The saeculum provides this same opportunity. Regardless of generation, every person who lives into deep old age experiences each of the four seasons of life once–and each of the four turnings of history once. The intersection of these two quaternities does more than just make our own generation unique among the living: It bonds us with every fourth generation that came before or will come after.

Tactius disagreed with moralists who argued that the civic virtue of a great society can only change in one direction. “Indeed, it may well be that there is a kind of cycle in human affairs,” he wrote, “and that morals alternate as do the seasons. Ancient times were not always better. Our generation too has produced many examples of honorable and civilized behavior for posterity to copy. One must hope this praise-worthy competition with our ancestors may long endure.”

–The Fourth Turning, by Strauss & Howe, p. 333