twelfth to the thirtieth of Charles II.," 3 vols. fol. 1685: "Two Essays; one on Human Nature, the other on Human Actions." His manuscripts amounted at his death to one hundred folios, and more than fifty quartos, all of his own hand-writing. Among them are the reports of above four thousand sermons preached at Gray's-Inn; such was the industry of the times! Biogr. Britan. -A. KECKERMAN, BARTHOLOMEW, an eminent Prussian Calvinist divine and philosophical professor in the early part of the seventeenth century, was born at Dantzick, in the year 1571. Having received the rudiments of learning in his native city, when he was eighteen years of age he was sent to the university of Wittemberg, where he studied philosophy and divinity during two years. From this seminary he went to the university of Leipsic, where he spent six months, and removed, in 1592, to that of Heidelberg. Here he prosecuted his studies with great industry and success, and, after having been admitted to the degree of A. M., was at first appointed master of the third class, and afterwards tutor in the college of Wisdom. His next advancement was to the professorship of Hebrew in the university, the duties of which he discharged with very high reputation. The fame which he acquired induced the senate of Dantzick, in the year 1597, to invite him to become co-rector of the cele brated academical institution in that city: but for several weighty reasons he was at that time obliged to decline their offer. senate he devoted his talents, was that of philosophy; and he proposed to lead students to its inmost recesses, by a more compendious method than what had been before adopted. According to his design they were to complete their course in three years. In pursuance of his plan, he drew up a great number of systems and treatises on logic, ethics, metaphysics, theology, physics, astronomy, &c.; and was so assiduous in studying, writing, and teaching, that he ruined his health, and fell a sacrifice to his industry in 1609, when only thirty-eight years of age. Bayle says, that his works discover more method than genius, and adds, that they are full of plagiarisms which have been well pillaged by plagiarists. M. Gilbert, professor of eloquence in the college of Mazarine, has expressed a more favourable judgment of his abilities and productions, in the second volume of his treatise concerning authors on eloquence. He particularly commends two of our author's works, entitled, "Rhetoricæ Ecclesiastica, Lib. II.," and, "Systema Rhetoricæ;" and in reply to the charge of plagiarism, maintains that he has honourably acknowledged his obligations, whenever he has availed himself of the labours of preceding writers. All the edited works of Keckerman were collected together, and published at Geneva in 1614, in two vols. folio. Melchior. Adam. Vit. Germ. Phil. Moreri. Bayle.-M. KEILL, JOHN, an eminent mathematician and philosopher in the seventeenth century, was born at Edinburgh, in the year 1671. After being instructed in the rudiments of learning in his native city, he became a member of the university there, in which he continued his studies till he was admitted to the degree of M. A. As his genius inclined him to the mathematics, he made great progress in those sciences under the tuition of doctor David Gregory, the mathematical professor, who had embraced the Newtonian philosophy soon after it was published, and read a course of lectures to explain it. By this means Mr. Keill became early acquainted with the immense treasure of mathematical and philosophical learning which is contained in sir Isaac Newton's "Principia," which he made the ground-work of his future studies. In the year 1694, upon the removal of his tutor to Oxford, Mr. Keill followed him to that university, where he was entered of In the year Baliol college, and obtained one of the Scotch. 1601, however, he accepted of a second in- exhibitions in that society. Not long after this, vitation; and, after having been admitted a Mr. Keill furnished himself with such an aplicentiate in theology, settled in his native city. paratus of instruments as his fortune could The professorship to which by the desire of the command, and began to read lectures in hist chamber at college upon natural philosophy, according to the principles of the Newtonian system, which he illustrated by proper experiments. This is said to have been the first attempt which was made to teach the doctrines of the " Principia" by the experiments on which they are founded; and the happy method in which it was conducted, acquired to the author considerable reputation in the university. In the year 1698, Mr. Keill's pretensions to mathematical and philosophical learning became more generally known, by the appearance of his "Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth," 8vo. By men of science this publication was highly applauded, and was justly pronounced to contain a full and solid, refutation of the philosophy in that celebrated "Theory." To his "Examination" our author had subjoined some "Remarks upon Mr. Whiston's new Theory of the Earth," which induced that singular genius to publish a vindication of his hypothesis. About the same time Dr. Burnet printed "Reflections upon the Theory of the Earth." These publications drew from our author, in the year 1699, " An Examination of the Reflections on the Theory of the Earth, together with a Defence of the Remarks on Mr. Whiston's new Theory," 8vo.; in which he satisfactorily supports the animadversions in his former masterly production. It was thought by some, however, that in these pieces he treated Dr. Burnet, who was a person of great candour and moderation, with, too much severity, especially considering the great disparity of their years. But though he has plainly and without ceremony exposed our theorist's false reasoning and unacquaintance with science, and consequently disclaimed him as a philosopher, he has as frankly acknowledged the merit of his work, in the noble and excellent descriptions with which it abounds; and thus, by allowing him to be a man of a fine imagination, left him in possession of that which has since been thought to constitute the great characteristic and value of his performance. "Perhaps," says he, in the conclusion of his examination, "many of his readers will be sorry to be undeceived; for, as I believe, never any book was fuller of errors and mistakes in philosophy, so none ever abounded with more beautiful scenes and surprising images of nature: but I write only to those who might perhaps expect to find a true philosophy in it. They who read it as an ingenious romance, will still be pleased with their entertainment." In the year 1700, Dr. Thomas Millington, Sedleian professor of natural philosophy at Ox ford, having been appointed physician in ordinary to king William, devolved on Mr. Keill, as his deputy, the task of reading lectures in the public schools. In this employment he acquitted himself with uncommon reputation; and as the term for his enjoying the Scotch exhibition at Baliol college was expiring about this time, he accepted an invitation from Dr. Aldrich, dean of Christ-church, to reside in that college. In the year 1702, he published his treatise, entitled, "Introductio ad veram Physicam," 8vo. containing the substance of several lectures upon the new philosophy. This is universally esteemed to be the best and most useful of our author's productions, and deservedly met with a very favourable reception, both at home and abroad. The first edition of it contained only fourteen lectures; but to the second edition, in 1705, the author added two more upon the motions arising from given forces. When the Newtonian philosophy began to be cultivated in France, this work was held in high esteem there, being considered as the best introduction to the "Principia;" and a new edition of it in English was printed at London, in 1736, at the instance of that eminent mathematician M. Maupertuis, who was then in England, and who subjoined to it a new hypothesis of his own concerning the ring of the planet Saturn. The fame which Mr. Keill acquired by this performance, justly entitled him to the honours which science had to bestow; and, accordingly, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, sometime before the year 1708. In that year he published, in the "Philosophical Transactions," a paper "of the Laws of Attrac tion, and its physical Principles;" which was suggested by some propositions in sir Isaac Newton's "Principia," and particularly designed to pursue the steps pointed out by some queries of that great man at the conclusion of his treatise on Optics. About the same_time, meeting with a passage in the "Acta Eruditorum" of Leipsic, in which Newton's claim to the first invention of the method of fluxions was called in question, he zealously vindicated that claim in a paper communicated to the Royal Society, entitled, "De Legibus virium Centripetarum." In this piece Mr. Keill not only asserted that sir Isaac first invented the method of fluxions, as appeared by his letters published by Dr. Wallis, but that M. Leibnitz had taken this method from him, only changing the name and notation. In the year 1709, our author went a voyage to New England, in the capacity of treasurer of the Palatines who were sent by government into that country; and soon |