Rome was founded when we began Roman history, and that is why
it seems long ago. Suppose the man of thirty-five heard, at that present
age, for the first time of Romulus. Why, Romulus would be nowhere. But
he built his wall, as a matter of fact, when every one was seven years
old. It is by good fortune that "ancient" history is taught in the only
ancient days. So, for a time, the world is magical.
Modern history does well enough for learning later. But by learning
something of antiquity in the first ten years, the child enlarges the
sense of time for all mankind. For even after the great illusion is over
and history is re-measured, and all fancy and flight caught back and
chastised, the enlarged sense remains enlarged. The man remains capable
of great spaces of time. He will not find them in Egypt, it is true, but
he finds them within, he contains them, he is aware of them. History has
fallen together, but childhood surrounds and encompasses history,
stretches beyond and passes on the road to eternity.
He has not passed in vain through the long ten years, the ten years that
are the treasury of preceptions--the first.
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