The decline of the West, Volume 2 : $b Perspectives of world-historySpengler, Oswald
History
The decline of the West, Volume 2 : $b Perspectives of world-history
Spengler, Oswald
Civilization -- History
Of the extensiveness of both these speech-worlds in the
waking-consciousness of man we to-day can scarcely form an idea.
Expression-speech, which appears in the earliest times with all the
religious seriousness of the Taboo, includes not only weighty and
strict ornament--which in the beginning coincides completely with
the idea of art and makes every stiff, inert thing into a vehicle
of the expression--but also the solemn ceremonial--whose web of
formulæ spreads over the whole of public life, and even over that
of the family[180]--and the language of costume, which is contained
in clothing, tattooing, and personal adornment, all of which have a
_uniform_ significance. The investigators of the nineteenth century
vainly attempted to trace the origin of clothing to the feeling of
shame or to utilitarian motives. It is in fact intelligible only as
the means of an expression-speech, and as such it is developed to a
grandiose level in all the high Civilizations, including our own of
to-day. We need only think of the dominant part played by the “mode” in
our whole public life and doings, the regulation attire for important
occasions, the nuances of wear for this and that social function, the
wedding-dress, mourning; of the military uniform, the priest’s robes,
orders and decorations, mitre and tonsure, periwig and queue, powder,
rings, styles of hairdressing; of all the significant displays and
concealments of person, the costume of the mandarin and the senator,
the odalisque and the nun; of the court-state of Nero, Saladin and
Montezuma--not to mention the details of peasant costumes, the language
of flowers, colours, and precious stones. As for the language of
religion, it is superfluous to mention it, for all this _is_ religion.
The communication-languages, in which every kind of sense-impression
that it is possible to conceive more or less participates, have
gradually evolved (so far as the peoples of the higher Cultures are
concerned) three outstanding signs--picture, sound, and gesture, which
in the script-speech of the Western Civilization have crystallized into
a unit of letter, word, and punctuation mark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account