The History of the World is none other than the progress of the consciousness of Freedom . . .

The destiny of the spiritual World, and . . . the final cause of the World at large, we allege to be the consciousness of its own freedom on the part of Spirit, and ipso facto, the reality of that freedom. . . .

This final aim is God's purpose with the World; but God is the absolutely perfect Being, and can, therefore, will nothing other than Himself--His own Will. The Nature of His Will--that is, His Nature itself--is what we here call the Idea of Freedom; translating the language of Religion into that of Thought. . . .

The question of the means by which Freedom develops itself to a World conducts us to the phenomenon of History itself. . . .

That which we call principle, aim, destiny, or the nature and idea of Spirit, is something merely general and abstract. Principle--Plan of Existence--Law--is a hidden, undeveloped essence, which as such--however true in itself--is not completely real. Aims, principles, etc., have a place in our thoughts, in our subjective design only; but not yet in the sphere of reality. That which exists for itself only is a possibility, a potentiality, but has not yet emerged into Existence. A second element must be introduced in order to produce actuality--viz., actuation, realization; and whose motive power is the Will--the activity of man in the widest sense. It is only by this activity that that Idea as well as abstract characteristics generally, are realized, actualized; for of themselves they are powerless. The motive power that puts them in operation, and gives them determinate existence, is the need, instinct, inclination, and passion of man. That some conception of mine should be developed into act and existence is my earnest desire . . .

We assert then that nothing has been accomplished without interest on the part of the actors; and--if interest be called passion, inasmuch as the whole individuality, to the neglect of all other actual or possible interests and claims, is devoted to an object with every fiber of volition, concentrating all its desires and powers upon it--we may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion. Two elements, therefore, enter into the object of our investigation; the first the Idea, the second the complex of human passions; the one the warp, the other the woof of the vast arras-web of Universal History. . . .

We have spoken of the Idea of Freedom as the nature of Spirit, and the absolute goal of History. . . .

The History of the World begins with its general aim--the realization of the Idea of Spirit--only in an implicit form, that is, as Nature; a hidden, most profoundly hidden, unconscious instinct; and the whole process of History (as already observed), is directed to rendering this unconscious impulse a conscious one.

--G.W.F. Hegel, "The Philosophy of History" (The Age of Ideology, Henry D. Aiken, pp. 90-97, passim)