"In vain the West seeks a form of final agony worthy of its past.
[...]
How sad to see great nations begging for a little extra future!
[...]
Our disease being history’s, the disease of history’s eclipse... : we know, now, that all civilization is mortal, that we are hurtling toward horizons of apoplexy... .
[...]
By barbarity, Hitler attempted to save an entire civilization. His enterprise was a failure; — it was nonetheless the West’s last initiative.
No doubt Europe deserved something better. Who is to blame if it could not produce a higher-quality monster?
[...]
'Europe, coquettish and intractable, was in the flower of her age; — decrepit today, Europe excites no one. Even so, certain barbarians await their chance to inherit the finery, impatient at her long agony.
[...] By what accident does a civilization stop? Why did Dutch painting or Spanish mysticism flourish only a moment? So many peoples who survive their own genius! Hence, their decline is tragic; but that of France, of Germany, and of England proceeds from an inner irreparability, from the completion of a process, from a task fulfilled; it is natural, explicable, deserved. Could it have been otherwise? These countries have prospered and have ruined themselves together... ; yet, over the rest of the globe, the fresh rabble was storing up energies, multiplying, waiting...
Tribes with imperious instincts were agglutinating in order to form a great power; the moment comes when, resigned and ramshackle, they sigh for a subaltern role. When one no longer invades, one consents to be invaded. Hannibal’s drama was to be born too soon; a few centuries later, he would have found Rome’s gates open. The Empire was vacant, like Europe in our time.
[...]
Unable to defend our wits against muscles, we shall be less and less fit for any purpose whatever: the first comer will bind us hand and foot. Contemplate the West: overflowing with knowledge, with dishonor, with phlegm. To this was to come the crusaders, the knights, the pirates: to the stupor of a mission accomplished.
When Rome called back her legions, she was unaware of History and the lessons of twilight. Such is not our case. What grim Messiah is about to fall upon us!
[...]
This continent of ours may not have played its last card after all. What if it were to set about demoralizing the rest of the world, spreading its corruptions there? — That would be, for Europe, a way of preserving its prestige a little longer, exerting its influence."
[...]
How sad to see great nations begging for a little extra future!
[...]
Our disease being history’s, the disease of history’s eclipse... : we know, now, that all civilization is mortal, that we are hurtling toward horizons of apoplexy... .
[...]
By barbarity, Hitler attempted to save an entire civilization. His enterprise was a failure; — it was nonetheless the West’s last initiative.
No doubt Europe deserved something better. Who is to blame if it could not produce a higher-quality monster?
[...]
'Europe, coquettish and intractable, was in the flower of her age; — decrepit today, Europe excites no one. Even so, certain barbarians await their chance to inherit the finery, impatient at her long agony.
[...] By what accident does a civilization stop? Why did Dutch painting or Spanish mysticism flourish only a moment? So many peoples who survive their own genius! Hence, their decline is tragic; but that of France, of Germany, and of England proceeds from an inner irreparability, from the completion of a process, from a task fulfilled; it is natural, explicable, deserved. Could it have been otherwise? These countries have prospered and have ruined themselves together... ; yet, over the rest of the globe, the fresh rabble was storing up energies, multiplying, waiting...
Tribes with imperious instincts were agglutinating in order to form a great power; the moment comes when, resigned and ramshackle, they sigh for a subaltern role. When one no longer invades, one consents to be invaded. Hannibal’s drama was to be born too soon; a few centuries later, he would have found Rome’s gates open. The Empire was vacant, like Europe in our time.
[...]
Unable to defend our wits against muscles, we shall be less and less fit for any purpose whatever: the first comer will bind us hand and foot. Contemplate the West: overflowing with knowledge, with dishonor, with phlegm. To this was to come the crusaders, the knights, the pirates: to the stupor of a mission accomplished.
When Rome called back her legions, she was unaware of History and the lessons of twilight. Such is not our case. What grim Messiah is about to fall upon us!
[...]
This continent of ours may not have played its last card after all. What if it were to set about demoralizing the rest of the world, spreading its corruptions there? — That would be, for Europe, a way of preserving its prestige a little longer, exerting its influence."
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