Abstract

In the beginning no more than two editions of Diogenes were foreseen, the English and the French. However, since the publication of a magazine devoted to general culture on a high level obviously responded to a need, other editions appeared successively, in Spanish, German, and Italian. Thus, for the first time, perhaps, a magazine of this type appeared simultaneously in all the principal cultural languages of the West. It has always been our purpose, however, to work for more than a merely European Humanism. We want a truly ecumenical Humanism. For this reason, hardly anything could give the promoters of our undertaking more hearty encouragement than the following letter, received from a group of Egyptian professors. This letter testifies to the impression our enterprise is making in the Near East, and moves us to predict for the near future an edition of Diogenes in Arabic. This remarkable support permits us to speculate, without too much temerity, that Diogenes may one day be welcomed by the cultures of the Far East in the same manner. Contributions from that quarter we regard as no less indispensable to the broad Humanism we are working for.