Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-31
THE OLD YEAR AND
THE NEW.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

America will celebrate New Year day
tomorrow, and behind the celebration is
background of common memories ex-
tending over 1913 yeafs. Behind these
years, again. extends more shadowy
past. shared in by some, vaguely sensible
to others, and by most of US disregarded.
Whether computed in tens of thousands
or millions of years, its meaning is in
tangible. Definition and reality in time
begin for most of us with the Christian
era.
A little more than fifty years ago there
was a well rounded measure of the years
from the beginning of time a measure
the world, and behind which ii served
no purpose for mortal mind to look. This
measure was accepted generally by the
Christians of the west 1t provided
firm basis for the survey OF human &C
complishment and for prophecy.
1t was called the Era of Creation. and
1904 years were reckoned from the form
ing of the earth until the birth of Christ.
Had the researches of the archeologist,
the geologist. the anthropologist and
other scientists. whose data led them TO
make computations of time far antedat-
ing any historical epoch, been left un-
done. we would observe tomorrow not
only the year 1914 of the Incarnation. but
also the year 1913 of the age of the
world
Our era, or our definition of our place
in time, is so real to us that probably
few stop to consider how many different
constructions will be placed upon our
New Year by the people of the world
tomorrow. There have been innumerable
measures of time since the days when the
first folk of whom we have record made
their appearance in the world. And New
Year day has fallen upon dates rams 4g
from January l to December 81 of our
calendar.
There are some among us today who
speak of 100000 and more years of the
age of man; an age in which the most an
cient of our eras would be engulfed and
swallowed up as fly under the lofty
dome of some cathedral. Even though
this computation of the age of man, based
by scientists upon comparative studies
Of the data of our short day. be right it
would be difficult to convey a popular
idea of this period to man. the inheritor
of the age. 1t would be still more diff
cult TO establish and maintain an era of
man, dating tomorrow as New Year day.
5OOOO1.
To the people OF the west tomorrow
marks the beginning of another year in
the high sum-
Deemed High Summer mer of civili-
Of Civilization. 80 -" NO o
Indefinite the future may seem in the
popular fancy, the case is otherwise with
the past. To this fancy. there has been
a fallow winter season for man, a germi
nation season of springtime. and now We
live in the summer season, a season Of
hardy growth, and the autumn. or the
season of reaping. lies before US.
In the popular consciousness. all that
has gone before in preparation of the
present has largely its definition in the
1913 years that have passed since
the establishment of our era. The spring
season of civilization is thought of as
extending into this period in the dark
ages The winter period is thought in
the dim. traditional years before Christ.
Some few concede the smile of spring
time to the ancient civilization of Egypt
and AsSyria.
On the other hand to those whose espe-
cial work 1t has been to reconstruct fallen
empires from their ruins to push the
dawn of history further and further back
from the starting point of the Christian
era, who are deciphering the cuneiform
inscriptions on the baked clay books of
ancient Nineveh or the chiseled hero
glyphs of the Egyptian memorials. or
who have forced some secrets of the
worlds age by study of it's strata forma-
ton or of the development of life that it
suppOrts-tO these even the past loses its
semblance of definition. Such persons
speak of an autumn of civilization 10,ODa
years ago; compute the beginning of
summer era far behind the veil of his
tory, and estimate a springtime that is
Intangible, unreal.
In India there is a measure of time
commensurate in its proportions to the
PSYCHOLOGISTS theory of the past This
era is the growth of that mixture of
myth and metaphysics that is native to
the Hindus. 1t is divided into four ages.
or yugs. and in these four ages are in
Guided the past and future of the world
Three of these ages have been lived and
are gone. This is the last age of the
world, the kali-yug. With the scientist,
the Hindu agrees that the world is in
the scar of its autumnal age.
This last age, according to the Hindu s
reckoning began far back, where most
are accustomed to look for the youth
of our planet. 1t Is reckoned from 31Ol
b. c. Thus 1901 years of the worlds last
phase have passed by this New Year day.
and, according to the philosophy develop
ed by the Hindus in their speculations
upon time, each year brings with it de-
terioration instead of progress. The Kali
yug is the last and worst age of all. and
comes more marked and painful. The
year of this era Is a sidereal year, and
begins about April IL.
Il X
While the people of the west look down
the short chain of their 1913 years and
feel the inspira-
Hindu Contemplates ton of their
Three Vast Ages. s,usnv,n 80 q m, = .
du contemplates three ages that have
passed and more than 5000 years already
sped of this present age and feels the
rnodesty, the quietude and the weakness
of antiquity. In the west there is restless
work and as restless a belief that time
old problems of the race are on the
threshold of solution. There Is con-
vtction in the hearts of most of these
Of fyrt hat M of