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 existence.  As a matter of fact, those who have attained to some measure of intellectual and moral development do assume, consciously or unconsciously, some rather definite attitude toward life, and this is not independent of their conviction as to what the world is and means.

Metaphysical speculations run out into the philosophy of religion; and, on the other hand, religious emotions and ideals have again and again prompted men to metaphysical construction.  A glance at history shows that it is natural to man to embrace some attitude toward the system of things, and to try to justify this by reasoning.  Vigorous and independent minds have given birth to theories, and these have been adopted by others.  The influence of such theories upon the evolution of humanity has been enormous.

Ideas have ruled and still rule the world, some of them very abstract ideas.  It does not follow that one is uninfluenced by them, when one has no knowledge of their source or of their original setting.  They become part of the intellectual heritage of us all, and we sometimes suppose that we are responsible for them ourselves.  Has not the fact that an idealistic or a materialistic type of thought has been current at a particular time influenced the outlook on life of many who have themselves devoted little attention to philosophy?  It would be interesting to know how many, to whom Spencer is but a name, have felt the influence of the agnosticism of which he was the apostle.

I say this without meaning to criticise here any of the types of doctrine referred to.  My thesis is only that philosophy and life go hand in hand, and that the prying into the deeper mysteries of the universe cannot be regarded as a matter of no practical moment.  Its importance ought to be admitted even by the man who has little hope that he will himself be able to attain to a doctrine wholly satisfactory and wholly unshakable.