We have therefore to mention here

  (1) The abstract characteristics of the nature of
  Spirit.

  (2) What means Spirit uses in order to realize its
  Idea.

  (3) Lastly, we must consider the shape which the
  perfect embodiment of Spirit assumes—­the
  State.

(1) The nature of Spirit may be understood by a glance at its direct opposite—­Matter.  As the essence of Matter is gravity, so, on the other hand, we may affirm that the substance, the essence of Spirit is freedom.  All will readily assent to the doctrine that Spirit, among other properties, is also endowed with freedom; but philosophy teaches that all the qualities of Spirit exist only through freedom; that all are but means for attaining freedom; that all seek and produce this and this alone.  It is a result of speculative philosophy that freedom is the sole truth of Spirit.  Matter possesses gravity in virtue of its tendency toward a central point.  It is essentially composite, consisting of parts that exclude one another.  It seeks its unity; and therefore exhibits itself as self-destructive, as verging toward its opposite—­an indivisible point.  If it could attain this, it would be Matter no longer; it would have perished.  It strives after the realization of its Idea; for in unity it exists ideally.  Spirit, on the contrary, may be defined as that which has its centre in itself.  It has not a unity outside itself, but has already found it; it exists in and with itself.  Matter has its essence out of itself; Spirit is self-contained existence (Bei-sich-selbst-seyn).  Now this is freedom, exactly.  For if I am dependent, my being is referred to something else which I am not; I cannot exist independently of something external.  I am free, on the contrary, when my existence depends upon myself.  This self-contained existence of Spirit is none other than self-consciousness-consciousness of one’s own being.  Two things must be distinguished in consciousness; first, the fact that I know; secondly, what I know.  In self-consciousness these are merged in one; for Spirit knows itself.  It involves an appreciation of its own nature, as also an energy enabling it to realize itself; to make itself actually what it is potentially.  According to this abstract definition it may be said of universal history that it is the exhibition of Spirit in the process of working out the knowledge of that which it is potentially.  And as the germ bears in itself the whole nature of the tree and the taste and form of its fruits, so do the first traces of Spirit virtually contain the whole of that history.  The Orientals have not attained the knowledge that Spirit—­Man as such—­is free; and because they do not know this, they are not free.  They only know that one is free; but on this very account, the freedom of that one is only caprice; ferocity—­brutal recklessness of passion, or a mildness and tameness of the desires,