By means of our semi barbarity in body and in desire, we have secret access everywhere, such as a noble age never had; we have access above all to the labyrinth of imperfect civilizations, and to every form of semi barbarity that has at any time existed on earth; and in so far as the most considerable part of human civilization hitherto has just been semi barbarity, the historical sense implies almost the sense and instinct for everything, the taste and tongue for everything: whereby it immediately proves itself to be an sense.