We cannot describe the essence of the force that moves heavenly bodies, but we can describe how this"vital force" operates. In history, this"vital force" is our concept of free will, and to show how it operates, we cite the observable laws of necessity. To approach history as a science, therefore, we must begin with the necessities: that is, the study of movements of people and of nations, and not episodes from the lives of great men. In order to discover historical laws, we must seek the properties common to all the equal and inseparably interconnected, infinitesimal elements by which free will is constrained. To be intelligible, history must admit that personality is subject to the laws of time, space, and motion, just as physics admits the relative movement of the earth as the basis of its investigations. We do not feel the earth's movements with our senses, neither do we feel our consciousness dependent on external phenomena. Yet our reason has descried the planet's motion, and our reason must detect the limits of our free will. Only with this kind of scientific approach can historiography become a credible discipline, and ultimately, reveal the nature of human life.
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