54 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



dealing, in the department of the Philosophy of the Beau- 

 tiful, his achievements may be judged and assimilated from 

 two different points of view. From one of these we may 

 disregard the general scheme into which he has thrown 

 the vast material and the many valuable reflections which 

 are contained in his lectures, and see in them merely the 

 first adequate attempt to give a complete and compre- 

 hensive theory of the different arts and a philosophy 

 of the Beautiful, both founded upon extensive historical 

 studies not only within the limits of the subject itself 

 but still more in connection with other interests. Such 

 a view finds in the three volumes of Hegel's lectures a 

 rich accumulation of valuable material and of fruitful 

 suggestions, both of which have been largely utilised 

 by his successors — opponents and admirers alike. A 

 second point of view emphasises rather the position which 

 Hegel assigns to Art and to the Beautiful in the great 

 scheme of his philosophy and, following from that, in 

 the totality of human interests ; further, also the com- 

 parative value which he attaches to the various depart- 

 ments of art, to the different schools, and, lastly, to the 

 natural and artistic forms of beauty. We may, in fact, 

 value mainly the encyclopaedic grasp or the metaphysical 

 insight of Hegel's speculation. 



The first point of view is more interesting to the his- 

 torian of Esthetics, the second to the historian of philo- 

 sophic Thought. In the latter respect there are two 

 points which are of paramount interest in dealing with 

 the problem of the Beautiful. The first point is fully 

 and unmistakably developed in the introduction to Hegel's 

 published lectures, and as this introduction was written 



