[16th Paragraph]
Here Hegel makes a pun. The paragraph is short, but the next one rests on it.
In Greek, “Rhodos” sounds almost like “rhodon,” the rose. And in Latin, the words for “leap” and “dance” lie very close together. So “Here is Rhodes, here leap” turns into the sentence:
“Here is the rose, here dance.”
The call to prove oneself becomes an invitation to joy: here, in the present, there is something beautiful to find. The next paragraph says what it is.
Hegel’s text: Preface, paragraph 16 →