It will doubtless be asked why cyclic develoment must proceed
in this manner, in a downward direction, from higher to lower, a course that will
at once be perceived to be a complete antithesis to the idea of progress as the
moderns understand it. The reason is that the development of any manifestation
necessarily implies a gradually increasing distance from the principle from
which is proceeds; starting from the highest point, it tends necessarily
downward, and, as with heavy bodies, the speed of its motion increases
continuously until finally it reaches a point at which it is stopped.
Guénon the crisis of the modern world chapter 1, page 7/8