Toynbee's The Study of History
To many, dreaming up the history may mean fabrication of facts. But it is an accurate description of many chapters of Arnold Toynbee's momentous work, The Study of History.
In 1912, at the age of twenty-three Toynbee was on a trip to Greece. One day while watching the citadel of Pharsalus, where a battle had take place in 197 b.c., he suddenly found himself watching the actual battle being fought in front of his eyes. He had moved across time to witness events which had happened some two thousand years ago. During that trip, Toynbee had several experiences in which he was "transported, in a flash, across the gulf of Space and Time" to scenes from history connected with the places of his visit.
Of course, Toynbee was aware of the history many of these places, and so one can speculate that his visions were only a product of his fertile imagination, combined with his knowledge. But there were also occasions, when what he witnessed was a new information, which he could confirm only after cross-checking with authorised sources. He wrote about this experiences:
"On each of the six occasions just recorded, the writer has been rapt into a momentary communication with the actors in a particular historic event through the effect upon his imagination of a sudden arresting view of the scene in which this long-past action had taken place."
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