Lectures on the philosophy of history

Front matter

Qass, Book.

OEOBOE SELL & SONS.

New Edition, with a New Biographical Supplement of upwards of 970U Names.

Contents

^ Vol. I The Life of Shakespeare. The Tempest. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Measure for Measure.

VoL II. Comedy of Errors. Much Ado about Nothing. Love's Labour Lost. MidhUtnmer Nighf s Dream. Merchant of Venice.

VoL III. As You Like Jt Taming of the Shrew. AU's Well that

Preface To The First Edition

The first question that suggests itself on the publication of a new Philosophy of History is why, of all the departments of so-called Practical Philosophy, this should have been the latest cultivated and the least adequately discussed. For it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that Vico made the first attempt to substitute for that view of History which regarded it either as a succession of fortuitous occurrences, or as the supposed but not clearly recognized work of Grod, a conception of it as an embodiment of primordial laws, and a product of Reason — a theory which so far from contravening the moral freedom of humanity, posits the only conditions in which that freedom can be developed.

This fact can however be explained in a few brief observations. The laws of Being and Thought, the economy of Nature, the phenomena of the human soul, even legal aijd political organisms ; nor less the forms of Art and the acknowledged manifestations of Grod in other modes have always passed for stable and immutable existences, if not as far as subjective views of them are concerned, yet certainly in their objective capacity. It is otherwise with the movements of History. The extrinsic contingency which predominates in the rise and fall of empires and of individuals, the triumphs of vice over virtue, the confession sometimes extorted, that there have been instances in which crimes have been productive of the greatest advantage to mankind, and that mutability which must be regarded as the inseparable companion of human fortunes, tend to keep up the belief that History stands on such a basis of shifting caprice, on such an uncertain fire-vomiting volcano, that every endeavour to discover rules, ideas, the Divine and Eternal here, may be justly condemned as an attempt to insinuate adventitious subtleties, as the bubble-blowing of a priori construction or a vain

PEEFACE TO THE FIUST EDITION. XIU

play of imagination. While men do not hesitate to admire God in the objects of Nature, it is deemed almost blasphemy to recognize him in human exertions and human achievements ; it is supposed to be an exaltation of the disconnected results of caprice —results which a mere change of humour might have altered — above their proper value, to suppose a principle underlying them for which the passions of their authors left no room in their own minds. In short, men revolt from declaring the products of Free-Will and of the human spirit to be eternal, because they involve only one element of stability and consistency — the advance amid constant mutability to a richer and more fully developed character. An important advance in Thought was required, a filling up of the "wide gulf" that separates Necessity from Liberty, before a guiding hand could be demonstrated as well as recognized in this most intractable because most unstable element — before a Grovernment of the World in the History of the World could be, not merely asserted but indicated, and Spirit be regarded as no more abandoned by Grod than Nature. Before this could be done, a series of millenniums must roll away : the work of the human spirit must reach a high degree of perfection, before that point of view can be attained, from which a comprehensive survey of its career is possible. Only now, when Christendom has elaborated an outward embodiment for its inward essence, in the form of civilized and free states, has the time arrived not merely for a History based on Philosophy, but for the Philosophy of History.

One other remark must not be withheld, and which is perhaps adapted to reconcile even the opponents of Philosophy, at least to convince them that in the ideal comprehension of History, the original facts are not designed to be altered or violence of any kind done them . The remark in question has reference to what is regarded as belonging to Philosophy in these events. Not every trifling occurrence, not every phenomenon pertaining rather to the sphere of individual life than to the course of the World-Spirit, is to be " construed," as it is called, and robbed of its life and substance by a withering formula. There is nothing more alien to intelligence, and consequently nothing more ridiculous than the descending to that micrology which attempts to explain in-

XIV PUEFACE TO

different matters— which endeavours to represent that as necessitated which might have been decided in one way quite as well as in another, and of which in either case, he who presumes to construe the occurrence in question, would have found an explanation. Philosophy is degraded by this mechanical application of its noblest organs, while a reconciliation with those who occupy themselves with its empirical details is thereby rendered impossible. What is left for Philosophy to claim as its own, consists not in the demonstration of the necessity of all occurrences, — in regard to which, on the contrary, it may content itself with mere narration, — but rather in removing that veil of obscurity which conceals the fact that every considerable aggregate of nations, every important stadium of History has an idea as its basis, and that all the transitions and developments which the annals of the past exhibit to us, can be referred to the events that preceded them. In this artistic union of the merely descriptive element on the one hand, with that which aspires to the dignity of speculation, on the other hand, will lie the real value of a Philosophy of History.

Again, the treatises on the Philosophy of History that have appeared within the last hundred years or thereabouts differ in the point of view from which they have been composed, vary with the national character of their ^respective authors, and lastly, are often mere indications of a Philosophy of History than actual elaborations of it. Por we must at the outset clearly distinguhh Pkilosojyhies from Theosophies, which latter resolve all events directly into God, while the former unfold the manifestation of God in the real world. Moreover, it is evident that the Philosophies of History which have appeared among the Italians and the French, have but little connection with a general system of thought, as constituting one of its organic constituents ; and that their views, though often correct and striking, cannot demonstrate their own inherent necessity. Lastly, much has often been introduced into the Philosophy of History that has been of a mystical, rhapsodical order, that has not risen above a mere fugitive hint, an undeveloped fundamental idea ; and though in many cases the great merit of such contributions cannot be denied, their place would be only in the vestibule of our science. We have certainly no wish to deny that among

• THE FIRST EDITIOS^. XV

the Germans Leibnitz, Lessing, WegueliUj^ Iselin, Kant, Mchte, Schelling, Schiller, W. von Humboldt,"^ Gorres, Stevens and Rosencranz,f have given utterance to observations of a profound, ingenious and permanently valuable order, respecting both the basis of History generally and the connection that exists between events and the spirit of which they are demonstrably the embodiment. Among Erench writers, who would refuse to admire in Bossuet the refined ecclesiastical and teleological genius which regards the History of the World as a vast map spread out before it ; in Montesquieu the prodigious talent that makes events transform themselves instanter to thoughts in his quick apprehension ; or in Balanche and Michelet the seer's intuition that pierces the superficial crust of circumstances and discerns the hidden forces with which they originated ? But if actually elaborated Philosophies of History are in question, four writers only present themselves, Vico, Serder, Fr. v. ScMegel,^ and lastly the Philosopher whose work we are here introducing to the public.

Vico's life and literary labours carry us back to a period in which the elder philosophies are being supplanted by the Cartesian ; but the latter has not yet advanced beyond the contemplation of the fundamental ideas — Being and Thought; it is not yet equipped for a descent into the concrete World of History, or prepared to master it. Vico, in attempting to exhibit the principles of History in his " Scienza Nuova," is obliged to rely on the guidance of the ancients and to adopt the classical ^iXoo-o^ry/xara : in his investigations it is the data of ancient rather than of modern records that arrest his attention : Peudality and its history is with him rather a supplement to the development of Greece and Eome than something specifically distinct therefrom. Although at the close of his book he asserts that the Christian religion, even in its influence on human aims, excels all the religions of the world, he stops short of anything like an elaboration of this statement. The separation and distinction between the Middle Ages and the Modern Time cannot be exhibited, as

* In an academic dissertation, whose style is as masterly as its contents arc profound : " On the Task of the Historian.*'

t In his animated and genially clever tractate : " Wliat tJ t Germans have accomplished for the Philosophy of History."

X Translated in Bohn's Standard Library.

XVI PEEFACE TO

fche Beformation and its effects are excluded from considerafcion. Besides, he undertakes to discuss the rudiments of human intelHgence, Language, Poetry, Homer ; as a Jurist he has to go down into the depths of Roman Law, and to investigate them ; while all this — the main stream of thought, episodes, expansion of the ideas and reverting to their principles — is further varied by a proneness to hunt out etymologies and give verbal explanations, which often serves to retard and disturb the most important processes of historical evolution. Most persons are thus deterred by the repulsive exterior from apprehending the profound truths which it envelopes ; the latter are not sufficiently obvious on the surface, and the gold is thrown away with the dross that conceals it.

In Herder we find traits of excellence which are wanting in Yico. He is himself a poet, and he approaches History in a poetic spirit ; further he does not detain the reader by prefatory inquiries into the foundations and vestibules of History — Poetry, Art, Language, and Law : he begins immediately with points of climate and geography; moreover the entire field of History lies open before him : his liberal Protestant and cosmopolitan culture gives him an insight into all nationalities and views, and renders him capable of transcending mere traditional notions to an unlimited extent. Sometimes, too, he hits upon " the right word " with wonderful felicity ; the teleological principle on which his speculations are based does not hinder him from doing justice to the varieties [of the actual world], and in comparing historical periods the analogy they bear to the stages of human life does not escape him. But these "Ideas contributory to the Philosophy of the History of Mankind " contradict their title by the very fact that not only are all metaphysical categories banished, but a positive hatred to metaphysics is the very element in which they move. The Philosophy of History in Herder's hands therefore, broken off" from its proper basis, is a highly intellectual, often striking, and on the other hand often defective "■ raisonnemenV — a Theodicsea rather of the Heart and Understanding than of Reason. This alienation from its natural root leads by necessary consequence to an enthusiasm which often obstructs the current of thought, and to interjections of astonishment, instead of that contention of mind which results in demonstration. The theologian, the

genial preacher, the entranced admirer of the works of Grod, very often intrudes with his subjective peculiarities amid the objectivity of History.

In Frederick v. SchlegeVs Philosophy of History we may find, if we choose to look, a fundamental idea, which can be called a philosophical one. It is this, namely, that Man was created free ; that two courses lay before him, between which he was competent to choose — that which led upwards, and that which led downwards to the abyss. Had he remained firm and true to the primary will that proceeded from Grod, his freedom would have been that of blessed spirits ; that view being rejected as quite erroneous, which represents the paradisaical condition as one of blissful idleness. But as man unhappily chose the second path, there was from that time forward a divine and a natural will in him ; and the great problem for the life of the individual as also for that of the entire race, is the conversion and transformation of the lower earthly and natural will more and more into the higher and divine will. This Philosophy of History, therefore, really begins with the dire and strange lament, that there should be a history at all, and that man did not remain in the unhistorical condition of blessed spirits. History, in this view, is an apostasy — the obscuration of man's pure and divine being ; and instead of a possibility of discovering Grod in it, it is rather the Negative of Grod which is mirrored in it. Whether the race will ultimately succeed in returning completely and entirely to Grod, is on this shewing only a matter of expectation and hope, which^ since humanity has once more darkened its prospects by Protestantism, must, at least to Frederick v. Schlegel, appear doubtful. In elaborating the characteristic principles and historical development of the several nations, wherever that fundamental idea retires somewhat into the background, an intellectual platitude manifests itself, which seeks to make up by smooth and polished diction for the frequent tenuity of the thought. A desire to gain repose for his own mind, to justify himself, and to maintain the Catholic stand-point against the requirements of the modern world, gives his treatise a somewhat far-fetched and premeditated tone, which deprives facts of their real character to give them that tinge which will connect them with the results they are brought forward to establish.

XVIU PEE FACE TO

Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History, to which we now come, have at starting a great advantage over their predecessors, apart from the merits of their contents. First and foremost they are connected with a system of thought logically elaborated even to its minutest members : they claim to exhibit the Logos of History, just as there is a Logos of Nature, of the Soul, of Law, of Art, &c. Here, then, mere flashes of thought, mere '■'■ raisonnement^^'' intelligent or unintelligent intuitions are out of the question; instead of these we have an investigation conducted by logical philosophy in the department of those human achievements [which constitute History] . The categories have been already demonstrated in other branches of the System, and the only point left to be determined is, whether they will be able also to verify themselves in the apparently intractable element of human caprice. But in order that this proceeding may bring with it a guarantee of its correctness, and I might also say, of its honesty, the occurrences themselves are not metamorphosed by Thought, exhibited as otherwise than they really are, or in any way altered. The facts remain as they were — as they appear in the historical traditions of centuries: the Idea is their expositor, not their perverter ; and while the Philosophy of History thus involves nothing more than the comprehension of the hidden meaning of the outward phenomenon, the philosophical art will consist in perceiving in what part of these phenomenal data a ganglion of Ideas lies, which must be announced and demonstrated as such ; and, as in Nature every straw, every animal, every stone cannot be deduced from general principles, so the art in question will also discern where it should rise to the full height of speculation, or where, as remarked above, it may be content to lose itself in the confines of the merely superficial ; it will know what is demonstrable, and what is simply attached to the demonstration as portraiture and characteristics ; conscious of its dignity and power, it will not be content to expend its labour on indifferent circumstances.

This is in fact one of the chief merits of the present Lectures, that with all the speculative vigour which they display, they nevertheless concede their due to the Empirical and Phenomenal ; that they equally repudiate a subjective raison?iement [a discussion following the mere play of in-

THE FIBST EDITION". XU

dividual fancy,] and the forcing of all historical data into the mould of a formula ; that they seize and present the Idea both in logical development and in the apparently loose and irregular course of historical narrative, but yet without allowing this process to appear obtrusively in the latter. The so-called a priori method — which is, in fact, presumed to consist in ' making up ' history without the aid of historical facts — is therefore altogether different from what is presented here ; the author had no intention to assume the character of a Grod, and to create History, but simply that of a man, addressing himself to consider that History which, replete with reason and rich with ideas, had already been created.

The character of Lectures gives the work an additional advantage, which it would perhaps have wanted had it been composed at the outset with a view to publication as a book, and with the compact energy and systematic seriousness which such a design would have involved. Consisting o^^ lectures, it must contemplate an immediate apprehension of its ' meaning ;' it must be intended to excite the interest of youthful hearers, and associate what is to be presented to their attention with what they already know. And as of all the materials that can be subjected to philosophic treatment. History is always the one with whose subject persons of comparatively youthful years become earliest acquainted, the Fhilosophy of History may also be expected to connect itself with what was previously known, and not teach the subject itself as well as the ideas it embodies, (as is the case, e.g. in Esthetics,) but rather confine itself to exhibiting the workings of the Idea in a material to which the hearer is supposed to be no stranger. If this be done in a method partly constructive, partly merely characteristic, the advantage will be secured of presenting to the student a readable work — one which has affinities with ordinary intelligence, or at least is not very much removed from it. These Lectures therefore — and the remark is made without fear of contradiction— would form the readiest introduction to the Hegelian Philosophy : they are even more adapted to the purpose than the " Philosophy of E/ight," [or Law,] which certainly presupposes in the student some ideas of its subject to begin with. But

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the advantages of the Lecture form are not unaccompanied by the usual drawbacks in the present case. The necessity of developing principles at the commencement, of embracing the entire subject, and of- concluding vrithin definite limits, must occasion an incongruity between the first and the latter part of the work. The opulence of facts which the Middle Ages offer us, and the wealth of ideas that characterizes the Modern Time, may possibly induce dissatisfaction at the attention which, simply because it is the beginning, is devoted to the East.

This naturally leads us to the principles which have been adopted in the composition of the work in its present dress ; as they concern, first, its contents, and secondly, its form. In a lecture, the teacher endeavours to individualize his knowledge and acquisitions : by the momentum of oral delivery he breathes a life into his intellectual materials which

mere book cannot possess. Not only are digressions, amplifications, repetitions, and the introduction of analogies which are but distantly connected with the main subject, in place in every lecture, but without these ingredients an oral discourse would be dry and lifeless. That Hegel possessed this didactic gift, notwithstanding all prejudices to the contrary, might be proved by his manuscripts alone, which by no means contain the whole of what was actually delivered, as also by the numerous changes and transformations that mark the successive resumptions of an old course of lectures. The illustrations were not unfrequently disproportioned to the speculative matter ; the beginning (and simply because it was such) was so greatly expanded, that if all the narrative sections, descriptions, and anecdotes had been inserted, essential detriment would have resulted to the appearance of the book. In the first delivery of his lectures on the Philosophy of History, Hegel devoted a full third of his time to the Introduction and to China — a part of the work which was elaborated with wearisome prolixity. xHthough in subsequent deliveries he was less circumstantial in regard to this Empire, the editor was obliged to reduce the description to such proportions as would prevent the Chinese section from encroaching upon, and consequently prejudicing the treatment of, the other parts of the work. That kind of editorial labour which was most called for in

THE FIRST EDITION. XXI

this part was necessary in a less degree in all the other divisions. The Editor had to present Lectures in the form of a Book : he was obliged to turn oral discourse into readable matter : the notes of students . and the manuscripts which constituted his materials were of different dates ; he had to undertake the task of abridging the diffuseness of delivery, bringing the narrative matter into harmony with the speculative observations of the author, taking due precautions that the later lectures should not be thrust into a corner by the earlier ones, and that the earlier ones should be freed from that aspect of isolation and disconnection which they presented. On the other hand, he was bound not to forget for one moment that the book contained lectures ; the naivete, the abandon, the enthusiastic absorption in the immediate subject which makes the speaker indifferent as to when or how he shall finish, had to be left intact ; and even frequent repetitions, where they did not too much interrupt the course of thought, or weary the reader, could not be altogether obliterated.

But notwithstanding the full measure of license, which in the nature of the case must be conceded to the Editor, and the reconstructive duties imposed upon him by compilation, it can be honestly averred that in no case have the ideas of the compiler been substituted for those of Hegel, — that a genuine, altogether unadulterated work of the great philosopher is here offered to the reader, and that, if the editor had followed another plan, no choice would have been left him but either to produce a book which none could have enjoyed, or, on the other hand, to insert too much of his own in place of the materials that lay before him.

As regards the style of the work, it must be observed that the Editor was obliged to write it out from beginning to end. Eor one part of the Introduction however, (as far as p. 61 of this book) he had ready to hand an elaboration begun by Hegel in 1830, which though it was not designed expressly for publication, was manifestly intended to take the place of earlier Introductions. The Editor — though all his friends "did not adopt his view of the matter — believed that where a Hegelian torso was in existence, he ought to refrain from all interpolations of his own and from revisional alterations. He was desirous not to weaken the firm

XXU PEEFACE TO

phalanx of the Hegelian style by introducing phrases of any other stamp or order, even at the risk of being thus obliged to forego a certain unity of expression. He thought that it could not be otherwise than gratifying to the reader to encounter — at least through some part of the book — the strong, pithy and sometimes gnarled style of the author ; he wished to afford him the pleasure of pursuing the labyrinthine windings of thought under the guidance of his often less than flexible but always safe and energetic hand. From the point at which these elaborated fragments ceased, began the real task of giving the work an integral form ; but this was performed with constant regard for the peculiar terms of expression which the manuscripts and notes exhibited : the Editor gladly exchanged the words which offered themselves to his own pen for others which he would perhaps not have preferred himself, but which seemed to him more characteristic of the author ; only where it was absolutely necessary has he been willing to complete, to fill up, to supplement ; in short he has been anxious as far as possible to make no sort of change in the peculiar type of the composition, and to offer to the public not a book of his own but that of another. The Editor cannot therefore become responsible for its expression, as if it were his own ; he had to present a material and trains of thought not his own, and as for as possible to avoid travelling far out of the limits of that order of phrases in which they were originally clothed. Only within these given and predetermined conditions, which are at the same time impediments to a free style, can the Editor be made accountable.

Hegel's manuscripts were the first materials to which the Editor had recourse. These often contain only single words and names connected by dashes, evidently intended to aid the memory in teaching ; then again longer sentences, and sometimes a page or more fully written out. Erom this latter part of the manuscript could be taken many a striking expression, many an energetic epithet : the hearers' notes M^ere corrected and supplemented by it, and it is surprising with what unwearied perseverance the author continually returns to former trains of thought. Hegel appears in these memorials as the most diligent and careful teacher, always intent upon deepening fugitive impressions, and

THE FIRST EDITION". XXlll

clencMiLg wbat might pass away from the mind, with the! strong rivets of the Idea. As regards the second part ofj my materials, the notes, I have had such — reporting all the five deliveries of this course, 18|f, 18|f , ISff, 18|^, 18f f * — in the hand- writing of Geh. Ober-E-egierungs Rath Schulze, Capt. von Grriesheim, Prof Hotho, Dr. Werder, Dr. Heimann, and the sou of the philosopher, M. Charles Hegel. It was not till the session of 18|^ that Hegel came to treat somewhat more largely of the Middle Ages and the Modern Time, and the sections of the present work devoted to those periods are for the most part taken from this last delivery of the course. To many of my respected colleagues and friends, whom I would gladly name if I might presume upon their permission to do so, I am indebted for emendations, additions, and assistance of every kind. "Without such aids, the book would be much less complete as regards the historical illustration of principles than it may perhaps be deemed at present.

"With this publication of the " Philosophy of History," that of the " ^sthetik " within a few months, and that of the "Encyclopadie" in its new form and style, which will not have long to be waited for, the work of editing and publishing Hegel's writicgs will be completed. Por our Priend and Teacher it will be a monument of fame ; for the editors a memorial of piety, whose worth and truth consist not in womanish lamentation, but in a grief that is only a stimulus to renewed activity. On the other hand that piety desires no return but the satisfaction which it already possesses in the consciousness of the performance of duty ; and though those who are " dead while they live" may think to reproach us with the feebleness of our means, we may hope for absolution in consideration of the plenitude of our zeal. The Hegelian Pour Ages of the World have at least made their appearance.

Edward Gtans.

Berlin, June 8, 1837.

* These lefctures were delivered in the University of Berlin, to which He^el was called in 1818. " He there lectured for thirteen years, and formed a school, of which it is suflBcient to name as among- its members, Gans, Rosenkranz, Michelet, Werder, Marheineke and Hotho." Lewi^s's Biog, Hist, of Philos.—Ta.

XXIV

Preface To The Second Edition

The changed form in which Hegel's lectures on the Philosophy of ilistory are re-issued, suggests the necessity of some explanation respecting the relation of this second edition both to the original materials from which the work was compiled, and to their first publication.

The lamented Professor Gans, the editor of the " Philosophy of History," displayed a talented ingenuity in transforming Lectures into a Book ; in doing so he followed for the most part Hegel's latest deliveries of the course, because they w^ere the most popular, and appeared most adapted to his object.

He succeeded in presenting the lectures much as they were delivered in the winter of 18-|J ; and this result might be regarded as perfectly satisfactory, if Hegel's various readings of the course had been more uniform and concordant, if indeed they had not rather been of such a nature as to supplement each other. Eor however great may have been Hegel's power of condensing the wide extent of the phenomenal world by Thought, it was impossible for him entirely to master and to present in an uniform shape the immeasurable material of History in the course of one semester. In the first delivery in the winter of 18|f , he was chiefly occupied with unfolding the philosophical Idea, and shewiag how this constitutes the real kernel of History, and the impelling Soul of World-Historical Peoples. In proceeding to treat of China and India, he wished, as he said himself, only to shew by example how philosophy ought to comprehend the character of a nation ; and this could be done more easily m the case of the stationary nations of the East, than in that of peoples which have a bond fide history and an historical development of character. A warm predilection made him linger long with the Greeks, for whom he always felt a youthful enthusiasm ; and after a brief consideration of the Eoman World he endeavoured finally to condense the Mediaeval Period and the Modern Time into a few lectures ; for time pressed, and when, as in the Christian World, the Thought no longer lies concealed among the multitude of phenomena, but announces itself and is obviously present in History, the philosopher is at liberty to abridge his discus-