THE SPELL OF THE PAST 235 



important and like a part of the natural system of 

 things. When they pass away what a void they 

 leave ! Those who take their places, the new set, 

 do not seem to fill the bill at all. But the chances 

 are that they are essentially the same class of peo- 

 ple, and will seem as permanent and important to 

 our children as the old people did to us. 



To repeat the experience, go to a strange town 

 and take up your ahode. Everybody seems in his 

 proper place, there are no breaks, we miss nothing, 

 the social structure is complete. In a quarter of a 

 century go back to the place again ; ruins every- 

 where, nearly all the old landmarks gone, and a 

 new generation upon the stage. But to the new- 

 comer nothing of this is visible ; he finds every- 

 thing established and in order as we first found it. 

 It is so in life. Our children are the newcomers 

 who do not and cannot go behind the visible scene. 



We are always wondering who are going to take 

 the place of the great poets, the great preachers, the 

 great statesmen and orators who are passing away. 

 We see the new men, but they are not the worthy 

 successors of these. The great ones are all old or 

 dead. The new ones we know not ; they cannot be 

 to us what the others were ; they cannot be the 

 star actors in the drama in which we have played 

 a part, and therefore we fancy they are of little 

 account. 



Are there any genuine old men any more ? Why, 

 the old men, the real ones, are all dead long ago ; 

 we knew them in our youth ; they were always old, 



