Changes in the Tastes of the Nations Through the Ages

7/29/2019 Changes in the Tastes of the Nations Through the Ages

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Johann Gottfried Herder 1766

Of the Changes in the Tastes of the

Nations Through the AgesA Fragment

Source: Johann Gottfried Herder. Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political

Writings (pp. 101-103). Translated by I.D. Evrigenis and D. Pellerin, Hackett Publishing

Company;

Transcribed by Andy Blunden.

Once a man saw trees being planted for posterity and cried out: Always we must do

things for our descendants; I wished that our descendants would also do something for

us! This silly man, who did not consider that he was himself a descendant, that he

owed everything to his ancestors, and that future generations would he a part of him,should have thought ahead a few centuries, putting himself in the position of the

descendants who would enjoy these trees. Now what would they be able to do for him,

their ancestor? Think of him! What could they do for their descendants, however? Work

for them!

Thus every human being in every age stands in the middle. He can assemble the faded

images of his ancestors around him; he can summon up their shadows and make a feast

for his eyes as he lets them rush by. But can he also cast a prophetic eye on future

times, beyond his grave, watching his children and grandchildren wander over his ashes,

as it were? The view of the past is secured by history; the prospect of the future is

darker but even this shadowy darkness is pleasurable.


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When one casts a glance ahead and behind from such philosophical heights; when one

conjures up the spirit of an extinct age from its ashes; m-hen one compares different,

successive ages with each other and believes that one can see a continuous thread, a

coherent whole what, then, would be more natural than to wonder whether this chain

of changes, which has been running along so evenly for many centuries, should bebroken by us? Should it not keep running along beyond us? When one gathers together

the many; changes of the past, when one sees what altering power the arm of time

possesses and how it has been employed, then does riot the audacious look ahead

become a little more excusable? Perhaps these will be the results of change behind our

backs: so things changed before us, so they will change after us.

If, meanwhile, this prophetic glance were to prove deceptive, the examination of pastgenerations would still be all the more useful. The spirit of change is the kernel of

history, and he who does not direct most of his attention to picking out this spirit,

putting together in his mind the tastes and character of each age, and traveling through

the different periods of world events with the piercing perspective of a wanderer eager

for instruction; he sees only trees instead of men, like the blind man, and ruins his

stomach on history as on a dish of husks without kernels. Thus the greatest historians

attained such heights by noting these changes through the ages, by also thinking as they

told their story, by leading their readers around so that they might not only see but also

learn. If Voltaire has some merit as a historian, it is with a view to his often apt remarks

on the spirit of events. The greatest man in this regard, however, is in my opinion the

historian of Britain, Hume, a writer who understands the difficult art of applying the

pragmatic tricks of Tacitus or Polybius to the taste of our times.

No doubt my introductory remarks are too long for this one little treatise. If it were well

received by the public, however, it should be merely the precursor for similar reflections

on the spirit of change in the various ages. When philosophy is guided by history and

history is enlivened by philosophy, then it is doubly entertaining and useful.

* * *


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Some people who are ignorant about history and know only their own age think that

present tastes are the only ones and so necessary that anything besides would be

unthinkable. They think that everything they find indispensable on account of their

habits and education must have been indispensable at all times, and they do not know

that the more comfortable we are with something, the newer it is likely to be.Commonly, pride is joined to such ignorance two siblings who are as inseparable as

envy and stupidity. Their times are the best because that is when they are living and

because other ages have not had the honor of their acquaintance. These people are like

the Chinese who, because they knew no one else, considered their country the square

of the world and who painted the corners of this square with hideous grimaces and

monsters, which were supposed to portray us, the pitiful inhabitants of the rest of the

world. We laugh at the Chinese, and yet how often does it seem like one were [living] in

China when one hears the opinions of persons who know the world only by the cornerin which they are stuck and by the Hamburg Correspondent.

Two looks at history will dispel this prejudice. Time has changed everything so much

that it would often take a magic mirror to recognize the same creature in so many

shapes. The very shape of the earth has changed, its surface as well as its position; the

blood, the manners of living and thinking, the forms of government, the tastes of the

nations have [all] changed. How families change as well as individuals If our great

ancestor Adam, or Noah, or the other progenitors of every people were to rise [from the

dead] heaven, what a sight this would be for them!

None of these changes is as difficult to explain as the variation in tastes and manners of

thinking. How could that which a nation holds at one time to be good, beautiful, useful,

pleasant, or true be considered bad, ugly, useless, unpleasant, and untrue by it at

another time? And yet this does happen. Are not truth, beauty, and moral goodness the

same at all times? Surely and yet one can observe how the same principles for which

everyone would at one time have sacrificed his last drop of blood are at other times cast

into the fire by the very some nation; how fashions that some years ago everyone e

found beautiful are soon after extinguished; how reigning practices, favorite

conceptions of honor, merit, and utility can dazzle one age [as] by a magic light; how a

[Particular] taste in this or that science can set the tone for a century; and how all this


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nevertheless dies out with that century! We should almost go mad with such skepticism,

putting no more trust in our own tastes and feelings!

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Changes in the Tastes of the Nations Through the Ages