Overdoing the Past 121 



essayists of to-day, that hint at such things 

 as of the past, force Candor to exclaim, 

 Lord, Lord, how this world is given to 

 lying ! 



The correction of all this is the art of 

 appreciation of our immediate surroundings, 

 and an avoidance, as of a pestilence, of de- 

 pressing retrospeftion. As it is the atmos- 

 phere that is now entering our lungs that 

 gives us life, so let it be the sights and sounds 

 and deeds of the passing moment that give 

 us joy. It is the rose on the bush this bright 

 morning and the song of the wild bird that 

 sounds across the fields, that bid me pause 

 to look and listen. Two centuries ago my 

 people saw and heard the same flowers and 

 birds, bat does such a thought really add to 

 the present pleasure ? If you permit your- 

 self to drift with the backward current of 

 retrospection, that moment you become blind 

 and deaf, or catch but a fleeting glimpse of 

 some poor ghost, or hear perchance the faint- 

 est echo of some dead song. Why press your 

 ear to the ground to fancy you deteft the 

 footfalls of preceding greatness ? What mat- 

 ters it whether Washington's boots creaked 

 or not ? Is there not more in the tramp of 



