500 HEGEL. History is progress in the consciousness of freedom. At first one only knows himself free, then several, finally all. This gives three chief periods, or rather four world-king- doms, — Oriental despotism, the Greek (democratic) and the Roman (aristocratic) republic, and the Germanic monarchy, — in which humanity passes through its several ages. Like [the sun, history moves from east to west. China and India have not advanced beyond the preliminary stages of the state ; the Chinese kingdom is a family state, India a society of classes stiffened into castes. The Persian despotism is the first true state, and this in the form of a conquering military state. In the youth and manhood of humanity the sovereignty of the people replaces the sovereignty of one ; but not all have yet the consciousness of freedom, the slaves have no share in the government. The principle of the Greek world, with its fresh life and delight in beauty^ is individuality ; hence the plurality of small states, in which Sparta is an anticipation of the Roman spirit. The Roman Republic is internally characterized by the constitutional struggle between the patricians and the plebeians, and externally by the policy of world conquest. Out of the repellent relations between the universal and the individual, which oppose one another as the abstract state and abstract personality, the unhappy imperial period develops. In the Roman Empire and Judaism the conditions were given for the appearance of Christianity. This brings with it the idea of humanity : every man is free as man, as a rational being. In the beginning this emancipation was religious ; through the Germans it became political as well. The remaining divisions cannot here be detailed. Their cap- tions run : The Elements of the Germanic Spirit (the Migrations ; Mohammedanism ; the Prankish Empire of Charlemagne) ; the Middle Ages (the Feudal System and the Hierarchy ; the Crusades ; the Transition from Feudal Rule to Monarchy, or the Cities) ; Modern Times (the Reformation ; its Effect on Political Development ; Illum- ination and Revolution). The philosophy of history* is Hegel's most brilliant and
- A well-chosen collection of aphorisms from the philosophy of history is
given by M. Schasler under the title Hegel : Pofuldre Gedanken azis seine* Werken, 2d. ed., 1873.
