From the earliest dawn of human history we find mankind striving, though for the most part in vain, to lift up the curtain that hangs before the future, to obtain some glimpse of what is to come.
There was nothing unnatural in this; the past had fled away, and with it that feeling which its actual presence had inspired. The present no sooner arrived than it was gone, it did nothing but swell the recollection of what had previously passed away. No doubt the past must ever occupy a large portion of human thought; a human faculty has been created to exercise itself upon it the memory: and as we dwell upon it we feel in turn joy or sorrow, remorse or satisfaction, hope or fear. It contains, as Revelation assures us, the catalogue of those acts, which, whether good or bad, are to decide our future and everlasting destiny. The
