objective nature of things, i.e., so long as God’s manifestation in them is not thought of as eternal universal laws of Nature, and so long as His activity is not thought of as essentially universal. The rational connection which is first reached at this stage is only objective connection, and what it means is that the individual thing as such exists in its finiteness for itself, and is consequently in an external relation.
Miracle is still conceived of as an accidental manifestation of God; the universal absolute relation of God to the natural world is, on the other hand, sublimity. We cannot call the infinite Subject conceived of in itself and in its relation to itself, sublime, for so thought of, it is in its essential nature absolute and holy. The idea of sublimity first comes in in connection with the manifestation and relation of this Subject to the world, and when the world is thought of as a manifestation of the Subject, though as a manifestation which is not affirmative, or as one which, while it is indeed affirmative, has yet its main characteristic in this, that what is natural, what is of the world, is negated as inadequate to express the Subject, and is known as such.
Sublimity is therefore this particular appearing and manifestation of God in the world, and it may be defined thus. This act of manifestation shows itself at the same time as sublime, as raised above this manifestation in reality. In the Religion of Beauty there is a reconciliation of the signification with the material, of the sensuous mode and Being for an “Other.” The spiritual manifests itself entirely in this external way. This external mode is a symbol of what is inner, and this inner something is completely known in its external form.
The sublimity of the manifestation, on the other hand, directly destroys reality, the matter and material which belong to it. In His manifestation God directly distinguishes Himself from it, so that it is expressly known to be inadequate to manifest Him. The One has not therefore His complete Being and essential existence in the
