383c. Count Friedrich Karl von Thürheim to Schelling in Würzburg: Würzburg, 22 April 1804 [*]
Würzburg, 22 April 1804
Most esteemed Sir,
my most cordial thanks for the book on religion and philosophy. [1] —
I am sorry that your esteemed Sir allowed a matter that does not really fall within the purview of his official professional capacity to prompt him to issue declarations in the academic senate that, as I have in the meantime learned, became a bit more vehement than simple enthusiasm for the good cause might otherwise have warranted.
I offered the academic chair for anatomy to the most renowned men in this area and learned shortly before my departure for Anspach that Ackermann, too, on whom I had set my last hope, could not be secured. Experience must now determine whether it was a mistake to have appointed a young man to whom authoritative attestations attribute along with the requisite learning also the gift of clear exposition. [2]
I abide with the most complete respect your esteemed Sir’s
most devoted Servant
Thürheim
Würzburg, 22 April 1804
Notes
[*] Fuhrmans 1:309–11.
Concerning the background to this reprimand, see Schelling’s letter to Carl Joseph Windischmann on 7 April 1804 (letter 383b). Georg Friedrich Zentner had already admonished Schelling to refrain from behavior that might compromise his scholarly reputation as a “calm, dispassionate seeker of truth” in his letter to Schelling on 22 November 1803 (letter 381e). Back.
[1] Philosophie und Religion (Tübingen 1804). Back.
[2] The chair for anatomy had as a result of the university’s reorganization been separated from that for surgery. Johann Friedrich Fuchs remained as professor of anatomy for only a year in Würzburg. Back.
Translation © 2017 Doug Stott