Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

On the uses and disadvantages of history for lifespectively breathe th is unhistorical atmosphere within which everygreat historical event has taken place, he might, as a percipientbeing, raise himself to asuprahistoncal vantage point such as Niebuhronce described as the possible outcome of historical reflection. 'History,grasped clearly and in detail', he says, 'is useful in one way atleast: it enables us to recognize how unaware even the greatest andhighest spirits of our human race have been of the chance nature ofthe form assumed by the eyes through which they see and throughwhich they compel everyone to see - compel, that is, because theintensity of their consciousness is exceptionally great. He who hasnot gras ped this quite definitely and in many instances will be subjugatedby the appearance of a powerful spirit who brings to a givenform the most impassioned commitment.' We may use the word'suprahistorical' because the viewer from this vantage point couldno longer fe el any temptation to go on living or to take part in history;he would have recognized the essential condition of all happenings- this blindness and injustice in the soul of him who acts; hewould, indeed, be cured for ever of taking history too seriously, forhe would have learned from all men and all experiences, whetheramong Greeks or Turks, from a single hour of the first or of thenineteenth century, to answer his own question as to how or to whatend life is lived. If you ask your acquaintances if they would like torelive the past ten or twenty years, you will easily discover which- ofthem is prepared fo r this suprahistorical standpoint: they will allanswer No, to be sure, but they will have different reasons fo ranswering No. Some may perhaps be consoling themselves: 'but thenext twenty will be better'; they are those of whom David Humesays mockingly:And from the dregs of life hope to receiveWhat the first sprightly running could not give.Let us call them historical men; looking to the past impels themtowards the fu ture and fires their courage to go on living and theirhope that what they want will still happen, that happiness lies behindthe hill they are advancing towards. These historical men believethat the meaning of existence will come more and more to light inthe course of its process, and they glance behind them only so that,from the process so far, they can learn to understand the present andto desire the future more vehemently; they have no idea that, despitetheir preoccupation with history, they in fact think and act unhistorically, or that their occupation with history stands in the service,not of pure knowledge, but of life.65