THE ERROR OF RETROSPECTION.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 38, 20 September 1890, Page 8

THE ERROR OF RETROSPECTION.

M E do ourselves a great wrong by yielding to this habit of sad retrospective thought grown so strong in the world. Life has its sorrows, its blasting disappointments, it is true ; but so has chililhood, so has youth, just as severe, just as bitter to the child and youth as are theirs to the grown man and woman. The difference lies in this—that the former throw off their troubles. Their tears are April showers. They turn their backs upon the past and look joyously forward. The latter hug their pain, their anguish, their disappointments to their hearts. They brood over them. They cherish them as if they were their best friends, as indeed they may prove to be if treated aright, but it is a sorry thing to allow even our friends to overshadow our lives, to crush out our individuality as this regretful looking backward inevitably does. Turn away from the sorrows of the past. They are gone. Why live them over ? Why expend power on wliat is dead —why drag lifeless bodies around after you, making a weariness of the present that might be full of zest and energy’. It is the hopeful buoyant man and woman who succeed best in their undertakings. They are giving none of their strength to regrets, to living over their sorrows. Expert' ence may teach them wisdom for their forward movements' It is not allowed to clog them in theiradvance. And why should we look back mournfully upon the past? We are living in the Now, and it holds wonderful possibilities of growth even in its utmost of pain, if we but grasp them, growth for the eternal future which lies before us with its promise of joy unutterable. Even if we do not accept such a reality, still it is true that regrets bring weakness, which takes from present life all zest, all enjoyment. ‘ Power comes of looking forward with hope, of expecting and demanding better things to come. That is the law of Infinite Mind, and when we follow it we live in that Mind.’’