Transcriber’s Note:
Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are linked for ease of reference.
There are frequent references to Volume II of this translation of Spengler’s work. The second volume has not yet been provided to Project Gutenberg, so those references are left unlinked.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s [note] at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
Any corrections are indicated using an underline highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the original text in a small popup.
Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the note at the end of the text.
THE DECLINE
OF THE WEST
THE DECLINE
OF THE WEST
FORM AND ACTUALITY
BY
OSWALD SPENGLER
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION
WITH NOTES BY
CHARLES FRANCIS ATKINSON
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THIS TRANSLATION IS
DEDICATED TO
ELLINOR JAMES
A FRIEND
Wenn im Unendlichen dasselbe
Sich wiederholend ewig fliesst,
Das tausendfältige Gewölbe
Sich kräftig ineinander schliesst;
Strömt Lebenslust aus allen Dingen,
Dem kleinsten wie dem grössten Stern,
Und alles Drängen, alles Ringen
Ist ewige Ruh in Gott dem Herrn.
—Goethe.