Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 1.djvu/315

 is, and still remains, master and lord—this living force, this self-conscious power; the ideality of self-consciousness as the force or power is still operative as against feeble objectivity, and maintains the supremacy.

2. The subjective self-consciousness of man is conceived of as dependent on the object. Man, as immediate consciousness, can only conceive himself to be dependent in an accidental manner; only by a deviation from his ordinary state of existence does he reach the condition of dependence. Amongst simple peoples in a state of nature, amongst savages, this dependence is of little importance. They have what they want; what they are in need of exists for them, grows for them; they therefore do not regard themselves as at all in a condition of dependence; their needs are chance needs only. Not until consciousness is further developed, when man and nature, losing their immediate validity and positive character, come to be conceived of as something evil, something negative, does the dependence of consciousness come in, in that it shows itself to be negative relatively to its object or “Other.” Not until man is so conceived of as Essence does the Other—nature—essentially become a mere negative.

3. But this negativity shows itself to be only a point of transition. Spirituality, too, as well as the natural will, the empirical, immediate spirit, man, recognises itself in religion to be essential, comes to see that to depend upon nature is not its fundamental characteristic, but to know itself as Spirit, to be free. Although at the lowest stage this is merely a formal freedom, yet man has a contempt for dependence, remains self-contained, asserts himself, casts away the merely natural connection, and subjugates nature to his own power. It is at another stage that what a later religion says holds good: “God thunders with His thunder, and yet is not recognised.” God can do something better than merely thunder; He can reveal Himself. Spirit does not permit