Phenomenology of Spirit — G. W. F. Hegel

The Sfiritual Work oj Art 741 sides to the business the universal activity is concerned to accompHsh : the side of the self — in virtue of which it is brought about by a collection of actual nations with the prominent individuahties at the head of them ; and the side of the universal — in virtue of which it is brought about by their substantial forces.

The relation of the two, however, took formerly the character of being the synthetic connection of universal and individual, i.e. of being the process of ideal presentation. On this specific character depends the judgment regarding this world. The relation of the two is, by this means, a comminghng of both, which illogically divides the unity of the action, and in a needless fashion throws the act from one side over to the other.

The universal powers assume the form of individual beings, and thus have in them the principle from which action comes ; when they effect anything, therefore, this seems to proceed as entirely from them and to be as free as in the case of men. Hence both gods and men have done one and the same thing.

The seriousness with which those divine powers go to work is ridiculously unnecessary, since they are in point of fact the moving force of the individuahties engaged in the acts; while the strain and toil of the latter again is an equally useless effort, since the former direct and manage everything.

Over-zealous mortal creatures, who are as nothing, are at the same time the mighty self that brings into subjection universal beings, violates the gods, and procures for them actual reahty and an interest in acting. Just as, conversely, these powerless gods, these impotent universal beings, which procure their sustenance from the gifts of men and, through 5S^

742 Phenomenology of Mind men, first get something to do, are the natural inner principle and the substance of all events, as also the ethical material, and the " pathos " of action.

If their cosmic natures first get reahty and a sphere of effectual operation through the free self of individuahty, it is also the case that they are the imiversal, which withdraws from and avoids this connection, remains unrestricted and unconstrained in its own character, and, by the inexhaustible elasticity of its unity, extinguishes the atomic singleness of the individual acting and his various aspects, preserves itself in its purity, and dissolves all that is individual in the current of its own continuity.

Just as the gods fall into this contradictory relation with the antithetic nature having the form of self, in the same way their miiversality comes into conflict with their own specific character and the relation in which it stands to others. They are the eternal and resplendent individuals, who exist in their own calm, and are removed from the changes of time and the influence of alien forces.

But they are at the same time determinate elements, particular gods, and thus stand in relation to others. But that relation to others, which, in virtue of the opposition it involves, is one of strife, is a comic self-forgetfulness of their eternal nature.

The determinateness they possess is rooted in the divine subsistence, and, in its specific hmitation, has the independence of the whole individuahty ; owing to this, their characters at once lose the sharpness of their distinctive peculiarity, and in their ambiguity blend together. One purpose of their activity and their activity itself, being directed against an " other " and so against

The Spiritual Work of Art 743 an Invincible divine force, are a contingent and futile piece of bravado, which passes away at once, and transforms the pretence of seriousness in the act into a harmless, self-confident piece of sport with no result and no issue.

If, however, in the nature of their divinity, the negative element, the specific determinateness of that nature, appears merely as the arbitrariness of their activity, and as the contradiction between the purpose and result, and if that independent self-confidence outweighs and overbalances the element of determinateness, then, by that very fact, the pure force of negativity confronts and opposes their nature, and moreover with a power to which it must finally submit, and over which it can in no way prevail.

They are the uni- irj / versal, and the positive, as against the individual self of mortals, which cannot hold out against their power and might.

But the universal self, for that reason, hovers over these mortal selves, and over this whole world of ideal presentation to which the entire content belongs ; and is for them the empty form of bare Necessity, not determined conceptually — a mere event to which they stand related selfless and sorrowing, for these determinate natures do not find themselves in this purely formal necessity.

This necessity, however, is the unity of the notion, a unity dominating and controlhng the contradictory independent subsistence of the individual moments, a unity in which the inconsistency and fortuitousness of their action is coherently regulated, and the sportive character of their acts receives its serious value in those moments themselves.

The content of the world of ideal presentation carries on its process in the midst unrestrained and detached by itself, gathering