Cultural history reveals the changing rhythm of man's sensibility, and its demand for the logic of relativity. The story of man is not a uni-linear sustained progress towards a transcendental goal, but a multi-linear, cyclical or rather dialectical movement. Progress towards ideals creates new positive ideals, as also new negative realities in the ongoing historical process, which rules out final models of excellence. The criteria of excellence are not purely objective norms, to be discovered by pure reflection, but are conditioned by the bi-polar dynamics of action and reaction, thrust and counter-thrust, change and stability, push and pull. Historicism, in the above sense, does not negate the search for norms or criteria of validity in man's eternal quest for values. It only implies giving up certainties that dissolve into illusions in the clear light of history. The study of history gives us existential poise and mature hope, instead of ill-informed certainty and immature expectations that the triumph of our ideas or values is just round the corner, only to find them swept aside in the inexorable flux of history, Neither public acclaim nor short term rejection, neither success nor failure of one's ideas in one's own life time, disturbs the person who looks to history for guidance.

(2) Principle of Recurrence

A major theme of the wisdom, which we learn from history, is the principle of recurrence or the principle of unity in variety and variety in unity, of the human condition down the ages. The characters of kings, statesmen, artisans, merchants, peasants, priests, teachers, poets and artists, and the pattern of events, say, the lust for power, the workings of jealousy, the intrigues of the court, the betrayal of comrades, the fear of reprisal, the inroads of corruption, the rise and fall of individuals, families, or dynasties, and empires—all are repeated again and again like a musical refrain on different instruments and different keys. When we personally taste the above negativities of life, we are apt to be overwhelmed by bitterness and sorrow, and lose our inner poise, thinking our own lot or times to be uniquely bad But history takes out the sting of our agonized bitterness and the pain of our outraged innocence at the frailties and follies of our contemporaries, or, for that matter, our exaggerated admiration for their virtues and achievements.

The equanimity of the historian must not, however, be confused with moral indifference or insensitivity to contemporary evils. Mature historical vision lends itself, neither to simplistic moral denunciation of evil, nor to its amoral passive acceptance, but rather prescribes resolute and planned ameliorative action, without the certainty of quick or even lasting success, and with the full knowledge, that no remedy will ever root out evil from the human condition.

(3) Slowness of the Movement of History

As mentioned earlier, the course of history appears to be moving in the direction of a consensus of ideas and values. The principle of recurrence is, thus, supplemented by the principle of direction of history. We must grasp the direction of this basic movement or thrust of man's quest for value, as distinct from the deviations and detours, adventurous explorations and fads, exaggerated reactions and rigid responses that are thrown up on the surface of human experience by the inter-play of man's inner freedom, the variety of his cultural and physical environment, and the unintended consequences of his choices.