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 its
further determinations; yet it can never be entirely understood by any
one who, unknown to himself, personally remains continually under its
influence; it may in general, however, be clearly perceived that
such a law exists.
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