790 he became acquainted with Kant's philosophy, which two students
had asked him to expound to them, and to which he now devoted himself
with feverish zeal. It revolutionized his entire mode of thought and
determined the course of his life. The anonymous publication of his
book, _Attempt at a Critique of all Revelation_, in 1792, written
from the Kantian point of view and mistaken at first for a work of
the great criticist, won him fame and a professorship at Jena (1794).
Here, in the intellectual centre of Germany, Fichte became the
eloquent exponent of the new idealism, which aimed at the reform of
life as well as of _Wissenschaft_; he not only taught philosophy, but
_preached_ it, as Kuno Fischer has aptly said. During the Jena
period he laid the foundations for his "Science of Knowledge"
(_Wissenschaftslehre_) which he presented in numerous works: _The
Conception of the Science of Knowledge_, 1794; _The Foundation of
the Entire Science of Knowledge_, 1794; _The Foundation of Natural
Rights_, 1796; _The System of Ethics_, 1798--(all these translated by
Kroeger); the two _Introductions to the Science of Knowledge_, 1797
(trans. by Kroeger in _Journal of Speculative Philosophy_). The
appearance of an article _Concerning the Ground of our Belief in a
Divine World-Order_, 1798, in which Fichte seemed to identify God with
the moral world-order, brought down upon him the charge of atheism,
against which he vigorously defended himself in his _Appeal to the
Public_ and a series of other writings. Full of indignation over the
attitude which his government assumed in the matter, be offered his
resignation (1799) and removed to Berlin, where he presented his
philosophical notions in popular public lectures and in writings which
were characterized by clearness, force, and moral earnestness rather
than by their systematic form. There appeared: _The Vocation of Man_,
1800 (translated by Dr. Smith); _A Sun-Clear Statement concerning the
Nature of the New Philosophy_, 1801 (trans. by Kroeger in _Journal of
Speculative Philosophy_); _The Nature of the Scholar_, 1806 (trans. by
Smith); _Characteristics of the Present Age_, 1806 (trans. by Smith);
_The Way towards the Blessed Life_, 1806 (trans. by Smith). After the
overthrow of Prussia by Napoleon, in 1806, Fichte fled from Berlin to
Koenigsberg and Sweden, but returned when peace was declared in
1807, and delivered his celebrated _Addresses to the German Nation_,
1807-08, in which he