The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present.
If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
Wise men say, and not without reason, that whosoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.
He who would foresee what is to happen should look to what has happened: for all that is has its counterpart in time past.
