autumn of old age, provided that it is able to preserve its energies of outlook and emotion. It is only to a blind old man, Homer, that we ascribe those miraculous poems which have come down to us under that name. And we may also affirm of our Goethe that only in old age, after he had fully succeeded in liberating his genius from all restricting limitations of sense, that he gave us his most exalted creations.[20] [Footnote 1: That is, the essential notion (_Begriff_) of Art generally.] [Footnote 2: _Substantiellen_, _i.e.,_ the form that most corresponds to its essence.] [Footnote 3: _Theoretisch._ Hegel doubtless has the Greek word in his mind. It is a _Bildung_ for the mind rather than with a view to action. It assumes contemplation rather than volition.] [Footnote 4: It is not quite clear whether Hegel means by _Bedürfniss_ the need of spiritual life, or the profounder demand of reality. It might stand for either.] [Footnote 5: That is, the _Vernünft._] [Footnote 6: _Das individualisirte Vernünftige_, _i.e._, reason as realized in concrete personality.] [Footnote 7: _In seiner Gediegenheit und schlagenden Fassung. Gediegenheit_ here thorough grasp. _Schlagenden_ may possibly mean arresting character of the conception rather than definite, precise.] [Footnote 8: That is, the notion.] [Footnote 9: By _aus dem Geiste_ it is quite possible that there is no reference to individual genius. In that case the translation would be "in terms of human intelligence," _i.e._, from the resources of human reason.] [Footnote 10: This seems to be the meaning of _die Sache der Zeit._] [Footnote 11: Lit., "They do not come forth from self-substantive and immediately free vitality (Lebendigkeit)." _Lebendigkeit_ is here the ideal and creative force or bond of soul-life as above described.] [Footnote 12: The German word would imply here an interpretation of symbolic or at least ideal significance.] [Footnote 13: This I presume is the general meaning of the sentence: _Asien aber, das er besiegt, ist in der vielfachen Willkühr seiner Einzelnen Völkerschaften nur ein zufälliges Ganzes._] [Footnote 14: _Ein Sollen._] [Footnote 15: It is possible that too much stress is laid on this line of difference. The fundamental difference between oratory and poetry is that of form. At least it can hardly be denied that the power of the orator to meet the demands of local conditions is a vital feature of his art, that in this respect a Demosthenes is greater than Burke. It is surely a mistake to assume that such limitations in themselves or necessarily are an obstacle to creative genius. It is rather the sign of supreme oratorical power that it can mould them and command them in conjunction with its more majestic spirit. In this lies an essential part of the art itself, just as a sculptor or a painter, such as Tintoret in the S. Rocco Scuola, dominates the defects of local condition.]