159

Resurrectors of the dead.  Vain people value a piece of the past more highly from the moment they find they can reproduce it in themselves (especially when this is difficult to do); indeed, where possible they desire to resurrect it again from the dead. And since there are always innumerable vain people, the danger that lies in the study of history as soon as it gets the upper hand of an entire age is indeed not small: too much energy is thrown away on all possible resurrections from the dead. Perhaps the whole movement of romanticism can best be understood from this point of view.