Hegel was living in Jena in 1806 when Napoleon crushed the Prussian army at the battle named after that city. He wrote in a letter: 'The Emperor - this world-soul - I saw riding through the city to review his troops. It is indeed a wonderful feeling to see such an individual who, here concentrated into a single point, reaches out over the world and dominates it'. Since history has, for Hegel, a goal, the world-soul is the instrument of a larger destiny.