The Comfort of History

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Comfort of History

I A STORY OF MAN'S STRUGGLE WITH j ENVIRONMENT.

i i As we stand on the threshold of another year we may be j very naturally given to retrospection, not merely for reft trospection's sake, but for the lessons that may be learned j from the experiences of the past. History, of which we j are surely engaged in the making, is our heritage, and the j times through which we are now passing will surely mark j the present as one of the really eventful eras in the proI gress of a civilised world.

Posterity is each generation's secular judgment seat. At that bar our children's children in extended succession will call us to account. Long before then we shall have ceased to care whether their verdict be favourable or adverse. But we ourjselves look back with pride on whatever noble things our ancestors did. There would, therefore, appear to rest upon us some obligation to provide our descendants with similar grounds for satisfaction. Ate a matter of loyalty to our forefathers we do not ferret out occasions when they failed. Such occasions occurred. There were times when, through foolishness or selfishness, they made majority decisions, followed by actions which are now generally condemned. To talk as if altruism and wisdom always characted the conduct of our ancestors is a dishonouring form of filial devotion. It ignorejs the fact that on practically every important subject these ancestors were themselves very sharply divided. Negro slavery, child labour, taxation without representation, industrial and political serfdom for the common peoplemany good men and women approved, these things, believing theniselves right. Their descendants have for the most part declared them wrong, while crediting them with purity of motive and honesty of intention. In that fact there lurks much satisfaction for the men and women of this generation. It may be that posterity will yet on many counts condemn us. But there are those precedents in history to comfort us. History is primarily the story of man's struggle with his environment. That environment had to be made conformable to his will and serviceable to his purposes. Taking the long-range view, he had to subdue wild beasts and make provision against the excesses of cold and heat. All the while he kept fighting his fellow men, who were not his real foes at all. Millenniums were jspent in these processes; man, indeed, travelled towards the light, but the pace was slow. It might seem that human progress ought to have been more rapid since men's basic wants are uniform the world over; their passions are similar. Progress has been retarded by the operations of two opposing forces, the conservative and revolutionary instincts. Owing to the interplay of these civilisation has occasionally been kept for generations in a state of equipoise; Ansi,. seeming activity has been of the rocK£ ing-chair order; there -has been a semblance of great''exertion,.but no forward motion. The restraints of conservatism have unquestionably saved mankind from many a, .catastrophe. But to be conservative is to be static. /Because no risks are ; taken no triumphs are won. Our ancestors oscillated between the twp extremes, and if their hopeis were never, fully realised, neither were their fears. It is, of course, vain to suppose that history can ever hie? a positively exact science, as there is too strong a Current : \of human impulses, too great, a mass of human frailties. * But, look- '. ing back over the way man.has come,, certain: generalisations are possible. There is Vmuch that is inspiring in the deathless past, and every precaution should be taken to preserve the memory of • it "lest we forget." But in matters of history forgetfulness may 'sometimes be a prudent and prater quality. Time is apt to '.'in-* Ivest gross deeds with a mellow beauty and it is well to remember that the past was not exclusively glorious. Indeed/ if the golden age is rear, the outlook for tinctly dismal. These present, days are for .ttiany so crammed with per-

plexities and losses that people who take an apocalyptic view of life are satisfied the world is coming to an end, that we are on the verge of a new era, which will be ushered in with dramatic and celestial manifestations* They may prove to be right. But tHfe prospect, even if immediate, does not absolve anyone from getting on witn each day's prosaic work. Every century has had adherents, of this theory, but " since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they werft from the beginning." History would seem to teach that on this score at least there is no need'for precipitate alarms. At different historical stages men have become impatieni, and have sought to ameliorate their conditions by methods- of violence. The French Revolution was a species of mass revolt, which is a way mei and women have when they are pushed too hard. And yet, in the subsequent years, the historians have come to view the grim event with a certain tolerance. Many of the calamities originally predicted duly resulted, but their effect was modified by the more just, more humane conditions set up. England revolted In 1688, France in 1848, and on the ballance both nations greatly. benefited from their revolutions. History, therefore, seems to offer the comforting assurance that such revolutions as this generation has seen, and may yet see, should be regarded with philosophic calm. The soothing evidence of the past is that greater good than evil may ultimately accrue.

It has been observed that a short course of history is an excellent corrective to pessimism. The aphorism is explicable individually quite a)s much as nationally. Probably never before have so many persons _in so:, many nations hurried to and fro do-- , claring that never at any time has •• the human race passed through a cris- .. ijs so grave as this; never have .prpb- : lems been so perplexing, never have : burdens been so heavy; That.cry has been heard in every age, that, state*-..-'■ mentis stamped onpracticallyjevery ~ page of history. Amid the. social unrest aticfrthe turmoil in menrs • thoughts the with a solid background- of historical knowledge;.; ha» a. source of comfort and of strength that those unequipped cannot have. The reformers of the past had their visions of their ideal world,-put long before it dame in fcight they had pas- , sed on. Yet they did not live in vain. . Precept, upon precept, line upon Khejv., here a little and there a little, they/did their life's work, sought to realise;,a their ambition to leave the world bet-: 5 : ter than' th'ey.>had found it. They followed" m.jthe.train of the 'faithful men and: women, who had gone oil hefore; they kept alight the torch of truth; they' ; kept * alive -the self-saeri- £ r ficihg sp'frit. V By such heroes'and ! heroines in .mufti individual, bligarchical ' and ecclesiastical tyrannies , l ? were challenged and; overthrown, so- ? cial abolished, a 1 nobler,. higher justice was" established. r His-4: tory attests that these: thinjgs wefieac- • hieyed not by spasmodic *melodramats- ' > ic acts, but by the ceaseless altruistic efforts ahd*who considerfedv qu|wP»f ordinary. ~tThat,truth;. t That,truth; might welfcife-".. ,' spire ahd comfort-all.whorealise-thiat, * they are destined to ,be <srdinarjg. t 7 Those'whorTead carefully between the lines of/history's pages discern that the men and women most .7 serviceable to' their hay©- ' 'j' been they " who never, turned their back, but marched breast forward, never doubting clouds Wflujd. A corresponding " spirit nations is all that order to dispel those compass civilisatioii|to-aaSii|