ders of that
community, seemed sufficient indication that Maimon was tainted with
heresy, and that his intentions were to devote himself to the study of
science and philosophy, proved a great impediment to entering Berlin;
and when, after a long, incredible struggle, he was finally admitted, he
found himself incapable of earning a livelihood. In his childlike
naivete he was betrayed by the very persons upon whom he relied most.
All this could not deaden his love for knowledge and truth. By chance he
obtained Wolff's _Metaphysics_, and this marked a new epoch in his life.
"Not only the sublime science in itself," says he, "but also the order
and mathematical method of the celebrated author, the precision of his
explanations, the exactness of his reasoning, and the scientific
arrangement of his expositions--all this kindled a new light in my
mind."

So profound a thinker could not for long be a mere pupil. Wolff's
argument _a posteriori_ for the existence of God, in accordance with his
philosophic hobby, the "principle of sufficient reason," displeased him
wholly. A Hebrew letter to Mendelssohn, in which he shook the foundation
of the _Metaphysics_ by means of his irrefutable ontology, won him the
admiration of the Berlin sage, who invited him to become his daily
guest.

Maimon's intellect unfolded from day to day, until, some time
afterwards, he astonished the philosophic world by his great work, _Die
Transcendentale Philosophie_ (Berlin, 1790), in reference to which Kant
wrote to his beloved disciple Marcus Herz: "A mere glance at it enabled
me to recognize its merits, and showed me, that not only had none of my
opponents understood me and the main problem so well, but very few could
claim so much penetration as Herr Maimon in profound inquiries of this
sort." He demolished the prevalent Leibnitzo-Wolffian system in it, and
proved that even the Kantian theory, though irrefutable from a dogmatic
point of view, is exposed to severe attacks from the skeptic's point of
view.

Thenceforth he became a leading figure in philosophic controversy. In
1793 he published _Ueber die Progresse der Philosophie_; in 1794,
_Versuch einer neuen Logik_, and _Die Kategorien des Aristoteles_, and,
three years later, _Kritische Untersuchungen ueber den menschlichen
Geist_ (Berlin, 1797), wherein he originated a speculative, monistic
idealism, which pervaded not only philosophy, but all sciences during
the first half of the nineteenth cent