Such, then, would be the fundamental divisions of the substantive content at this particular stage of our inquiry, regarding that content as the self-subsistent Nature of God, or in its aspect as a spiritual process, through which and in which He is Spirit. We have here the absolute object, which art neither creates nor reveals out of itself, but which it has received from religion which it approaches with the conviction that it is _essentially_ true that it may express and represent the same conformably to its modes. It is the content of the believing, yearning soul, which is intrinsically the infinite totality itself, so that for it the external medium remains to a more or less degree outside it, or a matter of indifference, and is unable to be brought completely into harmony with that inner life. And for this reason it frequently presents a repellent material which art finds itself unable wholly to subdue to its aims. [Footnote 224: _Nicht aufnehmend._ Not ready to absorb extraneous matter.] [Footnote 225: This of course is an opinion which may be strongly contested in its application to particular artists.] [Footnote 226: Hegel means not so much the history in which the whole totality of events is comprised as that aspect of human history which declares its universal significance as infinite spirit.] [Footnote 227: That is, of self-consciousness in all that it implies--the personality of Christ, for example.] [Footnote 228: Hegel does not further dwell upon this relativity. But the next paragraph explains what is really in his mind. The important question, however, how far such events are worthy of credence as objective history, to say nothing of the inadequacy of their artistic presentation, one cannot but feel is deliberately evaded. What Hegel would say no doubt was that the bare historical aspect was only of relative importance. The main question was their significance in the spiritual process. It is in this direction that much of our noblest modern thought finds a certain indissoluble unreality of statement.] [Footnote 229: That is in Christ.] [Footnote 230: _Gleichkeit._ Equality, reciprocity.] [Footnote 231: We are reminded of our treasures in Christian art such as the Virgin and Child in Tintoret's "Flight into Egypt," Rafael's San, Sisto Madonna and the rest.] [Footnote 232: In other words as regarded at a later date by the Church.] [Footnote 233: This statement hardly does justice to the profound idealism of the epistles of St. Paul.] [Footnote 234: Perhaps "the infinite form of subjectivity" is better. He means "the infinite form of individual self-consciousness."] [Footnote 235: That is, characterized by personality.] [Footnote 236: _Geschichte._ Life as an evolved Process.] [Footnote 237: Compare the poem of Meredith, "Theodolinda," in his ballads of the Tragic Life. It is, in another aspect, that iron crown which that thoughtful contemporary writer, Mr. H. W. Nevinson, refers to in his Essays on Rebellion.]