English2

Our story begins with the Orient, not merely because Asia was the scene of the oldest civilization known to us, but because those civilizations formed the background and basis of that Greek and Roman culture which are mistakenly supposed to be the whole source of the modern mind. We shall be surprised to learn how much of our most indispensable inventions, our economic and political organization, our science and our literature, our philosophy and our religion, goes back to Egypt and the Orient. At this historic moment-when the ascendancy of Europe is rapidly coming to an end, when Asia is swelling with resurrected life, and the theme of the twentieth century seems destined to be an all-embracing conflict between the East and the West-the provincialism of our traditional histories, which began with Greece and summed up Asia in a line, has become no mere academic error, but possibly a fatal failure of perspective and intelligence. The future faces into the Pacific, and understanding must follow there.

The Ariel and Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Volume 1, Our Oriental Heritage,