OVERDOING THE PAST 



ARE we not overdoing history and neg- 

 lefting the present moment? Peri- 

 odical literature is overflowing with dilu- 

 tions, more or less weak, of the elaborate 

 biographies of great men. There is no time 

 allowed us to consider the living present 

 because of the claims of a dead past. We 

 have ceaselessly rung in our ears the wonder- 

 ful doings of this or that hero : how he, being 

 successful, saved his country ; how he, being 

 defeated, the occurrence of continental disas- 

 ter was prevented. This is all rank rubbish. 

 The world is too powerful for any one man 

 to absolutely control any important portion 

 of it. Even the present Czar has his limita- 

 tions. It is mere assumption to say that 

 England would have crushed this country had 

 the Revolution failed. We are taught to 

 despise the Tories of 1776, but their argu- 

 ments were worth listening to, and the loy- 

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