It has become a common tendency on the part of a certain group of people
to continually glorify the “good old days.” The type of mind possessed by
this group sets the past up as a sort of fetish. As it were, they move
forward with their faces turned backward. Some strange glamour about the
by-gone days proves irresistibly fascinating. The past is the standard by
which they judge all things. The present is good or bad to them according
as it conforms or fails to conform to that standard.
Such a criterion would not be so bad a thing if those who establish it
only took pains to remember the past as it really was. Such is not the
case, however. They remember it with all its imperfections omitted. The
past which they treasure is built of dreams. It held much that was dear
to them, and it came at the hopeful and exultant period of their lives.
They therefore treasure its dead years in memory as a sort of acme of
all the perfections which any age can possess.
This process continues until it becomes a fixed mental habit. It is then
indulged almost as unconsciously as the drawing of breath. At this point
in the history of one’s thought-life his standards have become second
nature. A thing is then proven good if its definite relation to the good
old days can be established. On the other hand, it is at once proven
frivolous and superficial if it is shown to originate in the present age.
No real thought process is here involved. The thing is only an assumption
and is simply taken for granted. It reveals itself in daily conversation.
It even reveals itself in the language of the sanctuary where the truth is
assumed to prevail. The truth, however, is never reached by methods of
prejudice or undue assumption. It is approached by fair and honest habits
of thought. We need but to look at the facts. If they indicate that the
old days were better than the new, they must be accepted as dependable
authority. Whatever the truth may be, it will prevail. We must give it
right of way, however unwelcome its conclusions may seem. It is as
changeless as its Creator. We must accept it as we find it, but we dare
not fail to look first at the facts and form our conclusions accordingly.
Of course, distance lends enchantment to the view. This, however, is not a
reason for persisting in error. It is one of the facts to be taken into
consideration in estimating the relative values to be placed upon the
distant and the near. When a gunner is getting the range of a target an
angle must be computed between the target and a point at each side of the
gun. Various conditions which may affect the shot, however, must also be
considered. Among these are the movement of the target, the condition of
the atmosphere, and the direction and velocity of the wind. Just such
influences must also be considered in taking mental aim. The tendency
mentioned above is one of them.
In some ways it is a fortunate fact that we are prone to forget the sordid
in the past. It is better that it should be the good rather than the evil
of past days that is best remembered. This is one of the hopeful elements
in human nature. It is a fact, nevertheless, that sordid elements existed
in the ages gone. Each epoch has had its failings, and each generation has
discovered that life has its seamy side.
It is an interesting commentary on this common human tendency that one of
the last utterances of George Washington was an expression of regret that
the spirit of the old times seemed to be passing, and that the tendencies
of the new age seemed less hopeful and promising. More than a century has
gone by since this lament was uttered. The world is still having its
struggles, just as it did then. The prices, the weather, and the
conditions produced by the war are still making the grounds for daily
complaint, just as was the case in other days. The race is still achieving
some progress, however, and most of us still believe that the most
promising days of civilization are yet to be.
The lament of the passing of the good old days may be found in times more
remote, however, than even those of George Washington. Some years ago an
archeological investigator discovered an ancient Egyptian record which,
when its message had been deciphered, was found to be a complaint that the
good old days seemed to have passed, and that great uncertainty attached
to the dawning period which was entirely too different from the past.
So it appears that this regretful attitude is not a new story. Ever since
human nature has existed these lugubrious things have been said. Only the
use of the power of reason is necessary, however, to see that the world
has, after all, made wonderful progress in most things since the writing
of the old Egyptian records, and even since the days of George Washington.
The past and its real achievements should never be discounted. The present
owes all that it is to the fact that it is built on ages gone by, and that
its foundations were so well laid by hands which now rest from their
labors. All things considered, however, each age has been a little better
than the age preceding it. It is not proper to say that the old days were
better than the new, unless it is proper to say that the foundation is
better than the superstructure. The things that were served simply as the
basis and preparation for the things that are.
We can appreciate the past without discounting the present. We can also
glorify the present without discounting the past. Each epoch has had its
own particular place to fill and each generation has had its own
particular part to play in the general scheme of things. No age could
properly be exchanged for any other, nor could any generation properly
fill another’s place. We must take the facts of history as they are.
Each age is best for its own time and in its own place.
Certain things are changeless. There are great, abiding quantities which
necessarily remain the same throughout the years. Human affection, love of
home, fidelity to a country, ambition for success, and the religious
instinct are among those things.
While the essential nature of these things is changeless, yet their
outward manifestation does undergo development. Love remains the same,
yet men learn how to enlarge its meaning. Patriotism is the same, yet it
assumes higher forms with advancing standards of national life. The heart
of religion is changeless, yet religion receives an ever more adequate and
satisfying interpretation. The new days cannot change the nature of
abiding things, but they can increase the adaptability of those things to
human needs.
Our times are not perfect. However, the old days also fell short of
perfection. Not only did they have their struggles and their failings,
but those struggles and failings menaced the race just as seriously as
have any of later days. We too easily forget what the past was like. We
also fail to take a full inventory of the meaning of the present. All in
all, it is safe to assume that men are sound at heart. Each age struggles
on as well as it knows how. We get up the hill a little way and then fall
back. On the whole, however, we climb a little more distance than
we tumble.
We are not moving backward from the perfect to the less perfect ages as
Ovid wrote. We are moving forward to the divine event of which Tennyson
dreamed. We are tending toward that perfect social condition revealed in
the visions of the seer of Patmos—a new heaven and a new earth. The past
was that the best might come. The last of life for which the first was
made is a racial as well as a personal hope.