It is quite clear that the supreme choice for any individual or
institution or nation is between unborn to-morrow and dead yesterday. No
one who concerns himself in the current political controversies, as, for
instance, that thing of unspeakable shame which is called the "education
question," will doubt that the present and the future are constantly
being sacrificed to the past. It may be that the spirit of a trust is
being grossly violated; but, rather than infringe the letter of it, the
life of to-day and to-morrow must suffer: thus do the worshippers of
dead yesterday--the most lethal idol before which fond humanity ever
prostrated itself.
If it be our duty to do--not "as though to breathe were life"--and if
nature indicates the future as that which we are to serve, what evidence
have we, or what likelihood, that such service is worth our while? Of
course, such a question as this may be answered in some such terms as
those of the further question, What has posterity done for us? And it is
interesting, perhaps, to consider that, so far as we can judge the
attitude of our ancestors towards ourselves, their chief interest in us
seems to have been as to what we should think of them--"What will
posterity say?" They left their records, as we leave our records, for
posterity to discover. With singular lack of judgment, as I think, we
bury examples of our newspapers for posterity to discover: these are
amongst the things which I should rather not have posterity discover.
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