Wolfgang Smith

The fall of Adam is not only a primordial act which antedates history as such, but it is also something which comes to pass again and again in the course of human events. It is re-enacted on a smaller or larger scale wherever men opt for what is contingent and ephemeral in place of the eternal truth…

It is one of the great ironies of fate that the most terrible instruments of destruction have been pioneered by men who above all others loved peace, and that the most powerful means of enslavement owe their existence to some of the greatest champions of human liberty.

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This is a chapter of Prof. Smith’s Cosmos and Transcendence, first published in 1984 and now available in a revised 2008 edition from Sophia Perennis. Excerpt republished here with thanks.