Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/309

 of Greek life, and from the identity of the divine Powers and their external existence, so, too, this sovereignty, this universal monarchy, this end is to be distinguished from that of the Mohammedan religion. In this latter, sovereignty over the world is also the end sought after; but what is to exercise sovereignty is the One of Thought, the One of the Israelitish religion. Or when, as in the Christian religion, it is said that God wills that all men should come to a consciousness of the truth, the nature of the end is spiritual. Each individual is thought of as a thinking being, as spiritual, free, and actually present in the end, it possesses in him a central point, it is not any kind of external end, and the subject embraces within himself the entire extent of the end. Here, on the contrary, it is still empirical, a sovereignty of the world which embraces it in an external way. The end which exists in this sovereignty is one which lies outside of the individual, and the more it is realised the more external does it become, so that the individual is brought into subjection simply to this end, and serves it.

The union of universal power and universal individuality is, to begin with, implicitly contained here, but it is, so to speak, only a crude union, devoid of Spirit. The power is not wisdom, its reality is not a divine end in and for itself. It is not the One who derives his fulness from himself; this fulness is not conceived of as existing in the realm of thought; the power is worldly power, worldliness merely as sovereignty, and power in this aspect is virtually irrational. In presence of the power all that is particular accordingly crumbles away, because it is not taken up into it in a rational way, and it takes on the form of self-seeking on the part of the individual, of satisfaction in an ungodly way in particular interests. The sovereignty is outside of reason, and stands coldly, selfishly, on the one side, just as the individual does on the other.

This is the general conception of this religion. The