Hegel was an Objective Idealist philosopher. That means he believed, or at least pretended to believe, that reality consists of the thoughts of "the Absolute Spirit", whatever *that* is. History is then the changing of a mind over time, which follows a dialectical pattern: two contradictory ideas are entertained, one after the other (*thesis* and *antithesis*), and finally a new understanding emerges from the conflict (*synthesis*). This in turn becomes the starting thesis in the next stage of the dialectic. In the broader cosmological perspective, the Absolute Spirit is steadily advancing towards self-consciousness. History *is* the working out of this inevitable process. Thus the arrival at the destination will *be* the end of history and the beginning of a new kind of existence. The final fulfillment of this ascent to a higher existence was supposed to be Nineteenth Century Prussian monarchism, with Hegel himself as the prophet and midwife of the new age. The whole system is essentially irrational and mystical. The three-stage scheme is a recurrent theme in mysticism. Stage one: the past golden age, good but flawed, couldn't last. Stage two: the horrid present, scene of suffering and injustice. Stage three: the perfect and eternal future paradise.