PREFACE.

imagination—to class them with the other absurdities with which the failed past of humanity is thought by some to be all too full; or, on the other hand, to regard them as the fundamental teachings of that Essential Intelligence in which man’s intellectual and moral life originates. With Hegel, they are the objective manifestation of infinite Reason—the first promptings of Him who, having "made from one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, has determined the pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him." Acts 17:26-27—"For we are also His offspring." original Greek: τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν. A quote from the poet Aratus, cited by St. Paul. And it is these "pre-appointed times," original Greek: καιροὶ προτεταγμένοι these determined and organic epochs in the history of the world, that Hegel proposes to distinguish and develop in the following treatise.

Whatever view may be held regarding the origin or importance of those elementary principles, and by whatever general name they may be called—Spontaneous, Primary, or Objective Intelligence—it seems demonstrable that it is, in some sense or another, to its own belief, its own Reason, or essential being, that imperfect humanity is in bondage; while the perfection of social existence is commonly regarded as a deliverance from that bondage. In the Hegelian system, this paradoxical condition is viewed as one phase of that antithesis A contrast or opposition between two things. which is presented in all spheres of existence: the conflict between the Subjective The individual's internal mind and feelings. and the Objective External reality or universal laws.. It is the result of the natural and intellectual processes that constitute the life of the universe to cancel this conflict by merging both into one absolute existence. However startling this theory may be when applied to other departments of nature and intelligence, it appears to be a reasonable formula for the course of civilization, which is substantially as follows: