Great Falls tribune., 1922-01-03
THE NEW YEAR.

THE New Year is a time when
! good resolutions are made. usu.
ally to be broken before the year
expires. A good many jokes are
made about New Year resolutions,
but it is better to make good New
Year resolutions and break them
later than not to make them at all
Something is at least gained by the
effort to keep good resolutions
even il weak human nature refuses
to stand the strain of self-denial.
For these good resolutions OF the
New Year usually involve a deter
mination to sacrifice some easily
besetting sin in economies or NOR
ais. and to substitute higher ideals
for the easy way. They mean the
striking out Of new paths. They
mean progress.
Some persons inclined to pes
simism tell us that the world has
made no real progress in the last
six thousand years toward better
ethics or moral conduct. They ad-
NIT that we have made great
progress in science and the art ii
comfortable and luxurious living,
in research and in knowledge, but
very little or none in morals and
ethics, and they point to the con-
ception of truth held by the
ancients in the days of the glory
of Greece and Rome, and still
further back along the dim cor
ridors Of time to the ancient Aryan
races of India and Persia. And it
must be conceded that if measured
by such standards the thoughts OF
the few wisest men among the anci-
ents on such subjects were very
nearly as lofty as that OF the wise
men of the present day. But we
have far more such men these
days. In the ancient times 1t
was only a very few who were
qualified by mind and knowl-
edge to grasp such ideals. These
were adopts, magicians, graduates
Of closely guarded mysteries. To-
day they are the heritage OF all
who take the trouble to buy book
and ponder on these things. The
wisdom of the ancients is no longer
secret" wisdom, forbidden to the
common mass under heavy penal
ties.
The processes of evolution are
slow. Six thousand years are as but
a day in the eyes of the Creator OF
the earth and the author and maker
of the laws of evolution. Individu-
ais acquire wisdom, but as they get
wisdom during the three score
wears and ten which the Psalmist
fixes as the limit of human life,
they die, and their plcaes are taken
by the newborn generation which
must acquire their wisdom in the
same way-by experience. In no
other way will they accept it. Thus
like a class in school in which those
of the largest knowledge pass out
of the class by graduation and a
new class takes their place, the
knowledge of the class increases
slowly, because it is being continu-
ally depleted by the graduation OF
the wisest and the substitution OF
the less wise from lower grades.
The same principle applies to the
wisdom of tho world. The wisest
members of the several bodies are
constantly being graduated to
another world, and their places be-
ing filled by those of less expert
ence and wisdom, who cannot abb
sorb the wisdom Of the dead, but
must by the law Of human nature
buy that wisdom for themselves in
the school Of experience. How
much the knowledge of the world
and its wisdom could and would be
increased if every man could in
lerit the wisdom of his parents a.
their death as he inherits their real
and personal estate! But that is
not the law of the Creator. Every
human soul has to buy wisdom at
a great price, as his father and
mother did before him, in the hard
school of experience.
But the world does move up
ward and onward in ideals and
ethics all the time. It moves slow
ly as the ice mountains move,
scooping into valleys, and chang
ing the face Of the earth. It moves
slowly with the motion Of great
masses, but it moves just the same.
And by the laws Of evolution it
moves upward to better things.
The good resolutions of the New