Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/56

 as are peculiar to this standpoint, because it is only this feeling which, resting thus upon a foundation so devoid of rationality, is moulded exclusively into forms of beauty. But since this feeling of abandonment is without the element of right, it, for this very reason, is seen to alternate with the most extreme harshness, and thus the moment of the independent existence of personality passes over into ferocity, into forgetfulness of all established bonds, and issues in the trampling under foot of love itself.

The whole content of Spirit and of nature generally is allowed to break up in the wildest way. That unity which occupies the leading position is indeed the Power out of which all proceeds and into which all returns; but it does not become concrete, does not become the uniting bond of the manifold powers of nature, and in like manner does not become concrete in Spirit, nor the bond of the manifold activities of Spirit and of emotional experiences.

In the first case, when the unity becomes the bond of natural things, we call it necessity; this is the bond of natural forces and phenomena. We look upon natural properties, things, as being, though independent, essentially linked together; laws, understanding, are in Nature, so that in this way the phenomena are co-related.

But that unity remains in solitary and empty independence, and accordingly that fulness which it acquires is wild, extravagant disorder. In the spiritual world, in like manner, the Universal, thought, does not become concrete, determining itself within itself. Thought determining itself within itself, and abrogating and preserving the determinate element in this universality—pure thought as concrete, is Reason.

Duty, right, exist in thought only. These determinations when they appear in the form of universality are rational in respect to the truth, the unity just spoken of, and likewise in respect to the will. That One, that