R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of History, 97:

He own ethical work was
avowedly (in his own sence of this word) 'metaphysical' in character,
that is, it was an attempt to
discuss mind not in its phenomenal aspect as a kind of nature,
but as a thing in itself;

and here he identified the essence of mind as freedom,
that is, in his own sence of the word 'freedom',
not as mere liberty of choice but as autonomy,
the power to make laws for oneself.

This enabled him to put forward a new interpretation
of the idea of history as the education of the human race.
For him, it meant the development of humanity into
the state of being fully mind, that is, fully free.