Surely there is no reason why such a temper should
overtake old age. There may be reason enough, "in the nature of
things." For that which is of nature is born only to decay and die.
But in man there is more than dying nature; there is spirit, and a
capability of spiritual and everlasting life, which renews its youth
like the eagle's, and goes on from strength to strength, and which, if
it have its autumns and its winters, has no less its ever-recurring
springs and summers; if it has its Sabbaths, finds in them only rest and
refreshment for coming labour. And why not in nations, societies,
scientific schools? These too are not merely natural: they are
spiritual, and are only living and healthy in as far as they are in
harmony with spiritual, unseen, and everlasting laws of God. May not
they, too, have a capability of everlasting life, as long as they obey
those laws in faith, and patience, and humility? We cannot deny the
analogy between the individual man and these societies of men. We
cannot, at least, deny the analogy between them in growth, decay, and
death. May we not have hope that it holds good also for that which can
never die; and that if they do die, as this old Greek society did, it is
by no brute natural necessity, but by their own unfaithfulness to that
which they knew, to that which they ought to have known? It is always
more hopeful, always, as I think, more philosophic, to throw the blame
of failure on man, on our own selves, rather than on God, and the
perfect law of His universe.
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