The Glory Days

[Paul Mackin]

terrence oflattery wrote:

> That praises are without reason lavished on the Glory Days of Pdom, 
> and that the honours due only to excellence are paid to Dinn days, is 
> a complaint likely to be always continued by those, who, being able to 
> add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; 
> or those, who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory 
> expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age 
> refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by 
> envy, will be at last bestowed by time.


"That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the
honours due only to excellence are paid to antiquity, is a complaint
likely to be always continued by those, who, being able to add nothing
to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those,
who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are
willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and
flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy, will
be at last bestowed by time.

Antiquity, like every other quality that attracts the notice of
mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence it, not from reason,
but from prejudice. Some seem to admire indiscriminately whatever has
been long preserved, without considering that time has sometimes
co-operated with chance; all perhaps are more willing to honour past
than present excellence; and the mind contemplates genius through the
shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun through artificial opacity.
The great contention of criticism is