In Europe Art Has To A Large

The Repudiation Of The Primacy Of Understanding Means The Repudiation Of The Norms Of Judgment As Well, And Hence The Abandonment Of All Ethical Standards.

One Does Not Realize The Historical Sensation As A Re-experiencing, But As An Understanding That Is Closely Related To The Understanding Of Music, Or Rather Of The World By Means Of Music.

If A Serious Statement Is Defined As One That May Be Made In Terms Of Waking Life, Poetry Will Never Rise To The Level Of Seriousness. It Lies Beyond Seriousness, On That More Primitive And Original Level Where The Child, The Animal, The Savage, And The Seer Belong, In The Region Of Dream, Enchantment, Ecstasy, Laughter. To Understand Poetry We Must Be Capable Of Donning The Child's Soul Like A Magic Cloak And Of Forsaking Man's Wisdom For The Child's.

The Modern City Hardly Knows A Pure Darkness Or True Silence Anymore, Nor Does It Know The Effect Of A Single Small Light Or That Of A Lonely Distant Shout.

Culture Must Have Its Ultimate Aim In The Metaphysical Or It Will Cease To Be Culture.