Long, yes, but worthy. Notable too that Toynbee wrote these volumes (it's not clear in which your selection is found) in 1934-1939, yet it's apt for our horizons as well as the one that was looming for him.
I'm especially struck by the phase "the prospects of mankind becoming." (I don't know if your extract is missing a word, or if that's just how he wrote it, in all its evocative power.)
Toynbee on Greece, Rome and the West today
Gill it is from section 4, the breakdown of civilizations. He divides the troubles into
Breakdown
Then collapse.
Long, yes, but worthy. Notable too that Toynbee wrote these volumes (it's not clear in which your selection is found) in 1934-1939, yet it's apt for our horizons as well as the one that was looming for him.
I'm especially struck by the phase "the prospects of mankind becoming." (I don't know if your extract is missing a word, or if that's just how he wrote it, in all its evocative power.)