ABSOLUTE IDEALISM 97 



The feature of social evolution which stood out to Hegel s 

 view was the manner in which the older and simpler forms of 

 organization persist as essential elements in the higher forms. 

 The family in civil society, the folk-song in the symphony, the 

 fear of God in the Christian religion these may serve as examples 

 of the type of phenomenon which he found of the utmost signifi 

 cance. Perhaps for us the best illustration of this significance 

 is to be found in a parallel observation of biologists, the per 

 sistence of the protozoic type in the structure of the reproductive 

 and somatic cells of the highest animals. It is with a species 

 of awe that one learns, for example, that the cells of the human 

 body are still living substantially the marine life of their remotest 

 ancestors. The sense of physical solidarity, the realization of 

 the fact that evolution means the persistence of the old in the 

 very substance of the new, is tremendous. It was this, we repeat, 

 that Hegel observed in human society, the preservation of prim 

 itive man in the structure of modern civilization. He gave the 

 process the name of Aufhebung, a term for which a proper etymo 

 logical equivalent in our language has been sought in vain, but 

 which may be well enough rendered by incorporation. Two as 

 pects of the process were pointed out by him; first, the loss of 

 independent self-subsistence by the lower form; and, second, its 

 persistence as a mere element, but an essential element, in the 

 structure of the higher form. 



But Hegel had not only observed this process. He had his 

 theory as to the manner in which it is accomplished. If we ex 

 amine carefully he would say any of the low r er forms which 

 have been mentioned, we perceive that it contains within itself 

 the sources of its own inevitable dissolution ; it involves its own 

 contradiction. Thus in the family parents and children are held 

 together by the dependence of the latter upon the former; but 

 through parental care the children are brought to a maturity in 

 which that dependence no longer eixsts, and the family falls 

 apart into a number of individuals having separate and distinct 

 interests. If even between these individuals a natural affection 

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