are often more insistent and more troublesome because they
cannot be asked, they have not even taken shape in the mind. But they
haunt and perplex it. Are they the only ones who do not know? Is it
clear to every one else? This doubt makes it difficult even to hint at
the perplexity. These are often naturally religious minds, and outside
the guidance of the Catholic Church, in search of truth, they easily
fall under the influence of different schools of thought which take
them out of their depth, and lead them further and further from the
reasonable certainty about first principles which they are in search
of. Within the Church, of course, they can never stray so far, and the
truths of faith supply their deepest needs. But if they want to know
more, to know something of themselves, and to have at least some
rational knowledge of the universe, then to give them a hold on the
elements of philosophical knowledge is indeed a mental if not a
spiritual work of mercy, for it enables them to set their ideas in
order by the light of a few first principles, it shows them on what
plane their questions lie, it enables them to see how all knowledge
and new experience have connexions with what has gone before, and
belong to a whole with a certain fitness and proportion. They learn
also thus to take themselves in hand in a reasonable way; they gain
some power of attributing effects to their true causes, so as neither
to be unduly alarmed nor elated at the various experiences through
which they will pass.

Between these two divisions lies a large group, that of the "average
person," not specially flighty and not particularly thoughtful. But
the average person is of very great importance. The greatest share in
the work of the world is probably done by "average" people, not only
for the obvious reason that there are more of them, but also because
they are more accessible, more reliable, and more available for all
kinds of responsibility than those who have made themselves useless by
want of principle, or those whose genius carries them away from the
ordinary line. They are accessible because their fellow-creatures are
not afraid of them; they are not too fine for ordinary wear, nor too
original to be able to follow a line laid down for them, and if they
take a line of their own it is usually intelligible to others.

To these valuable "average" persons the importance of some study of
the elements of philosophy is very great. They can hard