[p. 463]
|463| the one side of the labours of that attempt, namely the public labours, so far as they enter the assembly of estates; the inner history of the labours of the cabinet and of the ministry, as well as what went on outside the assembly among the people, the possible external purposes and activities of the members of the estates, in general whatever one is otherwise accustomed to reckon as belonging to the secret connection of events and actions, is concealed here. The interest of the public, however, has of itself been directed chiefly to the public part of the proceedings, which in any case has chiefly the character of furnishing the worthy materials of history. The so-called secret springs and intentions of individuals, anecdotes and subjective influences were held to be the most important thing in a psychological view of history that was still fashionable a short time ago. This view, however, has now fallen into discredit, and history strives once more after its dignity, to present the nature and course of the substantial matter and to make known the characters of the persons acting from what they do; the conviction has become more general that neither the matter nor the characters in their solidity issue from contingencies or can be known from them.
The historical events that we see before us here have the peculiar charm that they do not contain so considerable a portion of what is past as a history of more distant times; the great purposes and interests, like the lesser peculiarities and externalities, are still present. The concepts concerning the object of interest which we must bring to this event we may not demand of any more remote age, not even of cultivated Greece and Rome; they are peculiar to our time. Then we see these ideas about the constitution of the state, and in particular about the admission of a share in it, whereby the people is granted an influence upon it and a public life,
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