FYI, this idea of continual progress through history was invented during the Enlightenment, as far as I know. Before that the prevailing idea was more the LotR-

FYI, this idea of continual progress through history was invented during the Enlightenment, as far as I know. Before that the prevailing idea was more the LotR-style descent-into-less mentality that "great things of the past will never come back again"...