128 Overdoing the Past 



concerning prehistoric miners. The pearls 

 that are concealed in the river mussels to-day 

 are worth more than mere knowledge of the 

 caves of Golconda. 



The past can claim, with reason, grateful 

 remembrance on our part, but to continually 

 dream over it, and worry even that we cannot 

 unmake some of it, is worse than folly. It 

 can afford us little aid, the world's conditions 

 change so rapidly and radically, and he who, 

 whether by afts or by suggestion, by example 

 or the writing of a book, leads us to be up 

 and doing, not prone and dreaming, does the 

 world a service. Such a one becomes the 

 successful general of a battle of farther-reach- 

 ing consequence than he wots of. Whether 

 heroes or the humblest of all humble folk, it 

 is well to be up and doing, caring less for 

 the past and concerned more with the pres- 

 ent. Make history, not idly worship that 

 which has been made by others. Be not 

 mere hero-worshippers, but content to know 

 that, while we cannot all be heroes, no life 

 is so lowly placed that it may not be heroic. 



