Abstract

This large volume is likely to prove immensely enjoyable to anyone who is moved to read it at all. It contains virtually all of the known testimony about Hegel produced at the time or later by those who knew him during the first forty-five years of his life; and a very great part of all such testimonies concerning his last fifteen years. For these last years in which he was universally recognized in Germany and already known to many beyond its borders a comprehensive collection of testimonies is scarcely conceivable and would certainly not be useful for we would need lengthy commentaries on their factual basis and probable worth. All such critical apparatus has here been kept to a minimum. A sentence or two about the author and his connection with Hegel, with another sentence about the recipient in the case of letters, and similar short notes about most of the people mentioned - this is usually quite sufficient to ‘place’ the testimony and enable us to interpret it safely.