The name is absent

Tradition               21

ences of the centuries that have followed them, it is in us
the antiquity that we revere in them may be found.” It
is one of the remarkable facts of history that the conception
of progress, which is so axiomatic especially in this western
world, was such a late arrival in human thought, not having
come in strength until well on in the eighteenth century in
Europe, and as yet hardly at all in Asia. Indeed it may be
confidently affirmed that uniform progress is not evident
in all ages and all countries. There are outbreaks of genius
among peoples as among individuals, but it appears that
those gifts made by peoples, epochs and individuals are not
lost, and that though here and there “we seem no painful
inch to gain,” as we look out upon the sea of humanity the
main does come flooding in.

Tradition is a more healthful constituent in the education
of a progressive society than of a static one. In the latter
it may bring on sclerosis and a premature old age; for it
is a mark of approaching senility to be ever lingering on the
golden days of the past, to mutter with a sigh, “things are
not what they were.” Whereas in a progressive world tra-
dition is the foundation on which those who come after us
will erect nobler structures than we have seen. But for
such foundations tradition must be tested and that which
stands the test be built into them.

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