An exchange between Schelling and Hegel in 1795

NB In the following the self translates das Ich (the I)

(1) From a letter from Schelling to Hegel, 4 Feb 1795, in Butler ed. Hegel: The Letters, pp. 32-33
Now for a reply to your question as to whether I believe we cannot get to a personal Being by means of the moral proof.* I
confess the question has surprised me. I would not have expected it from an intimate of Lessings. Yet you no doubt asked it
only to learn whether the question has been entirely decided in my own mind. For you the question has surely long since
been decided. For us as well [as for Lessing] the orthodox concepts of God are no more. My reply is that we get even
further than a personal Being. I have in the interim become a Spinozist! Do not be astonished. You will soon hear how. For
Spinoza the world, the object by itself in opposition to the subject, was everything. For me it is the self. The real difference
between critical and dogmatic philosophy seems to me to lie in this, that the former starts out from the absolute self still
unconditioned by any object, while the latter proceeds from the absolute object or not-self. The latter in its most consistent
form leads to Spinozas system, the former to the Kantian system. Philosophy must start from the Unconditioned. Now the
question is merely where this Unconditioned lies, whether in the self or in the not-self. Once this question is decided
everything is decided. The highest principle of all philosophy is for me the pure, Absolute Self; that is, the self insofar as it
is merely a self, insofar as it is unconditioned in any way by objects but is rather posited by freedom. The alpha and omega
of all philosophy is freedom. The Absolute Self encompasses an infinite sphere of absolute being. In this infinite sphere
finite spheres are formed, which arise through the limitation of the absolute sphere by an object: spheres of determinate
being, theoretical philosophy. In these finite spheres we find nothing but the state of being conditioned, and the
Unconditioned leads to contradictions. But we ought to break through; that is, we ought to emerge from the finite sphere
into the infinite sphere: practical philosophy. Practical philosophy accordingly demands the destruction of finitude and thus
leads into the supersensible world. What was impossible for theoretical reason because it was enfeebled by the object is
achieved by practical reason. Only in practical reason are we able to come upon nothing but our Absolute Self, for only the
Absolute Self has circumscribed the infinite sphere. There is no other supersensible world for us than that of the Absolute
Self. God is nothing but the Absolute Self, the Self insofar as it has annihilated everything theoretical; God in theoretical
philosophy thus equals zero. Personality arises through the unity of consciousness. Yet consciousness is not possible without
an object. But for God i.e., for the Absolute Self there is no object whatsoever; for if there were, the Absolute Self would
cease to be absolute. Consequently there is no personal God, and our highest endeavor is aimed at the destruction of our
personality, at passage into the absolute sphere of being; but given even eternity this passage is not possible. Hence only a
practical approach toward the Absolute, hence immortality.
* In a previous letter Hegel had suggested that he thought that Kants moral proof could prove the existence of a personal
God [AC]
(2) From a letter from Hegel to Schelling, 16 Apr 1795, in Butler pp. 35-36
Yet what prevented me even more from replying sooner was the wish to send you a thorough critique of the writing you sent
me* for which I thank you very much to show you at least that I have fully grasped your ideas. Yet I lacked time for a
thorough study of these ideas. However, insofar as I have grasped the main ideas, I see in them a completion of science
which will give us the most fruitful results. I see in them the work of a mind of whose friendship I can be proud and who
will make a great contribution to the most important revolution in the system of ideas in all Germany. To encourage you to
work out your system fully would be an insult, for an endeavor that has laid hold of such an object needs no encouragement.
From the Kantian system and its highest completion I expect a revolution in Germany. It will proceed from principles that
are present and that only need to be elaborated generally and applied to all hitherto existing knowledge. An esoteric
philosophy will, to be sure, always remain, and the idea of God as the Absolute Self will be part of it. After a more recent
study of the postulates of practical reason I had a presentiment of what you clearly laid out for me in your last letter, of what
I found in your writing, and of what Fichtes Foundation of the Science of Knowledge will disclose to me completely. The
consequences that will result from it will astonish many a gentleman. Heads will be reeling at this summit of all philosophy
by which man is being so greatly exalted. Yet why have we been so late in recognizing mans capacity for freedom, placing
him in the same rank with all spirits? I believe there is no better sign of the times than this, that mankind is being presented
as so worthy of respect in itself. It is proof that the aura of prestige surrounding the heads of the oppressors and gods of this
earth is disappearing. The philosophers are proving the dignity of man. The peoples will learn to feel it. Not only will they
demand their rights, which have been trampled in the dust, they will take them back themselves, they will appropriate them.
Religion and politics have joined hands in the same underhanded game. The former has taught what despotism willed:
contempt for the human race, its incapacity for any good whatsoever, its incapacity to be something on its own. With the
spread of ideas as to how things ought to be, the indolence that marks people set in their ways, who always take everything
the way it is, will disappear. This enlivening power of ideas even when they are in themselves still limited such as the idea
of the fatherland, of its constitution, and so forth will lift hearts, which will learn to sacrifice for [36] such ideas. For the
spirit of constitutions has presently made a pact with self-interest and has founded its realm upon it. I always exhort myself
with words of the Autobiographer [T.G. von Hippel]: Strive towards the sun, my friends, so that the weal of the human race
soon may ripen! What are the leaves and branches holding you back trying to do? Break through to the sun. And so what if
you tire! All the sounder will be your sleep.
* This was Schellings On the Possibility of a Form of Philosophy in General (1794) [AC]