Note 231 — Chapter V

We have spoken above of the element of subjectivity which it is impossible to eliminate from historical construction, and which has been misinterpreted to the extent of denying history the character of a science: this element of subjectivity which troubled Pécuchet (G. Flaubert, Bouvard et Pécuchet, p. 157) and Sylvestre Bonnard (A. France, Le crime de Silvestre Bonnard, p. 310), and which causes Faust to say: "Die Zeiten der Vergangenheit Sind uns ein Buch mit sieben Siegeln. Was ihr den Geist der Zeiten heisst, Das ist im Grund der Herren eigner Geist, In dem die Zeiten sich bespiegeln." ["Past times are to us a book with seven seals. What you call the spirit of the times is at bottom your own spirit, in which the times are mirrored."—Goethe, Faust, i. 3.]