what degree reliance is to be placed. Hegel had a constant interest in ethical and political subjects, and the first group of writings which we may mention consists of minor treatises on what is sometimes called ‘practical politics’. He first broke ground by a discussion of the conditions of the state of Würtemberg in 1798, and this was followed in 1802 by a severe criticism of the German confederation. In 1817 Hegel returned to the affairs of Würtemberg, and in 1831 he wrote a trenchant review of English reform legislation. These writings do not all appear in the standard editions of Hegel’s works, and are most easily found in a volume entitled Hegel’s Schriften zur Politik und Rechtsphilosophie, edited by Lasson. They are, however, only of indirect philosophical interest, and we need not discuss them by themselves.
The second group of writings consists of two early treatises on ethical subjects, both dating about 1802; the first of these was published in the Critical Journal of Philosophy, edited by Schelling and Hegel, and is entitled Concerning the Scientific Modes of Treating Natural Right, and the second is a sketch of the System of Ethics. Both are contained in the volume of minor writings just mentioned. These works are to be used with caution. They are of extreme importance for the history of Hegel’s thought, since they show his view in a stage of germination. For his final standpoint, however, they are not authoritative except in a negative sense. They were written when Hegel was still under the influence of Schelling; and, while the criticism of previous thought which they contain is not cancelled by the more mature view, they are tinged not only in expression but also in principle with some presuppositions which Hegel afterwards discarded. The System of Ethics in particular is a difficult work to understand fully, because in it the general attitude, which may be broadly called Hegelian, is very imperfectly worked out, and is crossed by other tendencies. Accordingly, in my exposition, I have
