[12] The German word would imply here an interpretation of symbolic or at least ideal significance.
[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.
[14] Ein Sollen.
[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.
[16] Infinite, that is, not in the temporal sense, but as a complete and self-realized whole.
[17] Hegel calls it "the poetising subjectivity"; that is, the personal activity essential to poetic composition.
[18] Practischen.
[19] This appears to be the meaning of des Naturells.
[20] This is perhaps less true of Goethe than it is of either Milton or Shakespeare. It is possible that Hegel thought more highly of the second part of "Faust" as art than do the majority of modern critics. But the truth is there, if subject to a good deal of qualification in respect to certain aspects of poetry. As Meredith says:
"Verily now is our season of seed,
Now in our Autumn."