The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
romantic and national chivalry serves as vassal. In Ariosto and Tasso
this free relation is still unimpaired; and indeed in Ariosto the
individual heroes set forth in practically unqualified independence on
their own path of adventure. And the mass of the folk stand in much the
same relation to their leaders as that of the separate chieftains to
Agamemnon. These too follow voluntarily. There is still no paramount
legal obligation by which they are constrained. Honour, reverence,
humility in the presence of men more mighty than themselves, ever able
to enforce that might, the imposing presence of the heroic character
in short and all it implies, such are the essential grounds of their
obedience. The order of domestic life is maintained in a similar way.
It is not enforced as an accepted rule of service, but as dependent
on personal inclination or ethical habit. All is made to appear as
though it had grown up spontaneously. Homer, for example, tells us of
the Greeks, when narrating one of their battles with the Trojans, that
they had lost many valiant fighters, but not so many as the Trojans;
and the reason given is that they were always mindful to ward off from
one another the extreme of necessity. In other words, they assisted
each other. And if we, in our own days, had occasion to define the
difference between a well-disciplined and an uncivilized army we
could not express it more directly than by laying stress on this very
coherence and spirit of cameraderie, this unity enforced by all in
a felt association, which distinguished the former. Barbarians are
simply human mobs, in which no individual can rely on his neighbour.
What, however, in our modern example, being as it is the final result
of a stringent and tedious military discipline, rather appears as the
exercise and command of an established regime, in Homer's case is still
an ethical habit asserted of its own accord, springing from the vital
strength of the individual in his private capacity.