From the Other Shore

xi

ness, and the day shone in the minds of men several times, and several times the night darkened their souls before Egypt shone forth.

"Egyptian enlightenment connects with Greek . The Romans studied in this great school.

"What followed this brilliant epoch? The barbarism of many centuries.

"Slowly the thick darkness thinned, slowly it cleared. Finally, the sun shone; good and gullible humanists inferred progress from progress. They saw the near goal of perfection and in joyful intoxication exclaimed: 'The shore!' But suddenly the sky smokes, and the fate of humanity hides in threatening clouds. O posterity! What fate awaits you?

"Sometimes an unbearable sadness presses upon my heart, sometimes I fall to my knees and stretch out my hands to the invisible . . . There is no answer! My head bows to my heart.

"Eternal movement in one circle, eternal repetition, eternal change of day with night and night with day, a drop of joyful tears and a sea of sorrowful ones. My friend! Why should I live, or you, or anyone? Why did our ancestors live? Why will our posterity live?

"My spirit is despondent, weak, and sad!"

These tortured lines, fiery and full of tears, were written at the end of the nineties by N. M. Karamzin Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1816), a Russian writer and historian..