I saw the Emperor-that Worldsoul-riding out to reconnoiter the city; it is truly a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, concentrated here on a single point, astride a single horse, yet reaching across the world and ruling it . . . To make such progress from Thursday to Monday is possible only for this extraordinary man,whom it is impossible not to admire.



Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Letter to Niethammer
October 13, 1806
translated by Joachim Neugroschel