It is unquestionable that, whether for good or evil, they have descended
to us by tradition and custom as a legacy. They are sufficiently real
to be of practical use, and they are used. It is by them that we set
a time--alas, that we should have the necessity of doing it--to discard
some vice, some sin, some weakness. We use them in the interest of
procrastination--that we may put off the parting day with something
our conscience, or our taste, or both, disapprove. By them we appoint
a time when we shall say to the divine spark within our breasts, you
may flame out into our daily life. By them we give a respite which
alas, often ends in a commutation of sentence and oftener still in a
full pardon and restoration to peace.

So, you see, I do not think a great deal of old year remorse or New
Year resolutions. I think they are just that much better than none at
all, and this has to be qualified by the damage they do in having us
put off reformation. That a man should fix a day to reform in this or
that particular, is at least an evidence that he is aware of his need
of it--a great point gained. These years are but little stepping-stones
across the narrow brook of Time that pours into the vast ocean of
Eternity, and it is a good sign when a man approaches the next, and
the next, and the next with increasing reverence and sense of the
responsibility of his progress. It is a good sign when a man begins
to discover in the impediments of life, what is necessary and what is
absolutely hurtful to him in the journey of life, and when, with the
discovery, he summons up enough resolution to fix a day to throw away
the bad. It is hard for the best of us to get our load rightly picked
over. When we have failed to start right in youth, it is unspeakably
hard after getting out into the dust and glare of the world to assort
our burden over, and drop what ill elements we have gathered on the
road. That a man should fix a time to do this is itself a good thing