ingly, the objectifying of pain. Pain is, however, in general terms the course or process of finitude, and, from a subjective point of view, brokenness of heart. This process or course of finitude, of pain, strife, victory, is a moment or stage in the nature of Spirit, and it cannot be absent in the sphere under consideration, in which power continuously determines itself toward spiritual freedom. The loss of one’s own self, the contradiction between self-contained Being and its “Other,” a contradiction which annuls itself by absorption into infinite unity—for here we can think of true infinitude only—the annulling of the opposition, these are the essential determinations in the Idea of Spirit which now make their appearance. It is true that we are now conscious of the development of the Idea, of its course as well as of its moments or stages, whose totality constitutes Spirit. This totality, however, is not as yet posited, but obtains expression in moments which in this sphere present themselves successively.
The content not being as yet posited in free Spirit, since the moments are not as yet gathered together into subjective unity, it exists in an immediate mode, and is thrown out into the form of Nature; it is represented by means of a natural progressive process, which, however, is essentially conceived of as symbolical, and consequently is not merely a progressive process in external nature, but is an universal progressive process as contrasted with the point of view which we have hitherto occupied, and from which not Spirit but abstract Power is seen to be what rules. The next element in the Idea is the moment or stage of conflict. It is the essential nature of Spirit to come to itself out of its otherness and out of the overcoming of this otherness, by the negation of the negation. Spirit brings itself forth; it passes through the estrangement of itself. But since it is not as yet posited as Spirit, this course of estrangement and return is not as yet posited ideally, and as a moment or stage
