Generations passed away, but
new ones arose, embracing and begetting life--for life was eternal.
Death was vanquished in the ecstasy of the nameless millions, for the
true meaning of life lay in the preservation of the species. The death
of the individual did not have a deep and poignant meaning until the
soul had become the centre and climax of life. An individual had passed
away for ever--nothing could recall him. Death had become the final
issue, the terror, because it destroyed the greatest of all things:
self-conscious man. But love, too, had changed; it was no longer sexual
impulse, depending on the body and perishing with it, but a craving of
the soul, conscious of itself and stretching out feelers far beyond the
earth. A new pang had come into the world, but also a new
reconciliation.
THE SECOND STAGE: LOVE
CHAPTER I
THE BIRTH OF EUROPE
The memory of the figure and preaching of Christ had so powerfully
influenced the centuries that it had gradually permeated and transformed
not only the Platonic doctrine of ideas--that maturest fruit of Greek
wisdom--but also the Semitic mediaeval monotheism.
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