Generations follow, oblivious of the high beginnings, but there is that in the stock which is fated to endure. The sons and daughters blunder and sin and perish, but the race goes on, for there is a fierce stuff of life in it. It sinks and rises again and blossoms at haphazard into virtue or vice, since the ordinary moral laws do not concern its mission. Some rags of greatness always cling to it, the dumb faith that sometime and somehow that blood drawn from kings it never knew will be royal again. Though nature is wasteful of material things, there is no waste of spirit. And then after long years there comes, unheralded and unlooked-for, the day of the Appointed Time...
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Buchan describes how generations forget their origins but carry an enduring spirit. He believes that even if individuals fail, the race persists and eventually rises to greatness.
- In plain terms
- People forget their past, but the spirit of the race lives on to rise again.
- What can you take from it?
- Trust in the enduring spirit of humanity despite individual failures.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What endures when generations forget?
- Is there a fixed appointed time for greatness?
Another view
It assumes a collective racial destiny rather than individual agency.
More from John Buchan
The spark once transmitted may smoulder for generations under ashes, but the appointed time will come, and it will flare up to warm the world. God never allows…
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Permalink to quote #54 We none of us know our ancestors beyond a little way. We all of us may have kings' blood in our veins.
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