Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/115

 not in a condition of opposition, which rather overcomes that opposition, does not contain a finite over against itself, but has this opposition within itself, yet at the same time has conquered there. This determination of that subjectivity which is objective, which pertains to the objective, namely, to God, is also the determination of the subjective consciousness. This consciousness knows itself as subject, as totality, true independent existence, and consequently as immortal. With this knowledge the higher destiny of man dawned upon consciousness.

This negation of the negation, namely, that death is slain, that the evil principle is vanquished, is thus a determination of supreme moment. Among the Parsis that principle is not overcome, but the Good, Ormazd, stands opposed to the Evil, Ahriman, and has not yet arrived at this reflection. It is here in the Egyptian religion that the vanquishing of the evil principle is for the first time posited.

Herewith, accordingly, that determination comes in which was mentioned above, and which we have already recognised, namely, that this one who is born again, is represented directly afterwards as having departed; he is ruler in the kingdom of Amenthes; as he is Lord of the living, so also is he Judge of the dead in accordance with right and justice. Here for the first time right and morality come in, in the determination of subjective freedom; both, on the contrary, are wanting in the God of substantiality. So then there is a penalty or punishment here, and the individual worth of man, which determines itself in accordance with morality and right, comes into prominence.

Around this Universal play an infinite number of popular conceptions of deities. Osiris is only one of these conceptions, and according to Herodotus is even one of the latest; but it is principally in the realm of Amenthes as ruler of the dead, as Serapis, that he has risen above all other gods as an object of supreme interest.