ommon sense did not intervene to permit the
development of the deductions on which are based the resolutions that
inspired in us these aspirations.

"But this is not all; without logic, which permits us to give them
solidity, the most serious resolutions would soon become nothing but
vague projects, shattered as soon as formed.

"In common sense lies the cause and the object of things.

"It is common sense which makes us realize that difference that
few persons are willing to analyze, and which lies between
judgment and opinion.

"We almost always succeed in readily confounding them, and from this
mistake results a too-frequent cause of failures.

"Opinion is a conviction which is capable of modification.

"In addition to this, as it is based on mere indications and probability,
it is rarely free from the personal element.

"Opinion depends upon the favorite inclination, upon the mood of the
moment, upon sundry considerations, which direct it almost always toward
the desired solution.

"Also it depends often on thoughtfulness or on the inexactness of the
initial representation, which we are pleased to disguise slightly at
first, then little by little to color in accordance with our desires.

"Falsehood does not necessarily enter into this process of tricking
things out; it is, three-quarters of the time, the result of an illusion
which we are prone to perpetuate within us.

"We are too often in the position of the three wise men who, while
rummaging in an old sarcophagus, discovered a vase whose primitive
function they were unable to determine with any certainty.

"One of them was a poet and an idealist.

"The second only prized positive things.

"The third belonged to the category of melancholy people.

"After a few days devoted to special research work, they met together
again in order to communicate to each other their different opinions
about the exhumed vase.

"'I have found the secret,' said the first.

"'I also,' affirmed the second.

"'I equally have found it,' replied the third.

"And each one based his opinion on preconceived notions which reflected
their bent of mind:

"'This vase,' said the first, 'was intended to hold incense, which
they burned a that epoch, in the belief that the smoke dispelled the
evil spirits.'

"'Nonsense!' cried out the second; 'this vase is a pot which at that time
served as a receptacle for keeping spices.'

"'Not so!' insisted the third, 'it is an urn of