The Philosophy of History Part 3

The subjects discussed in the seven succeeding Lectures are as follows:--the antiquity of China, and the general system of her empire--the mental culture, moral and political inst.i.tutions, and philosophy of the Hindoos--the science and corruption of Egypt--the selection of the Hebrew people for the maintenance of Divine revelation in its purity--the destinies and special guidance of that nation--next an account of those nations of cla.s.sical antiquity, to whom were a.s.signed a mighty historical power, and a paramount influence over the world--such as the Persians, with their Nature-wors.h.i.+p, their manners, and their conquests--the Greeks, with the spirit of their science, and dominion--and the Romans, together with the universal empire which they were the first to establish in Europe. The next five Lectures treat of Christianity, its consolidation and wider diffusion throughout the world--of the emigration of the German tribes, and its consequences--and of the Saracenic empire in the brilliant age of the first Caliphs. Then follows an account of the various epochs and the various stages of the progress which the modern European nations have made in science and civil polity, according to their use and application of the light of truth vouchsafed to them. So the subjects here treated are--the establishment of a Christian imperial dignity in the old German empire--the great schism of the West, and the struggles of the middle age and the period of the Crusades, down to the discovery of the New World, and the new awakening of science. The three following Lectures are devoted to the Religious Wars, the period of Illuminism, and the time of the French Revolution.

The eighteenth and concluding Lecture turns on the prevailing spirit of the age, and on the universal regeneration of society.

We have yet to make the following observations with respect to this undertaking, in which we have attempted to lay the foundations of a new general Philosophy.

The first awakening and excitement of human consciousness to the true perception and knowledge of truth has been already unfolded in my work on "the Philosophy of Life."

To point out now the progressive restoration in humanity of the effaced image of G.o.d, according to the gradation of grace in the various periods of the world, from the revelation of the beginning, down to the middle revelation of redemption and love, and from the latter to the last consummation, is the object of this Philosophy of History.

A third work, treating of the science of thought in the department of faith and nature, will with more immediate reference to the Philosophy of Language, comprehend the complete restoration of consciousness, according to the triple divine principle.

It is my wish that this work should as soon as circ.u.mstances will permit, speedily follow the two works "The Philosophy of Life," and "The Philosophy of History," now presented to the Public.

_Vienna, Sept. 6th, 1828._

CONTENTS

OF VOL. I.

Memoir of the Literary Life of Frederick Von Schlegel. iii

Author's Preface. lxxix

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTION.

LECTURE II.

On the dispute in primitive history, and on the division of the human race. 40

LECTURE III.

Of the Const.i.tution of the Chinese Empire.--The moral and political condition of China.--The character of Chinese intellect and Chinese science. 86

LECTURE IV.

Of the Inst.i.tutions of the Indians.--The Brahminical caste, and the hereditary priesthood.--Of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, considered as the basis of Indian life, and of Indian philosophy. 126

LECTURE V.

A comparative view of the intellectual character of the four princ.i.p.al nations in the primitive world--the Indians, the Chinese, the Egyptians, and the Hebrews; next of the peculiar spirit and political relations of the ancient Persians. 167

LECTURE VI.

Of the Hindoo Philosophy.--Dissertation on Languages.--Of the peculiar political Const.i.tution and Theocratic Government of the Hebrews.--Of the Mosaic Genealogy of Nations. 202

LECTURE VII.

General considerations upon the nature of man, regarded in a historical point of view, and on the two-fold view of history.--Of the ancient Pagan Mysteries.--Of the universal Empire of Persia. 245

LECTURE VIII.

Variety of Grecian life and intellect.--State of education and of the fine arts among the Greeks.--The origin of their philosophy and natural science.--Their political degeneracy. 281

LECTURE IX.

Character of the Romans.--Sketch of their conquests.--On strict law, and the law of equity in its application to History, and according to the idea of divine justice.--Commencement of the Christian dispensation. 318

ERRATUM.

At the 7th line from the top of page x.x.xviii (Life of Schlegel) instead of "put forth by party spirit," read "put forth by ignorance or party spirit."

PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTION.

"And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; but the Spirit of G.o.d moved upon the face of the waters." GEN. i. 2.

By philosophy of history must not be understood a series of remarks or ideas upon history, formed according to any concerted system, or train of arbitrary hypotheses attached to facts. History cannot be separated from facts, and depends entirely on reality; and thus the Philosophy of history, as it is the spirit or idea of history, must be deduced from real historical events, from the faithful record and lively narration of facts--it must be the pure emanation of the great whole--the one connected whole of history, and for the right understanding of this connexion a clear arrangement is an essential condition and an important aid. For although this great edifice of universal history, where the conclusion at least is still wanting, is in this respect incomplete, and appears but a mighty fragment of which even particular parts are less known to us than others;--yet is this edifice sufficiently advanced, and many of its great wings and members are sufficiently unfolded to our view, to enable us, by a lucid arrangement of the different periods of history, to gain a clear insight into the general plan of the whole.

It is thus my intention to render as intelligible as I possibly can the general results and the connection of all the past transactions in the history of the human race; to form a true judgment on the particular portions or sections of history, according to their intrinsic nature and real value in reference to the general progress of mankind, carefully distinguis.h.i.+ng what was injurious, what advantageous, and what indifferent; and thereby, as far as is possible to the limited perceptions of man, to comprehend in some degree that mighty whole. This perception--this comprehension--this right discernment of the great events and general results of universal history, is what might be termed a science of history; and I would have here preferred that term, were it not liable to much misconception, and might have been understood as referring more to special and learned inquiries, than the other name I have adopted to denote the nature of the present work.

If we would seize and comprehend the general outline of history, we must keep our eye steadily upon it; and must not suffer our attention to be confused by details, or drawn off by the objects immediately surrounding us. Judging from the feelings of the present, nothing so nearly concerns our interests as the matter of peace or war; and this is natural, as in a practical point of view they are both affairs of the highest moment; while the courageous and successful conduct of the one insures the highest degree of glory, and the solid establishment and lasting maintenance of the other may be considered as the greatest problem of political art and human wisdom. But it is otherwise in universal history, when this is conceived in a comprehensive and enlarged spirit.

Then the remotest Past, the highest antiquity, is as much ent.i.tled to our attention as the pa.s.sing events of the day, or the nearest concerns of our own time.

When a war, indeed, carried on more than two thousand years ago, in which the belligerent parties have long since ceased to exist, when every thing has been since changed--when a long series of historical catastrophes has intervened between that period and our own; when such a warfare, offering as it does but at best a remote a.n.a.logy to the circ.u.mstances of nearer times, and consequently possessing no immediate interest, has been investigated by the mighty intellect of a Thucydides, pourtrayed by him in the highest style of eloquence, and unfolded to our view with the most consummate knowledge of mankind, of public life, and of the most intimate relations of Government; such a warfare then retains a permanent interest, and is a lasting source of instruction. We love to dive into the minutest details of an event so widely removed from us--and such a study is to be regarded and prized as highly useful, were it only as an exercise of historical reflection, and a school of political science. This remark will equally hold good, when the internal feuds of a less powerful state have been a.n.a.lyzed and laid open by the acute perspicacity and delicate discrimination of a Machiavelli. And still more, perhaps, when a great system of pacification, like that which Augustus gave, or promised to give to the whole civilized world, and established for a certain period at least, has been fathomed by the searching eye of a Tacitus, and by his masterly hand delineated in its ulterior progress and remoter effects; shewing, as he does, how that surface, apparently so calm, concealed numberless sources of disquiet--an abyss of crime and destruction--how that evil principle in the degenerate government of Rome became more and more apparent, and, under a succession of wicked rulers, broke out into paroxysms more and more fearful.

As a school of political science and historical reflection, the study of these and similar cla.s.sical historical works is of inestimable advantage. But independently of this, and considered merely in themselves, all those countless battles--those endless, and even, for the greater part, useless wars, of which the long succession fills up for so many thousand years the annals of all nations, are but little atoms compared with the great whole of human destiny. The same, with a slight distinction, will hold good of so many celebrated treaties of peace in past ages, when these have lost all interest for real life and the present order of things;--treaties, which though brought about by great labour, and upheld by consummate art, were yet internally defective, and sooner or later, and often quickly enough, fell to pieces and were destroyed.

From all these descriptions of ancient wars, and treaties of peace, no longer applicable or of interest to the present world or present order of things, historical philosophy can deduce but one, though by no means unimportant, result. It is this--that the internal discord, innate in man and in the human race, may easily and at every moment break out into real and open strife--nay, that peace itself--that immutable object of high political art, when regarded from this point of view, appears to be nothing else than a war r.e.t.a.r.ded or kept under by human dexterity; for some secret disposition--some diseased political matter, is almost ever at hand to call it into existence. In the same way as a scientific physician regards the health of the body, or its right temperature, as a happy equipoise--a middle line not easy to be observed between two contending evils--we must ever expect in such an organic imperfection a tendency to, or the seeds of, disease in one shape or another.

Political events form but one part, and not the whole, of human history.

A knowledge of details, however great and various it may be, const.i.tutes no science in the philosophic sense of the word, for it is in the right and comprehensive conception of the whole that science consists.

As the greater part of the nine hundred millions of men on the whole surface of the earth, according to the highest estimate of a hazardous calculation, are born, live and die, without a history of them being possible, or without their reckoning a fraction in the general history--so that the extremely small number of those called historical men, forms but a rare exception--so there are nations and countries, which in a general comparative survey of nations, serve but as a mark or evidence of some particular stage of civilization, without of themselves holding any place in the general history of our species, or conducing to the social progress of mankind, or possessing any weight or importance in the scale of humanity.