The Rev. Dr. Temple, in his glowing Essay, “Education of the World,”
thus maintains that all human improvement is the result of the
accumulations of Time:
To the spirit all things that exist must have a purpose, and nothing
can pass away till that purpose be fulfilled. The lapse of time is
no exception to this demand. Each moment of time, as it passes, is
taken up in the shape of permanent results into the time that
follows, and only perishes by being converted into something more
substantial than itself. Thus, each successive age incorporates into
itself the substance of the preceding,—the power whereby the present
ever gathers itself into the past, transforms the human race into a
colossal man, whose life reaches from the Creation to the Day of
Judgment. The successive generations of men are days in this man’s
life. The discoveries and inventions which characterise the
different epochs of the world’s history are his works. The creeds
and doctrines, the opinions and principles of the successive ages,
are his thoughts. The states of society at different times are his
manners. He grows in knowledge, in self-control, in visible size,
just as we do. And his education is in the same way, and for the
same reason, precisely similar to ours. All this is no figure, but
only a compendious statement of a very comprehensive fact.
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