466 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



may therefore say that Hegel's philosophy is the 

 philosophy of the Absolute Spirit. The word Spirit 

 8p " it combines many meanings, in the same way as the German 

 equivalent Geist does. We express by it the essence of 

 the highest, of the Divine mind as well as of the 

 human mind, and we also speak of the Spirit of nature, 

 and the Spirit of the age. It further includes the idea 

 of life and development, as opposed to that of rest and 

 stability which is implied in the word substance. The 

 very title, therefore, of Hegel's work was happily chosen. 1 

 It gave some definiteness to what had been left quite 

 vague in contemporary philosophy, and it also gave expres- 

 sion to an idea which underlay the best of German thought 

 since the time of Leibniz, the idea of development, the 

 history of the various phenomena 2 in which Eeality, the 



1 The German term Geist is even been to Hegel's contemporaries. 



more comprehensive than the Eng- Fortunately, however, in our days, 



lish term Spirit, for it includes over a century after the appear - 



what we mean by Mind as well as ance of the book, two important 



by Spirit. This work of Hegel has works have been published which 



quite recently been admirably trans- have done much to promote a 



lated into English by Prof. J. B. better knowledge and appreciation 



Bafllie in the 'Library of Philo- of Hegel's great design which, in 



sophy,' edited by J. H. Muirhead a certain sense, may be considered 



(2 vols. 1910). He has chosen the to furnish the programme of thought 



term " Mind " to represent Gcitt, for a certain class of intellects that 



whereas I note that Ed. Caird (see will never die out. The first of the 



' Hegel ' in Blackwond's Philosophi- two works I refer to is Kuno Fischer's 



cal Classics) speaks of the " Phenom- ' Paraphrase of Hegel's Teaching ' 



enology of Spirit " (p. 62). The in the last part of his monumental 



translator of Hoffd ing's 'History of History. As Prof. Windelband 



Philosophy ' uses the term " Mind " says, the present generation will 



(voL iL p. 177). This twofold resort to this as the best guide 



rendering exhibits the ambiguity to a just appreciation of Hegel's 



of the German word Geist, which doctrine. The other work is Lord 



in ite derived adjectives Geittig and Haldane's ' Gifford Lecture* ' (2 



Geittlich shows more clearly that vols., 1903-4), the very title of 



it comprises the two meanings of which most happily represents what 



Mental and SpirituaL Hegel was striving for, The Path- 



- The ' Phenomenology ' is not way to Reality. That the independ- 



more intelligible to the student ent position taken up by the Eng- 



of to-day than it appears to have ILsh school of Hegel's interpreters 



