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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