KANT, IMMANUEL, a celebrated German philosopher, born in Koenigsberg, the son of a saddler, of Scotch descent, and fortunate in both his parents; entered the university in 1740 as a student of theology; gave himself to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and physics; wrote an essay, his first literary effort, on “Motive Force” in 1747; settled at the University as a private lecturer on a variety of academic subjects in 1755; became professor of Logic and Metaphysics in 1770, when he was 46, and continued till his retirement, in 1797, from the frailties of age, spending the last 17 years of his life in a small house with a garden in a quiet quarter of the town; his great work, the “Kritic of Pure Reason,” was published in 1781, and it was followed by the “Kritic of Practical Reason” in 1788, and the “Kritic of Judgment” in 1790; his works inaugurate a new era in philosophic speculation, and by the adoption of a critical method dealt a death-blow to speculative dogmatism on the one hand and scepticism on the other; it was, he says, the scepticism of Hume that first broke his dogmatic slumber, so that had Hume not been, he had not been, and the whole course of modern thought different; Kant by his critical method did for philosophy what Copernicus did for astronomy; he centralised the intelligence in the reason or soul, as the latter did the planetary system in the sun; Kant was a lean, little man, of simple habits, and was never wedded (1724-1804).

KAOLIN, a fine white clay, a hydrous silicate of alumina, which does not colour when fired; used in making porcelain; called also China clay.

KAPELLMEISTER, director of an orchestra or choir, more particularly of the band of a German prince.

KAPILA, the founder of the Sankhya system of HINDU PHILOSOPHY (q. v.); was regarded as an incarnation of VISHNU (q. v.).

KARA, a gold-mining district in East Siberia, 300 m. from Chita, of which the mines are the private property of the Czar, and are worked by convicts, who are often disgracefully treated, many of them merely political offenders.

KARA SEA is a portion of the Arctic Sea, on the NE. corner of Russia, between Nova Zembla and the Yalmal; receives the rivers Obi and Yenisei, and is navigable from July to September.

KARAITES, a Jewish sect which originated in the 8th century; adhered to the letter of Scripture and repudiated all tradition; were strict Sabbatarians.

KARAKORUM, a range of the Himalayas, extending from the Hindu-Kush eastward into Thibet, and a pass in the centre of it 18,000 ft. high.  Also the name of the old capital of Mongolia.

KARAMSIN, a Russian historian; his first work was “Letters of a Russian Traveller,” in 6 vols., published in 1797-1801, which gained him a high reputation, and it was followed by his “History of Russia,” in 12 vols., published in 1816-1829, for the materials of which he had access, to the most authentic documents as imperial historiographer, an office to which he was appointed in 1803, and the work is a work in the highest repute (1766-1826).