Read The Lessons of History Online
Authors: Will Durant
The Lessons of History (12 page)
History is, above all else, the creation and recording of that heritage; progress is its increasing abundance, preservation, transmission, and use. To those of us who study history not merely as a warning reminder of man's follies and crimes, but also as an encouraging remembrance of generative souls, the past ceases to be a depressing chamber of horrors; it becomes a celestial city, a spacious country of the mind, wherein a thousand saints, statesmen, inventors, scientists, poets, artists, musicians, lovers, and philosophers still live and speak, teach and carve and sing. The historian will not mourn because he can see no meaning in human existence except that which man puts into it; let it be our pride that we ourselves may put meaning into our lives, and sometimes a significance that transcends death. If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children. And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.
WILL
and
ARIEL DURANT
, after spending over fifty years completing the critically acclaimed series The Story of Civilization, were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968. In 1977, the Durants were presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Champions of human rights and social reform, the Durants continue to educate and entertain readers the world over. For more information on their work, visit
www.willdurant.com
.
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BY WILL DURANT
The Story of Philosophy
Transition
The Pleasures of Philosophy
Heroes of History
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION
I.
Our Oriental Heritage
II.
The Life of Greece
III.
Caesar and Christ
IV.
The Age of Faith
V.
The Renaissance
VI.
The Reformation
ALSO BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
VII.
The Age of Reason Begins
VIII.
The Age of Louis XIV
IX.
The Age of Voltaire
X.
Rousseau and Revolution
XI.
The Age of Napoleon
A Dual Biography
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mentioned in the Notes
A
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B
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Physics and Politics.
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The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward.
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New York, 1929.
D
URANT
, W
ILL
and A
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,
The Story of Civilization:
    I.
Our Oriental Heritage.
New York, 1935.
   II.
The Life of Greece.
New York, 1939.
  III.
Caesar and Christ.
New York, 1944.
  IV.
The Age of Faith.
New York, 1950.
   V.
The Renaissance.
New York, 1953.
  VI.
The Reformation.
New York, 1957.
 VII.
The Age of Reason Begins.
New York, 1961.
VIII.
The Age of Louis XIV.
New York, 1963.
  IX.
The Age of Voltaire.
New York, 1965.
   X.
Rousseau and Revolution.
New York, 1967.
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1966 edition.
G
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, E
DWARD
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
ed. Milman, 6v. New York: Nottingham Society, n.d.
G
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CHAPTER I
1.
Sédillot, René,
L'Histoire n'a pas de sens.
2.
Durant,
Our Oriental Heritage,
12.
3.
Age of Faith,
979.
4.
Sédillot, 167.
5.
The Reformation, viii.
6.
The Age of Reason Begins,
267.
CHAPTER II
7.
Pascal,
Pensées,
No. 347.
8.
Plato,
Phaedo,
No. 109.
CHAPTER III
9.
Caesar and Christ,
193, 223,666.
CHAPTER IV
10.
Gobineau,
Inequality of Human Races,
XV, 210.
11.
Ibid.,
211.
12.
Ibid.,
36â7.
13.
In Todd, A. J.,
Theories of Social Progress,
276.
14.
See
Our Oriental Heritage,
934â38.
CHAPTER VI
15.
Caesar and Christ,
211.
16.
The Renaissance,
576.
17.
Our Oriental Heritage,
275.
18.
The Reformation,
761.
19.
The Age of Reason Begins,
394.
20.
The Age of Voltaire,
64.
21.
Our Oriental Heritage,
265.
22.
The Reformation,
763.
23.
The Age of Voltaire,
487.
24.
Gibbon, Edward,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
I, 314.
CHAPTER VII
25.
Caesar and Christ,
296â97.
26.
The Age of Faith,
525â26.
27.
Plato,
Laivs,
No. 948.
28.
Our Oriental Heritage,
205â13.
29.
Ibid.,
416â19,434, 504.
30.
Renan,
The Apostles, xxxiii.
31.
Lemaître,
Jean Jacques Rousseau,
9.
32.
Durant,
The Mansions of Philosophy,
568.
CHAPTER VIII
33.
The Reformation,
752.
34.
The Age of Louis XIV,
720.
35.
Plutarch,
Life of Solon.
36.
The Life of Greece,
112â18.
37.
Plutarch,
Tiberius Gracchus.
38.
Caesar and Christ,
111â22, 14244,180â208.
CHAPTER IX
39.
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
II, 962b.
40.
Our Oriental Heritage,
231. We have revised the date there given for Hammurabi.
41.
The Life of Greece,
587â92.
42.
Paul-Louis,
Ancient Rome at Work,
283â85.
43.
Caesar and Christ,
641 f.
44.
Szuma Ch'ien in Granet, Marcel,
Chinese Civilization,
113.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Our Oriental Heritage, 700f.
The dates there given are being revised for a new edition.
47.
Gowen and Hall,
Outline History of China,
142.
48.
In Carter, Thomas,
The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward,
183.
49.
Our Oriental Heritage,
724â26.
50.
The Age of Reason Begins,
249â51
51.
Kautsky, Karl,
Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation,
121, 130.
52.
The Reformation,
383, 391, 398â401.
CHAPTER X
53.
Renan,
Marc Aurele,
479.
54.
Gibbon,
Decline and Fall,
1,31.
