PREFACE vii 



philosopher, he has done his best to make me presentable 

 to the English reader. If he has failed in his troublesome 

 task, I know that it is not for want of care and attention, 

 and I desire here to record my sense of indebtedness to him. 

 He wishes to remain anonymous, but I am permitted to say 

 that, though resident in a foreign university, he is of 

 Scottish name and English birth. 



My gratitude to my friends at Aberdeen, in particular 

 to Professor and Mrs. J. A. Thomson, for their hospitality 

 and great kindness towards me cannot be expressed here ; 

 they all know that they succeeded in making me feel quite 

 at home with them. 



I am very much obliged to my publishers, Messrs. 

 A. and C. Black, for their readiness to fulfil all my wishes 

 with respect to publication. 



The lectures contained in this book were written in 

 English by a German and delivered at a Scottish university. 

 Almost all of the ideas discussed in it were first conceived 

 during the author's long residence in Southern Italy. Thus 

 this book may be witness to the truth which, I hope, will 

 be universally recognised in the near future that all 

 culture, moral and intellectual and aesthetic, is not limited 

 by the bounds of nationality. 



HANS DRIESCH. 



HEIDELBERG, 2nd January 1908. 



