Humanity isn’t a constant; human consciousness ebbs and flows. The recent excerpt “The Mageste Beste” posted from “Eclipsed by Shadow” is written in Old English. Creating this passage from 1190 AD sent me off on a whole tangent of research.
History can scare you
Civilization has not been a straight path upward: human empathy and progress have faltered before. The last great ebb in Western Civilization was the Middle Ages, or medieval era, after the fall of ancient Rome, when humans lost civilization and reverted to brute conditions of bestial poverty.
Thoughts preserved in writings from ancient Rome are actually more modern than the more recent Middle Ages. As an example, the ancient historian, Tacitus (56-120 AD) is often insightful:
“Abuse, if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.”
“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.”
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
For comparison, the opening translated lines from the Old English work Beowulf, written 7 to 10 centuries after Rome — we aren’t even sure! — begin a work filled with homage to violence and patrimony:
“So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes…A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on.
In the end each clan on the outlying coasts beyond the whale-road had to yield to him and begin to pay tribute. That was a good king.“
Beowulf says this about human nature: “It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.”
Centuries earlier, the old Roman Tacitus attempted an explanation: “Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”
A difference in quality of thought becomes evident when reading translations from ancient Rome and those, centuries later, from the Middle Ages.