en they learn to reflect, they come to a
clearer consciousness of themselves--it is as though a lamp were
lighted within them. One may, it is true, study psychology without
attaining to any of the good results suggested above; but, for that
matter, there is no study which may not be pursued in a profitless way,
if the teacher be sufficiently unskilled and the pupil sufficiently
thoughtless.

82. METAPHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION.--Perhaps it will be said:
For such philosophical studies as the above a good defense may perhaps
be made, but can one defend in the same way the plunge into the
obscurities of metaphysics? In this field no two men seem to be wholly
agreed, and if they were, what would it signify? Whether we call
ourselves monists or dualists, idealists or realists, Lockians or
Kantians, must we not live and deal with the things about us in much
the same way?

Those who have dipped into metaphysical studies deeply enough to see
what the problems discussed really are; who have been able to reach the
ideas concealed, too often, under a rather forbidding terminology; who
are not of the dogmatic turn of mind which insists upon unquestioned
authority and is repelled by the uncertainties which must confront
those who give themselves to reflective thought,--these will hardly
need to be persuaded that it is desirable to give some attention to the
question: What sort of a world, after all, is this world in which we
live? What is its meaning?

To many men the impulse to peer into these things is over-powering, and
the pleasure of feeling their insight deepen is extremely keen. What
deters us in most instances is not the conviction that such
investigations are not, or should not be, interesting, but rather the
difficulty of the approach. It is not easy to follow the path which
leads from the world of common thought into the world of philosophical
reflection. One becomes bewildered and discouraged at the outset.
Sometimes, after listening to the directions of guides who disagree
among themselves, we are tempted to believe that there can be no
certain path to the goal which we have before us.

But, whatever the difficulties and uncertainties of our task, a little
reflection must show that it is not one which has no significance for
human life.

Men can, it is true, eat and sleep and go through the routine of the
day, without giving thought to science or religion or philosophy, but
few will defend such an e