(1795), he became the tutor and companion of two young noblemen with whom he remained for two years (1796-98) at the University of Leipzig, during which time he devoted himself to the study of mathematics, physics, and medicine, and published a number of philosophical articles.  In 1798 he received a call to a professorship at Jena, where Fichte, Schiller, Wilhelm Schlegel, and Hegel became his colleagues, and where he entered into friendly relations with the Romantic circle of which Caroline Schlegel, who afterward became his wife, was a shining light.  This was the most productive period of his life; during the next few years he developed his own system of philosophy and gave to the world his most brilliant writings.  In 1803 he accepted a professorship at Wuerzburg, but came into conflict with the authorities; in 1806 he went to Munich as a member of the Academy of Sciences and Director of the Academy of Fine Arts; in 1820 he moved to Erlangen; and in 1827 he returned to Munich as professor of philosophy at the newly-established University and as General Curator of the Scientific Collections of the State.  He was called to Berlin in 1841 to help counteract the influence of the Hegelian Philosophy, but met with little success.  He died in 1854.

The earlier writings of Schelling either reproduced the thoughts of the Wissenschaftslehre or developed them in the Fichtean spirit.  Among those of the latter class we note:  Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature, 1797; On the World-Soul, 1798; System of Transcendental Idealism, 1800.  During the second period, in which the influence of Bruno and Spinoza is prominent, he works out his own philosophy of identity; at this time he publishes Bruno, or, Concerning the Natural and Divine Principle of Things, 1802, and Method of Academic Study, 1803.  In the third period the philosophy of identity becomes the basis for a still higher system in which the influence of German theosophy (Jacob Boehme) is apparent; with the exception of Philosophy and Religion, 1804, the Treatise on Human Freedom, 1809, and a few others, the works of this period did not appear until after Schelling’s death.  His previous philosophy is now called by him “negative philosophy;” the higher or positive philosophy has as its aim the rational construction of the history of the universe, or the history of creation, upon the basis of the religious ideas of peoples; it is a philosophy of mythology and revelation.  Translations of some of Schelling’s works are to be found in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, an American periodical founded by W.T.  Harris, which devoted itself to the study of post-Kantian idealism.  His Complete Works, edited by his son, appeared in 14 volumes, 1856.  There is a revival of interest in his philosophy, and new editions of his books are now being published.