When contemplating the likely life-course of certain individuals “under the aspect of time,” I often experience genuine pain. But when I do it “under the aspect of eternity” the pain gradually lessens. This comes from my conviction that being here, in this time-sodden dimension, is (to put it neutrally) temporary. There is a way out. We will all eventually find it. Oddly, the Age of Fossil Fuels, which we worship as Progress, has been a kind of curse. That influx of free energy has reduced the level of hardship for many, many people a bit too much; therefore it has made it harder for a similar number to discover what our job on this earth is. Therefore we pay for the ease of modernity with massive private failure at the individual level in neglecting life’s Job 1.
The Latin phrase, sub specie aeternitatis, got it legs in the seventeenth century. It was first used by the short-lived lens-grinder and philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) in asserting that Reason derives from God, that its use permits us to see things under the aspect of eternity, not of time. Curious business, this wisdom in another language. Latin seemingly elevates concepts. Lots of learned people have used it since Spinoza. Something in us resonates with that meaning. I remember reading it for the first time as a youngster used by Arnold Toynbee in one of his works—and immediately latching on to it as if I’d found a treasure. Of such stones, to change the image, are built the steps out of this dimension.
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