Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 3.djvu/63

 element, the self-producing element. When, on the other hand, we speak of the will being evil by nature, we are thinking of the will in its negative aspect merely. We thus have in our minds at the same time this particular concrete element with which the abstraction referred to is in contradiction. We carry this so far that when we set up a Devil we have to show that there is something affirmative in him, strength of character, energy, consistency. When we come to the concrete we at once find that affirmative characteristics must show themselves present in it. In all this it is forgotten that when we speak of men they are thought of as men who have been educated and trained by customs, laws, &c. People say, Men are, after all, not so bad—just look round you; but then the men round about us are men who are already educated ethically and morally, men already reconstructed and brought into a certain state of reconciliation.

The main thing is, that in connection with religion we should not think of a moral condition, such as that of the child; on the contrary, in any description of the truth, what is essentially presented to us is the logical unfolding of the history of what Man is. It is the speculative way of regarding things which rules here; the abstract differences of the Notion are presented in successive order. If it is the trained and cultured man who has to be studied, then the change and reconstruction and discipline through which he has passed must necessarily appear in him as representing the transition from natural volition to true volition, and his immediate natural will must necessarily appear in this case as something which has been absorbed in what is higher.

(2.) If, therefore, the first characteristic means that Man in his immediate state is not what he is intended to be, then we have to remember that Man has also to reflect upon himself as he thus is; the fact of his being evil is thus brought into relation with reflection. This is readily taken to mean that it is only in accordance with this knowledge