“THE development of a historical sense—a distinct consciousness of the essential characteristics of different ages and civilizations—is a relatively recent achievement; in fact it hardly existed before the nineteenth century. It is above all the product of the Romantic movement which first taught men to respect the diversity of human life, and to regard culture not as an abstract ideal but as a vital product of an organic social tradition. No doubt, as Nietzsche pointed out, the acquisition of this sixth sense is not all pure gain, since it involves the loss of the that noble self-sufficiency and maturity in which the great ages of civilization culminate— “the moment of smooth sea and halcyon self-sufficiency, the goldenness and coldness which all things show that have perfected themselves.” It was rendered possible only by the “democratic mingling of classes and races” which is characteristic of modern civilizations. “Owing to this mingling of the past of every form and mode of life and of cultures which were formerly juxtaposed with or superimposed on one another flow forth into use,” so that “we have secret access above all to the labyrinth of imperfect civilizations and to every form of semibarbarity that has at any time existed on earth.” (Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 224)
“Yet it is impossible to believe that the vast widening of the range and scope of consciousness that the historical sense has brought to the human race is an ignoble thing, as Nietzsche would have us believe. It is as though man has at last climbed from the desert and the forest and the fertile plain onto the bare mountain slopes whence he can look back and see the course of his journey and the whole extent of his kingdom. And to the Christian, at least, this widening vision and these far horizons should bring not doubt and disillusionment, but a firmer faith in the divine power that has guided him and a stronger desire for the divine kingdom which is the journey’s end.”
~Christopher Dawson: in The Kingdom of God and History. (1938)
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