Will Durant- Historian for Humanity

"I feel for all faiths the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest urchin in the streets."

The Story of Civilization, Will Durant

I've been listening to an audiobook of Will Durrant's "The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time", seemingly a most ambitious work- until I discovered Durrant's previous epic, the 10 volume "integral history" of "The Story of Civilization". The final volume of this 6 million word overview of the human story won Will, and his wife Ariel, both the Pulitzer Prize for literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Will was a historian who resonates very deeply with me, not only for his erudite and objective scholarship, but his passion for drawing the lessons from history for the progression of our human story. For his 96 full years he offered calm reflection for our journey of chaos and creation, yet for far longer still his historical narrative will provide us bridge to the past so that we may yet learn for the future.

Will and Ariel's 68 year union was a joint journey of discovery; they wrote together, learnt together, travelled together, and ultimately, passed away within two weeks of one another in 1981. A man of 25 years of age can say naught about such a union- he yet lacks the words and the years to touch it's tender bonds.

Read about the development of his celebrated 1945
"Declaration of INTERdependence"

And a final quote from Will,

"I felt more keenly than before the need of a philosophy that would do justice to the infinite vitality of nature. In the inexhaustible activity of the atom, in the endless resourcefulness of plants, in the teeming fertility of animals, in the hunger and movement of infants, in the laughter and play of children, in the love and devotion of youth, in the restless ambition of fathers and the lifelong sacrifice of mothers, in the undiscourageable researches of scientists and the sufferings of genius, in the crucifixion of prophets and the martyrdom of saints — in all things I saw the passion of life for growth and greatness, the drama of everlasting creation. I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process... I became almost reconciled to mortality, knowing that my spirit would survive me enshrined in a fairer mold... and that my little worth would somehow be preserved in the heritage of men. In a measure the Great Sadness was lifted from me, and, where I had seen omnipresent death, I saw now everywhere the pageant and triumph of life.

Transition (1927)