It is almost impossible to get the average man to think of his life as
a whole, or to realise that the fleeting present leaves indelible
traces. They seem to fade away wholly. The record appears to be written
in water. It is written in ink which is invisible, but as indelible as
invisible. Grammarians define the perfect tense as that which expresses
an action completed in the past and of which the consequences remain in
the present. That is true of all our actions. Our characters, our
circumstances, our remembrances, are all permanent. Every day we make
entries in our diary.