Feb. 5.
Is these modern days it has become fashionable among numbers of people to sneer at tradition and to refer to it as something which ought to be cast into the limbo of things useless, if not harmful. Nevertheless tradition still plays a much more important part in our lives than we generally admit. Especially among those who proclaim themselves believers in democracy is it regarded with suspicion not unmingled with scorn. Yet, after all. tradition is essentially a democratic thing, for it amounts to nothing more nor less than the summation of the opinions, ideals and outlook of a people at some period of their history. National traditions are in themselves more democratic in spirit than national laws, even though the latter may be made by representatives elected under the widest form of franchise. Tradition is a matter of slow growth and deep roots, and just as trees which take decades to reach maturity stand unshaken against the fury of the tempest and the insidious attacks of plant pests, so tradition persists despite the changed conditions of life of succeeding generations or the attacks of iconoclasts. It requires the force of public opinion to start a tradition on its course through the ages and hence the initial momentum imparted to it is such that centuries may elapse before it ceases to make its effects felt. Time and again men have declared that the old traditions have gone for ever, only to find that eventually they have reappeared, if not in their original form, at least as part of a new outlook to meet new conditions.
A man may be a wanderer for the greater portion of his life, but not all his days does he spend in only be satisfied to deal with in voyaging through fresh seas or ex-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.