524 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



it gently titillates the elegant emotions of a cultivated mind, while affording 

 pleasant and refreshing exercise to the intellect. 



And so the heavily-coloured writing of this book will appeal to many whose 

 emotions and intellect are in a suitable condition for mild stimulation of this 

 character. But its substance regarded in the cold light of fact need engage very 

 little of our attention. Birds with brightly-coloured plumage do not give forth 

 the best song. The cockatoos and birds of paradise do not enchant us with their 

 voices : but we listen with wonder to the songs of the little grey nightingales and 

 garden-warblers. And so it often happens in human existence. If therefore we 

 have before us a work of metaphysics, let us not look in it for any advancement 

 of truth or knowledge : for we shall find none. 



Those who think this condemnation too severe should study the language in 

 which metaphysicians attack the doctrines of science. All systems of ethics 

 derived from science or evolution, for instance, are referred to by Kant as 

 a "disgusting jumble of higgledy-piggledy observations and half-sophistical 

 principles." Kant was of course an extreme dualist : monism seemed to him 

 absurd. Yet it is quite certain that the philosophic conclusions of modern 

 physiology and biology are bringing us nearer to genuine monism than could have 

 been imagined possible in Kant's time. "All monism," says Chamberlain, "be 

 it what it may, leads in the end to a Buddhistic contemplation of the navel." I 

 may reply on the same plane of discussion that all dualism leads in the end to 

 the contemplation of a pair of donkey's ears. Herr Chamberlain (for the author 

 has adopted the German nationality and language) simplifies the discussion by 

 the announcement that " All monism is a lie." 



Whereas a man of science must decline to take seriously any conclusion or 

 theory reached by the methods of metaphysics, yet he cannot deny that, as 

 literature, metaphysical works have an interest of their own. Chamberlain's 

 method of dealing with Kant is to discuss his personality and philosophy in 

 relation to those of Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci, Giordano Bruno, Plato, and 

 Descartes. On all these subjects, he has much to say that is interesting and 

 suggestive. It is not apparent why he should have selected just these six, except 

 that he himself happened to be specially interested in them ; and indeed I may 

 remark of the whole book that the author travels from one subject to another 

 in complete obedience to his own predilections, and without attempting to concert 

 any individual scheme or doctrine. The work is not integrated, but is an 

 expression of the author's personality ; so that as far as the book is concerned, its 

 qualitative value would be little affected if it were either much shorter or much 

 longer than it actually is. A profound conviction is expressed of the value of 

 amateur work : " Of the thinkers who have made epoch in the world, hardly 

 one has been a philosopher by profession." The high place in the history of 

 science and of all thought, occupied by amateurs, has often been noticed : and 

 may be explained by reference to several reasons. In the first place, the 

 successful amateur is an amateur usually only in name. He has nearly always 

 begun his studies while still young, and he has pursued them with a fervour which 

 rivals that of the professional. If he has had no university training, he has been 

 led by powerful instincts to subject himself to that hard intellectual discipline 

 without which no great results can be achieved. He differs from the professional 

 not so much in the concentration or discipline of his powers, but in the particular 

 line of study pursued. The professional, in early years, is guided and controlled 

 almost entirely by his elders and by the necessities of his profession, in the course 

 of study adopted. The amateur, on the other hand, passes from one thing to 



