The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

ii6 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
been through we may gain wisdom to anticipate the
consequences of our present actions. The heedless
person is one who forgets, or at all events one who
will not attend to his own memories. Such reckless-
ness is its own condemnation ; it cannot plead the
excuse of ignorance.
But now it may be objected that this reference to
the mere thought of consequences suggests considera-
tions that are too low to furnish the reasons for the
ruin of Jerusalem. Would the city have been spared
if only her inhabitants had been a little more foreseeing?
It should be observed that though mere
prudence is never a very lofty virtue, imprudence is
sometimes a very serious fault. It cannot be right
to be simply reckless, to ignore all lessons of the past
and fling oneself blindly into the future. The hero
who is sure that he is inspired by a lofty motive may
walk straight into the very jaws of death, and be all
the stronger for his noble indifference to his fate ; but
he who is no hero, he who is not influenced by any
great or unselfish ideas, has no excuse for neglecting
the warnings of common prudence. All wise actions
must be more or less guided v/ith a view to their
issues in the future, although in the case of the best
of them the aims v>'ill be pure and unselfish. It is
our prerogative to " look before and after " ; and just
in proportion as v/e take long views do our deeds
acquire gravity and depth. Our Lord characterised
the two ways by their ends. While the example of
the careless Jews is followed on all sides—and who of
us can deny that he has ever fallen into the negli-
gence ?— is it not a little superfluous to discuss abstract,
unpractical problems about a remote altruism ?
Intermingled with his painful picture of the humilia-