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 hardly go through
an elementary course of mental science without wishing to learn more,
and being lifted to a higher plane. The weak point in the average
person is a tendency to sink into the commonplace, because the
consciousness of not being brilliant induces timidity, and timidity
leads to giving up effort and accepting a fancied impossibility of
development which from being supposed, assumed, and not disturbed,
becomes in the end real.
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