called objectivity of which we at present hear so much is nothing else than a dried up lie; it is not possible to sketch the past without giving it the colour of our own feelings. Yes, the so-called objective writer of history, directing his words to the men of his time, writes involuntarily in the spirit of his time; and this spirit will be perceptible in his writings, just as in letters which betray not only the character of the writer but of the receiver. That so-called objectivity which, puffed up with its lifelessness, enthrones itself on the Golgotha of actual deeds, is on that very account to be rejected, because we need for historical truth not only the exact statement of facts, but also certain information of the impression which a fact produced on contemporaries. To give such information is, however, the hardest problem, since it requires not only the usual imparting of actual facts, but also the capacity of perception[1] in the poet to whom, as Shakespeare says, the being and the body of past times have become visible.
And not only had the phenomena of his own national history become visible to him, but also
- ↑ Anschauungsvermögen.. Selbstanschauungsvermögen, the faculty of self-perception (Kant). Kritik der reinen Vernunft.—Translator.
—that is to say, it does this so long as its students do not turn it into mere tables of comparison of tales and superstitions.—Translator.
