Apart From the World

by J. Ross Baughman

Libraries are actually filled with mirrors, at least as far as the German author Johann Wolfgang Goethe saw it. When he had Wagner speak to Faust in his classic drama, they both took a moment to reflect on history: “Forgive me! It is a great delight to place oneself in the spirit of the times... and then see how far we have advanced from that.” To which Faust replied: “The past is a sealed book for us. What you call the spirit of the times is really your own spirit in which the times are reflected.”