During the past ten years, largely perhaps as a consequence of the tremendous mental strain to which the nations of Europe have been subjected, myriads of people who previously left the great questions of life and destiny to the priesthood, and contented themselves with their daily round of duties and pleasures, have begun seriously to think. These, seeing their own ignorance in the minds of others, have set to work as raw recruits to cultivate their own little holdings as if the whole world were virgin soil, and they were the first pioneers.