dictated by the view that what our own age values can likewise be found
in antiquity. The right attitude to take up, however, is the reverse
one, viz., to start with an insight into our modern topsyturviness, and
to look back from antiquity to it--and many things about antiquity which
have hitherto displeased us will then be seen to have been most profound
necessities.

We must make it clear to ourselves that we are acting in an absurd
manner when we try to defend or to beautify antiquity: _who_ are we!


16

We are under a false impression when we say that there is always some
caste which governs a nation's culture, and that therefore savants are
necessary; for savants only possess knowledge concerning culture (and
even this only in exceptional cases). Among learned men themselves there
might be a few, certainly not a caste, but even these would indeed be
rare.


17

One very great value of antiquity consists in the fact that its writings
are the only ones which modern men still read carefully.

Overstraining of the memory--very common among philologists, together
with a poor development of the judgment.