Tradition is a link of the present with the past, the transmitting of legendary memories from century to century—memories based on real facts, exaggerated or deformed by the popular mind in quest of the ideal.

Traditions of pagan or religious essence are multiform. In most cases they denote blind reverence, unconscious veneration for creeds turned into customs; they are a sign of the passivity of the human mind, whose chief weakness is superstition.

Whether as regards action or thought, tradition appeals to the special organisation of certain temperaments of a primitive order, or which are purely dogmatic.

The desire to maintain tradition implies uncontrolled deference to custom together with the need for moral or sectarian order, and for this reason it is detrimental to the gradual change of thought on which progress depends.

In all ages of the world, since the period when oral narration was handed down from generation to generation, traditions have been accepted as truths. Now, that which was truth at the exact moment when a certain thing occurred is no longer truth after a long lapse of time, because of changes with regard to the original fact and the false interpretations put upon it by the crowd.

Locke says with much truth: “A man worthy of belief bringing testimony of a thing known to him affords a good proof; but if another man equally worthy of credence testifies on the report of that man, his witness is weaker; while that of a third who attests a hearsay is still less to be considered; so that in truths that come by tradition each degree of remoteness from the original source weakens the force of the proof; and in proportion as a tradition passes successively through more hands, it has ever less force and evidence.”

This is the reason that traditions, from whatsoever source they come, constitute false propositions all the more dangerous because to many they appear incontestable. After Christianity was established, tradition had all the value of an idealism capable of inspiring individual action; under different aspects it induced respect for great moral acts, linked up more closely familiar ties (the festival of Christmas—NoËl or Yule—is a case in point), it cemented friendships, gave value to the idea of good rewarded and evil punished, created an atmosphere of justice and fear, inward joy and hope.

But with time, as the sense of personality developed and social friction became more frequent, it came about that traditions were divided into different camps, some being simply a consolation for the afflicted, others becoming authoritative in the hands of priests and judges. Centuries passed, changing names and beliefs, modifying desires and interests; then tradition weakened and altered in character and significance.

Even in our own day, however, many ancient traditions are rigorously observed both in town and country. Still, as the social movement has become more accentuated, more conscious, they have so weakened that they are more like a list of festival days in the calendar than anything else. In spite of castes which, by holding together, still maintained tradition, the evolution of the masses gradually brought about, through force of circumstances, the destruction of such as was useless. This is good because, I repeat, tradition is hostile to progress in that it makes error in the guise of custom predominate over science and altruistic duty.

The weakening of pagan or religious traditions is very noticeable to-day. For instance, the observance of the anniversaries of the dead is falling into desuetude. One scarcely sees, except in the Latin countries where civilisation is backward, the relatives in deep black coming at a fixed date to mourn their dead from midnight to midnight. This traditional custom, besides, has lost so much of its ancient solemnity that the mourners do not hesitate to dance and feast directly the time of forced grief is over. This anomaly is frequent in Spain nowadays. As soon as the “accessories” of the tradition disappear, the tradition itself will vanish in its turn.

Go through the villages and you will note the disappearance of numbers of customs to which the inhabitants were slaves not long ago. Where, to-day, are the processions in the open fields, the patronal festivals, the inquiries at fountains, all the traces of ancient beliefs? Where, as in Rome in times past, is the lachrymatory, in which, on days of funerals, everyone collected his tears?

Man, as he grows conscious of his forces, his rights, throws off a thousand obligations created for the most part by fear, that slayer of the will.

So it is that lovers of tradition, still struggling to maintain obscurantism amongst the simple and poor, and authoritative creeds amongst the other classes, are attempting a work as difficult as it is inauspicious. Their task will soon be unavailing, for the masses are the true supporters or destroyers of tradition, and the masses will no longer keep up worthless traditions the object of which is to oppose their enlightenment and their interests.