Overdoing the Past 127 



by personal considerations. In a certain 

 sense they were selfish. What they felt 

 called upon to do required courage, but it 

 was nothing reckless. They were shrewd. 

 They afted upon the outcome of calm con- 

 sideration, choosing what they believed to be 

 the lesser of two evils ; and it is sad to think 

 that had not success attended our favorites, 

 few of them all would be remembered from 

 year to year. 



Much as we know, we have yet far more 

 to learn, and this condition of ignorance, 

 which dates from the appearance of man upon 

 the earth, will remain until the last human 

 being in the world stands wondering what is 

 before him. This prosy faft binds us very 

 closely to the present. We have, or ought 

 to have, enough to do with the demands that 

 each day makes upon us ; and what leisure is 

 permitted us is most wisely spent in the 

 study of what our contemporaries are doing. 

 If they are outreaching us in any endeavor, 

 we need greater energy and have less time to 

 dream ; if they are outspeeding us, what do 

 our own limbs need to give them equal 

 agility ? We need the gold being dug to-day 

 more than the speculations of archseologists 



