646 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



of conscious individual human life. In fact, Hegel's 

 Geist means alternately one or more of three definite 

 things expressed in the English language by Spirit, 

 Mind, and Thought or Idea. 



To the principle, to the main conception of his 

 philosophy, to the underlying conviction which had in 

 Hegel's mind, through prolonged and deep studies, 

 acquired a propelling and assertive force, we are in- 

 troduced in the Preface and the Introduction to the 

 ' Phenomenology ' ; he there promises to lead us up 

 to a comprehension of the result as well as the be- 

 ginning of the new philosophy by an analysis which is 

 at once introspective and historical. Having attained 

 that position, having as it were closed the circle, having 

 learnt how the result coincides with the starting-point, 

 we are promised that in the actual system the unfolding 

 of the Absolute in the different regions of nature, life, 

 mind, and history, of art, religion, and philosophy, shall 

 be deductively exhibited. In performing these two 

 great tasks : the lifting up of the thinking mind to a 

 level from which it can clearly conceive of the Absolute 

 as Spirit or Mind, and the following of this principle 

 into its many manifestations, Hegel employs two definite 

 schemes or formulae of thought which he has adopted 

 from his predecessors Schelling and Fichte. They form 

 the celebrated dialectical method of his philosophy, 

 which he distinctly states to be teachable and com- 

 municable, unlike that of Schelling and others, which 

 was a sort of intuition or feeling, and which Hegel 

 treats with contempt. 



