ABSTRACT
Immanuel Kant commenced his activities as a 'magister' at the age of thirty-three; this period passed quietly, with little outward eventfulness. But he had to possess his soul in patience for fifteen years, before he succeeded in obtaining a chair at the University. Kant was passed over twice; he also turned down many invitations from elsewhere, because he clung to the hope of eventually finding a satisfactory position in his native town, to which he was deeply attached. He insisted upon 'subordinating things to himself, not himself to things'. But Kant wanted to attain the cherished post of Professor of Philosophy at the University by his own merits; nothing was further from his mind than to forge his career by influence and connections. One important subject, which also aroused great interest outside the ranks of his regular students and brought him many listeners, was 'physical geography'.
