her all good nor all bad; it has achieved as well as it has
erred. But it is, in any case, all we have. Without the
knowledge, the customs, the institutions we have inherited,
we should have no advantage at all over our ancestors of ten
thousand years ago. Biologically we have not changed. The
past is our basic material. Each generation starts with
what it finds in the way of cultural achievement, and builds
upon that.

Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should take a stand
thereupon, and discover what is the best way; but when the
discovery is well-taken, then to make progression. And to speak truly,
_antiquitas soeculi iuventus mundi_. These times are the ancient times,
when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient
_ordine retrogrado_, by a computation backwards from ourselves.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bacon: _The Advancement of Learning_,
Collected Works, vol. I, p. 172.]

The past, save what we discover in our generation, is our
sole storehouse of materials. And a very small part of our
useful knowledge in the industrial arts, in science, in social
organization and administration does come from our own
generation. It is the accumulated experience of generations
of men. We can, out of this mass of materials, select whatever
is useful in clarifying the issues of the present, whatever
helps us to accomplish those purposes which we have, after
critical consideration, decided to be useful and serviceable.
If, for example, we decide to build a bridge, it is of importance
that we know all that men have in the past discovered of
mechanical relations and industrial art which will enable us to
build a bridge well. If we want to establish an educational
system in some backward portion of the world, it is useful for
us to know what methods men have used in similar situations.
Whatever we decide to do, we are so much the better off, if
we know all that men before us have learned in analogous
instances.

But to use the inheritance of the past implies an analysis
of present problems, and an acceptance of the course to be
pursued. The experience of the past, the heritage of knowledge
that has come down to us, is so various and extensive
that choices must be made. The historian in writing even
a comprehensive history of a country must still make choices
and omissions. Similarly, in using knowledge inherited from
the past as materials, we must have specific problems to
govern our choice. The statisticia