Knowing One's Place

times are equally critical: the outlook in 1964 is neither better nor worse than was the outlook in 1864, or, for that matter, in 64 a.d. He is in favor of the Great Tradition of Western Civilization but is an inadequate defender of it, being insufficiently aware that the tradition is endangered by both internal decay and external attack. Highet' s platitudes reflect the former, and the vehement attack on the center by Marx and Nietzsche reflects the latter. Highet has very little to say about either of these men; he seems oblivious not only to the profundity of their respective critiques of Western civilization but to their threat to what he considers the eternal verities. It is sad to have to report on the shortcomings and ultimate failures of this book because Gilbert Highet is, in his middlebrow way, a distinguished man. The reader of his latest effort can scarcely help feeling that the author is a soldier on the right side. It is easy to see that his heart is in the right place, but it is difficult to say the same thing about his mind.