as eternal in itself and as capable of receiving
eternal elements within itself. Such an order is, however, the
special, spiritual nature of human surroundings, which can, it is
true, be comprised in no concept, but which is, nevertheless, truly
present--the surroundings from which he has himself come forth with
all his thought and activity and with his faith in their eternity--the
nation from which he is descended, amid which he was educated and grew
up to what he now is. For however undoubtedly true it may be that his
work, if he rightly lays claim to its eternity, is in no wise the mere
result of the spiritual, natural law of his nation, simply merging
into this result--no, it must be thought of as an element greater
than that--a something which flows immediately from the primitive
and divine life. Nevertheless, it is equally true that this something
more, immediately after its formation as a visible phenomenon, has
subordinated itself to that special spiritual law of nature, has
acquired a perceptual expression only in accordance with that law.
Under this same natural law, so long as this nation endures, all
further revelations of the divine will also appear and be formed
within it. Yet, through the fact that the man existed and so labored,
this law itself is further determined, and his activity has become
a permanent component of it; everything subsequent will likewise be
compelled to adapt itself accordingly and to conform to the law in
question. And thus he is made certain that the culture which he has
achieved remains with his nation for all time and becomes a permanent
basis of determination for all its further development.

In the higher conception of the word considered in general from the
viewpoint of an insight into a spiritual world, a nation is this: The
totality of human beings living together in society and constantly
perpetuating themselves both bodily and spiritually; and this totality
stands altogether under a certain specific law through which the
divine develops itself. The universality of this specific law is what
binds this multitude into a natural totality, inter-penetrated by
itself, in the eternal world, and, for that very reason, in the
temporal world as well. The law itself, in its essence, can be
generally comprehended as we have applied it to the case of the
Germans as a primal nation; through consideration of the phenomena
of such a nation it may be even more exactly grasped in many of it