Phenomenology of Spirit — G. W. F. Hegel

728 Phenomenology of Mind Bacchus. In the former die the powers of the upper law [the Olympians] which has blood and actual Hfe, in the latter the powers of the lower law [the Furies] which possesses in bloodless form secret and craftypower. £1) The sacrifice of the divine substance, so far as it is active, belongs to the side of self-consciousness.

That this concrete act may be possible, the absolute Being must have from the start implicitly sacrificed itself. This it has done in the fact that it has given itself definite existence, and made itself an individual animal and fruit of the earth.

The self actively sacrificing demonstrates in actual existence, and sets before its own consciousness, this already implicitly completed self-renunciation on the part of absolute Being ; and replaces that immediate reahty, which absolute Being has, by the higher, viz. that of the self making the sacrifice.

For the unity which has arisen, and which is the outcome of transcending the particularity and separation of the two sides, is not merely negative destructive fate, but has a positive significance.

It is merely for the abstract Being of the netherworld that the sacrifice offered to it is wholly surrendered and devoted ; and, in consequence, it is only for that Being that the reflection of personal possession and individual self-existence back into the Universal is marked distinct from the self as such.

At the same time, however, this is only a trifling part ; and the other act of sacrifice is merely the destruction of what cannot be used, and is really the preparation of the offered substance for a meal, the feast that cheats the act out of its negative significance. The person making the offering at that first sacrifice reserves the greatest share for his own enjoyment ;

The Abstract Work of Art 729 and reserves from the latter sacrifice what is useful for the same purpose. This enjoyment is the negative power which supersedes the absolute Being as well as the unity ; and this enjoyment is, at the same time, the positive actual reahty in which the objective existence of absolute Being is transmuted into self-conscious existence, and the self has consciousness of its unity with its Absolute.

This cult, for the rest, is indeed an actual act, although its meaning hes for the most part only in devotion. What pertains to devotion is not objectively produced, just as the result when confined to the feeling of enjoyment* is robbed of its external existence.

The Cult, therefore, goes further, and replaces this defect, in the first instance by giving its devotion an objective subsistence, since the cult is the common task — or the individual task for each and all to do — which produces for the honour and glory of God a House for Him i'ii to dwell in and adornment for His presence.

By so doing the external objectivity of statuary is partly cancelled ; for by thus dedicating his gifts and his labours the worker makes God well disposed towards him and looks on his self as attached and appertaining to God. Furthermore, this course of action is not the individual labour of the artist ; this particularity is dissolved in universahty.

But it is not only the honour of God which is brought about, and the blessing of His countenance and favour is not only shed in idea and imagination on the worker ; the work has also a meaning the reverse of the first which was that of self-renunciation and of honour done to what is alien and external. The Halls and Dwellings * i.e. at the feast.

730 Phenomenology of Mind of God are for the use of man, the treasures preserved there are in time of need his own ; the honour which God enjoys in his decorative adornment, is the honour and glory of a refined artistic and high-spirited nation. At the festival season, the people adorn their own dwellings, their own garments, and their establishments too with the furnishings of elegance and grace.

In this manner they receive a return for their gifts from a responsive and grateful God ; and receive the proofs of His favour — wherewith the nation became bound to the God because of the work done for Him — not as a hope and a deferred realisation, but rather, in testifying to His honour and in presenting gifts, the nation finds directly and at once the enjoyment of its own wealth and adornment.