Chapter 17

[282]Here commences the more thorough exposition of the difficulty.

[283]Vorstellung, "world of ideas" would be perhaps better.

[284]Apart from an error in punctuation I think this sentence is not as Hegel wrote it, certainly it is not as he would have left it after revision; as it stands the grammatical construction is entirely split into two discordant sections. I have at least made it grammatical.

[285]Die Vorstellung,i.e., the imaginative conception.

[286]There is, however, the question of positive characterization imposed on the work by the artist. The work of Michelangelo is of course an extreme example. This is here rather overlooked.

[287]That is to say, it remains the potency of many forms; it is left in its abstract formality to be variously formed by limbs in their motion and not cut into the forms devised by a tailor.

[288]Infinite, of course, not in the sense of extension, but because it is a constituent of the universal medium of thought, infinite as the judgment is so.

[289]This analysis of Dutch painting is remarkable for its insight and impartiality, and may be contrasted in this respect with the writings of Ruskin.

[290]Die höhere Seele.The ideal atmosphere throughout.

[291]It will be recalled that it was precisely this picture, or one much resembling, that Ruskin, with less sympathy, criticized severely.

[292]No doubt these were other pictures in the exhibition of pictures contemporary with the date of Hegel's lecture.

[293]Ideal.

[294]Auf willkürlich festgesetzten Zeichen.

[295]Not a very lucid sentence. I presume the wordsbei deren Anblickrefer, to the forms, not to the beauty which reposes on them. The abstractness of such a point of view is obvious.

[296]I thinksein eigenes Wollenmust practically amount to this. But it is all very vague.

[297]Handlung.See below.

[298]Vollbringen des Menschen.The bringing up to fuller content.

[299]Lit., "turned outside upon to confront, like a coat turned inside out that the inside may face external facts."

[300]The German term isSelbständigkeit.It may often be better translated by "independence."

[301]Durchgreifende.That which penetrates the whole as thecausa efficiens.The whole passage is difficult and technical.

[302]Für sich selbst.That is to say, a substance that is not dependent on another for its reality but is explicit as such out of its own resources.

[303]Für das Allgemeine.

[304]In einer Nacht.A condensed description of the true story apparently.

[305]That is to say, it is made up of units all ready to pull in different directions.

[306]A remarkable instance of the type in our own days was General Gordon. A perusal of his correspondence from Khartoum makes it sufficiently clear that he considered it his duty to remain despite all orders to the contrary, so long as the garrison remained unwithdrawn; no doubt he considered the reverse course dishonourable to England, but first of all it was dishonourable to himself.

[307]Fürsicheinsiehen.

[308]Das Vornehme.There is probably here a further allusion to the respectability associated with grandeur. The same is true of the compositions of the great Italian painters.

[309]Ausgebildeten.I have hesitated to translate this "cultivated" as the context appears to suggest rather the kind ofregimewe find in the highly official centralization of such a monarchy as that of Prussia in Hegel's time or the artificial eighteenth century. But the whole passage rings rather strangely to modern ideas, or at least to English notions of democracy.

[310]Götz von Berlichengenwas Goethe's first drama, published in the year 1773, though the first version of it was written in 1771.

[311]Das Waltende,e.g., a force which is predominant.

[312]Gehalt, content, that is, in its configurative energy.

[313]Sichverwirklichen, that is, objective self-realization.

[314]The whole of this passage is difficult to follow and translate, and has roots, no doubt, in some of the most disputed positions in Hegelian philosophy, such as the independent reality of Nature, and the use that Hegel makes of such conceptions as Chance (Zufälligkeit) in his explanation of it. All that can be attempted here is to give some kind of intelligible interpretation of the expressions employed literally. The student will do well to consult Professor A. C. Bradley's criticism of Hegel's Idea of tragedy in his "Lectures on Poetry."

[315]The situation without defined situation.

[316]Festigkeit.Staunchness is perhaps better.

[317]Harmlosigkeit,e.g., its inability to cause conflict.

[318]Such as painting and sculpture.

[319]By positive he means that in themselves they are not actually discordant or negative but only render such discordance possible in their relation to spirit.

[320]That is, where a collision depends upon natural causes.

[321]Positive, that is, relative to a particular concrete condition.

[322]PerhapsErfindungwould here be better translated with "invention." Both processes are involved in the word.

[323]Auf den natürlichen äusserlichen Verlauf.

[324]This must be implied, for it can only be asserted with qualification of sculpture and it is not true of music.

[325]In betreff seiner Besinnung.Besinnungsuggests, no doubt, something more of mind thanGemüth.It is the entire content of self-consciousness on its sensuous side.

[326]Die allgemeinen Mächte.This phrase is explained in the paragraph which follows.

[327]Die Bethätigung.The actualization would be a better word perhaps.

[328]It may surprise some readers in such a context suddenly to be confronted with such serious matters. But with Hegel such surprises must be expected. With him the root of all spiritual activity is never far absent, and the relation of the State is founded on the same basis as that of the Church. And if we mean anything by the phrase of the Divine Immanence we shall at least be able to follow him.

[329]Die ewigen.Eternal because essentially belonging to the explication of reason.

[330]Würde.Worthiness of personal characteristics,i.e., ethical character.

[331]Das nur äuserlich Feststehende. The organizations of Spirit are the most permanent realities is, I think, the meaning.

[332]Etwas bizarres oder widriges,i.e., that which is arbitrary and merely awakes curiosity or excites a feeling of repulsion.

[333]There is obviously a symbolic meaning in this poem of Hartmann which Hegel appears to have overlooked, the sacrifice which the monks prescribed not necessarily involving a physical sacrifice, but merely the gift of a love which would be equal to such a sacrifice.

[334]This passage is not easy to follow. I thinkder innre Begriffmust mean the entire notion of the personality evolved in the action as distinct from all particular aspects which are negative and evil. The main difficulty of the passage consists in the abstract conception of evil or the negative upon which Hegel centres the attention.

[335]Halt,i.e., stable self-consistency.

[336]Die innre haltlose Zerrissenkeit.

[337]Abgeschlossenheit,i.e., self-exclusive individuality.

[338]Zur subjektiven Innerlichkeit.That is to say, the entire self-concentration on the spiritual centre of conscious life.

[339]Lit., Their individuality remains rather external form, in such a way that it fails to penetrate through to absolutely inward subjectivity.

[340]Noth, the constraint of necessary conditions.

[341]Mit der Bestimmten,i.e., with the definite subject-matter of temporal life.

[342]In the conception, that is to say, which is at the root of the Greek idea of Divinity.

[343]I presume what Hegel means is as individual gods.

[344]Er nicht mit seinem eigenen Selbst dabei ist.He fails to obtain the determinate freedom of the self-excluding subject.

[345]I.e., between gods and men.

[346]Ganz prosaisch.Viewed practically, that is to say, rather than metaphysically. The examples explain the meaning.

[347]Das Thun geht stets herüber und hinüber.Is a skein in which the threads run over and under one another.

[348]"Iliad," I, v, 190.

[349]This view may be well contrasted with the less vital criticism of Schiller on this subject, which induced him actually to exclude the feature from his amended edition of the play. In fact Hegel shows more insight here than Coleridge.

[350]Nicht über Hamlet haltlos verfügt.It is also obvious, I think, that such a passage need not necessarily be opposed to Goethe's main conception. Such ideas may readily be explained as the excuses of a man who inherently shrinks from forming a grave resolve of vigorous action. No doubts are suggested when Hamlet sees the ghost.

[351]Den eigentlichen Mittelpunkt.Between what? I think the examples show that it is both between a work of human art and Nature and between the work of art itself and those to whom it is addressed.

[352]Lit., Screws itself like a corkscrew into.

[353]Ausmalung. The metaphor is taken from the art of painting and technically refers to the finish of the same in all its details. It is here used generally.

[354]Vol. i, p. 153. I do not know the book.

[355]Als bewegendes Pathos.This may mean "as the motive principle of pathos," but I incline to the interpretation "as the pathos which affects others."

[356]This appears at first sight to be somewhat contrary to the statement made above (p. 309) that "We cannot affirm pathos of the gods." But if my translation in the above passage is the right oneDie Götter werden zum menschlichen Pathos, I think we must understandDie Götterhere in a more universal sense of the Divine than in the former passage, and find the emphasis here is laid upon the wordmenschlichen.It is, in fact, but another way of stating the incarnation of the Divine in humanity.

[357]Als totale Individualität,i.e., all that is comprised in its essential notion.

[358]Der handelnden Character,i.e., Character manifest in the action.

[359]Ausser sich, "goes to the dogs," as we say in vulgar parlance,i.e., ceases to be character in the true sense at all.

[360]This example shows us that by the expressionfrüheren Götterabove Hegel must be referring to prehistoric times and quite archaic conceptions of Greek godhead.

[361]Eines in sick gebildeten Innern. Gebildethere used in the sense of perfected, rounded to a co-ordinated content.

[362]Hineingegraben, lit., buried in.

[363]I am unable to express in two words the contrast presented by the Germantragenandertragen.

[364]It is not easy to strike the exact interpretation of such a word asQuetschlichkeit.Apparently this or the more usual termQuabbelighave the sense of "shaking." I believe there is a synonym for quaker's grass, viz., quatch-grass.

[365]Und durch sie sich hindurchziehen.The most obvious sense of these words would be: and (i.e., the threads) carry themselves on through it (i.e., externality). Perhaps the meaning is that the relations in question not merely unite the Ideal to the world but are carried beyond (with the Ideal) the natural external world into that higher plane of the objective spiritual world. In my translation I have practically evaded the difficulty and assumed there is either something missing, or we must understand, I admit, a very harsh change of subject.

[366]Through self-consciousness he is both the individual subject and the form of an infinite content.

[367]Eine subjektive Totalität.

[368]I have amplified this sentence to make it quite clear to which of the three worlds, viz., (a) the subjective world in its abstraction, (b) the external world in its abstraction or, finally, the world of reality, in whichaandbare mutually related, the writer here refers.

[369]In welche die in sick totale Einheit des Ideals nicht mehr ihrer konkreten Geistigkeit nach hineinzuscheinen befähigt ist.Lit., Into which the self-complete unity of the Ideal is no longer capable of penetrating by virtue of the concrete spirituality which it essentially is.

[370]An obvious distinction between the arts of architecture and garden-construction is that in the former all the materials used have been already informed by human hands at least where building is in any advanced stage.

[371]Hegel's actual words would seem to imply that the fact a garden is created for use and enjoyment is detrimental to its beauty.

[372]It must be admitted that this summary treatment of gardens is not very satisfactory. No doubt the best authorities concur in the view that the formal garden is more artistic than the landscape, but hardly on the main ground given here. Landscape gardening such as we find it in our great English country houses has a real justification of its own. And with regard to the reason given that a garden should be entirely subordinate to the human object do we not strike here upon a weakness which is to a certain extent apparent also in Hegel's theory of the artistic purpose of architecture. I think it must be admitted that though it is true the object of both these arts is not entirely for their own beauty, and in certain cases, not even primarily so, as in the case of a senate-house or ordinary garden, yet where the artistic purpose is manifested throughout with great deliberation they may be essentially an independent work of art; take the case,.of a cathedral, for example, or a really beautiful and homogeneous formal garden.

[373]Element, subject-matter would be really a better word.

[374]Kein bloss quantatives.They are not like a heap of stones, for example, but they possess relations which qualify each other, as of course the heap of stones will do in so far as it is distinguished by diversity of colour.

[375]I think this must be the meaning of the wordsnoch ah blass aufgelöste Gegensätze auftreten.

[376]Grauis the word Hegel uses, but I think he must use it in the sense I have translated it. Gray in itself is a very beautiful compound, and the subtlety of its use is that which is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the very greatest colourists such as Turner and Velazquez.

[377]I am not quite sure that Hegel means this exactly, but it is no doubt what an artist would mean and in water-colour especially it is of the utmost importance. Compare the flesh colour of the artists such as our Watts or Titian with that of Leighton. One of the most marvellous examples I know is a small picture of Titian, the subject of which is Herodias with the head of John the Baptist, in one of the palaces at Rome. But a modern critic would, apart from the question of dirtiness, about which there can be no doubt, say that Hegel insists too much, precisely as Ruskin does, on the superiority of the pure single colour.

[378]Hegel appears to be himself slightly incorrect here. No doubt a string may ring false if it is not tightly fastened or if too slack or too long it may produce sounds the human ear is unable to appreciate. But primarily what musicians mean by a string ringing false, with wolf notes and so on, is due to the bad material or false composition of the string itself.

[379]Disparat,i.e., composed of different elements, not merely separate in position.

[380]I think the expressionein blosses an-sichmust mean this here. Of course the usual meaning is that of something potential, unrealized, but here I think it rather signifies "not objectively or really valid." No doubt in relation to the heads of discussion it is potential also.

[381]Die traurige Bünkelsängerei.I think the adjective must here rather refer to the contrast than to the nature of the poetry. I presume the Minnesingers are referred to.

[382]I do not know what book this is, nor have I ever heard of a hero with the name ofOtnith.

[383]Or rather by virtue both of its medium and object.Ihrer Natur nachare Hegel's words.

[384]Jenem ersten Ansichseyenden.That is to say, a relation indefinite, but essentially implying a further realization.

[385]Es nur eine unwahre Abstraction bezeigen würde."Lack of comprehensiveness" would, of course, be more literal.

[386]In ihrem abstracten Gehalt.That is, regarded simply as the opinions of a private individual, and apart from all that may be implied in it under more universal relations.

[387]Der Zustand der allgemeinen Bildung, not an easy phrase to translate: the Culture-State" perhaps sums it up most completely. "The state of universal education" is too indefinite or goes too far.

[388]The whole spirit of this passage is a striking witness to Hegel's admiration for classical art. Whether the arguments brought forward are wholly sound when we consider them in connection with the Elizabethan drama, for example, may readily admit of a question. At the same time, as Hegel himself points out, Shakespeare unquestionably throws the time back to what is practically a mythical age in at least three of his greatest tragedies, "Hamlet," "Macbeth," and above all "King Lear."

[389]For the element of beauty implied in ordinary craftsmanship, and the modern view, pressed so strongly by William Morris and others, of this aspect of art and its modern necessity, the reader should peruse Professor Bosanquet's valuable "Three Lectures on Aesthetic" (see particularly Lecture II, p. 61et seq.).

[390]Even an admirer of our author must admit, I think, here that the argument is somewhat overstrained. That Hegel possessed real humour and yet more irony few will deny who have studied him, but at times "the man with a theory" rather tends, as is so frequently the case with our German cousins, Goethe himself not excepted, to swallow up such sanative juices altogether.

[391]I presume the meaning is that the poem in the shape we now have it dates some 400 years after the Trojan war. But it is not very clear from Hegel's language whether he regards Homer as the poet who, as in the case of his example of the poet of the Niebelungenlied, fused that together or no. For if he did how could he have lived through the poems, an expression itself which is rather vague, more particularly as the better opinion is that they represent a different age themselves.

[392]Vernürnbergert.A word of course coined by Hegel. Made them, that is to say, at home in the Nuremberg of Hans Sachs.

[393]"Best of all things water." Compare Meredith's exquisite poem "Phoebus with Admetus," "Water, first of singers o'er rocky mount and mead," etc., stanza 3.

[394]The drama of Racine.

[395]What this word means I do not know—possibly quill-feathers.

[396]Eine grosse Genialität."First-rate genius" is rather too strong, "talents of the highest rank" would be more literal. We have no word that expressesGenialität.As the passage is ironical I have allowed "genius" to pass.

[397]Wir haben schlecht gestanden.Literally, "there is some mistake between us." But the idiomatic sense I presume is, "You've made a bad shot this time."

[398]What would Hegel have said of the first scene in the "Merchant of Venice"? No doubt Shakespeare's play contains very much more than such scenes, and there is a profound significance in that opening scene, for it at once emphasizes the collision of families upon which the entire tragedy turns. But is such a defence needed? There appears to be indubitably a certain deficiency in the above criticism. There is no reason that a scene in which a couple of peasants and two troopers are thedramatis personaeshould not be infinitely amusing provided a Shakespeare, or even a Goethe, when he is not in one of his dull moods, performs the office of teaching them how to speak.

[399]This surely goes too far unless "interest" is taken strictly to mean artistic interest which would appear to be so from the context. Everything that has once interested or affected mankind, however remote, has at heart an historical and antiquarian interest, and I am not sure that we should not be right in adding a general human interest. At least such is almost a dogma with a poet of the type of Browning.

[400]I do not know the Teutonic poem here referred to. But what about Wagner's famous tetralogy? The above arguments, though containing much that is true, appear to overlook for one thing the symbolic significance of mythological history, and in a certain sense to be lacking in sympathy for everything that is not modern or Hellenic. How very differently Carlyle, for example, referred to this very mythology, and his learning was not profound in the German sense.

[401]The intention of Aeschylus went, of course, much farther than this, and the entire play is essentially one written by a staunch conservative against modern innovation.

[402]It is strange that Hegel should have ventured such a generalization in the face of his old friend Holderlein's poetry. In England some fine poems have been written such as Lady Margaret Sackville's hymn to Dionysus and Swinburne's to Proserpine. But for a good essay in support of the main contention I know none equal to Russell Lowell's Essay on Swinburne's "Atalanta." I think that both our author and the critic who supports him somewhat fail to recognize the permanent reality, whether symbolical or directly spiritual, that an increasing number of men find in these Hellenic personalities, as illustrated in the poetry of Meredith, to take the finest flavour of the type.

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