We are in danger of becoming individuals and communities without a past. The maintenance of the past as a living memory is of essential importance in the life of a group and of individuals. Commeroration also reminds us of our indebtedness to our ancestors upon whose achievements and shoulders we still stand. Through such remembrance we overcome our narcissism and we are reminded of the immortality of our spiritual social life. Historians shape and dominate our collective memories.
All narritaive activity is devoted to the service of spiritual immortality.
All the others have been more or less forgotten leaving only faint traces in the barren date-banks of genealogy.