"That past which is so presumptuously brought forward as a precedent for the present, was itself founded on some past that went before it"

History is often invoked as a guide and justification for decisions, policies, or social norms in the present. Anne Louise Germaine de Staël’s observation calls attention to how this reliance on precedent may be more uncertain than it seems. The apparent solidity of tradition or "the way things have always been" is exposed as an illusion once we recognize that what is now invoked as precedent itself originated from prior circumstances, each with their own origins and motivations. The past is not a fixed foundation but rather a succession of choices, each reacting to and reshaping what came before. Thus, any attempt to justify contemporary action purely on the grounds of tradition or precedent ignores the layered and contingent character of history.

Precedents are not pure, unchanging truths but the results of earlier situations, decisions, and even accidents of circumstance. To use the past as a rigid template for the present is to ignore both the complexity of history and the processual nature of human societies. Every era was once a present, struggling to accommodate its own new realities; those decisions, in turn, became the "precedents" we now point to. This means that appealing to tradition alone, without inquiry or adaptation, risks perpetuating outdated or obsolete frameworks that may not fit current needs.

De Staël urges a more critical approach: an understanding that each precedent must be considered in context, acknowledging its origins and the fact that it, too, was once a new response to different problems. History is a conversation, not a commandment, a continuous dialogue between past experiences and present necessities. Progress and reform often require recognizing the relativity of precedent, empowering society to create new foundations where old ones no longer serve. By recognizing that every precedent rests upon earlier changes, we find both permission and obligation to adjust, reinterpret, and sometimes remake tradition as circumstances demand.