History Does Not Belong To Us; We

A Cultured Society That Has Fallen Away From Its Religious Traditions Expects More From Art Than The Aesthetic Consciousness And The 'standpoint Of Art' Can Deliver. The Romantic Desire For A New Mythology... Gives The Artist And His Task In The World The Consciousness Of A New Consecration. He Is Something Like A 'secular Saviour' For His Creations Are Expected To Achieve On A Small Scale The Propitiation Of Disaster For Which An Unsaved World Hopes.

History Does Not Belong To Us; We Belong To It.

It Was Clear To Me That The Forms Of Consciousness Of Our Inherited And Acquired Historical Education - Aesthetic Consciousness And Historical Consciousness - Presented Alienated Forms Of Our True Historical Being.

The Ambiguity Of Poetic Language Answers To The Ambiguity Of Human Life As A Whole, And Therein Lies Its Unique Value. All Interpretations Of Poetic Language Only Interpret What The Poetry Has Already Interpreted.

For Both Art And The Historical Sciences Are Ways Of Experiencing In Which Our Own Understanding Of Existence Is Immediately Brought Into Play.