ABSTRACT
In Latin the ways of speaking about the past and the future present an asymmetry that is illuminating and useful: past events or situations are facta and future ones are futura. There is a difference between the nature of the past and that of the future. The fundamental impossibility of changing the past accounts for those very important moral sentiments—regret and remorse. It is not always so easy to determine whether alleged facts are true or false, but people always consider that they are in principle verifiable. The real fact collector is at the opposite pole from the man of action. The unceasing transformation of facta into futura by summary processes in the mind is part of our daily life, and thus undertaking of conscious and systematic forecasting is simply an attempt to effect improvements in a natural activity of the mind.
