A modern orator has rightly observed that plain common sense is ordinarily a more reliable guide than the subtleties of science. Common sense tells us that there is a God; yet the learned, after 25 centuries of subtleties, maintain, some that there is no God at all, others that there is only an apathetic God, deficient and indifferent to our fate. I hold to the impulse of common sense, which tells us that God has provided for our needs and must have furnished us the means to discover what is necessary for us. Delays are no cause for despair. The nautical compass (the magnetized needle) whose need was so urgent, remained unknown for 5,000 years. Its long-belated discovery proves that God is not lacking in providence. It is our mind that lags behind, proceeding by false methods in its explorations. Common sense tells us further that if God has furnished us paths toward salvation and social happiness, he must have added indices to guide our research, above all in the most important inquiry of all, that of the passional code. Until now the study of the Passions and their destinies has truly been a region of darkness; the human mind, after 25 centuries of failure on this problem, must be terrified to return to the fray.
When commanders and soldiers are dismayed, sometimes a single child suffices to revive their hope. David, aged 10, restored the courage of Israel by felling Goliath. Joan of Arc, a simple shepherdess, electrified the army of