ABSTRACT
Clearly the present is endowed with a capacity to understand the past in ways that it cannot understand itself: history takes place behind man's back as well as in front of his face. But a text is also a function of specific human intentions . . . and it is a large part of our task to understand how these intentions went into its making. Much of what we come to know about texts was also available to their makers, albeit in a variety of unfamiliar cognitive forms, and to empower our critical abilities by devaluing theirs is to initiate an exchange that will ultimately rebound upon ourselves.
