TRANSLATOR S NOTE 



IN the writing of this English translation of Professor 

 Bergson s most important work, I was helped by the 

 friendly interest of Professor William James, to whom 

 I owe the illumination of much that was dark to me 

 as well as the happy rendering of certain words and 

 phrases for which an English equivalent was difficult 

 to find. His sympathetic appreciation of Professor 

 Bergson s thought is well known, and he has expressed 

 his admiration for it in one of the chapters of A Plural 

 istic Universe. It was his intention, had he lived to 

 see the completion of this translation, himself to intro 

 duce it to English readers in a prefatory note. 



I wish to thank my friend, Dr. George Clarke Cox, 

 for many valuable suggestions. 



I have endeavoured to follow the text as closely as 

 possible, and at the same time to preserve the living 

 union of diction and thought. Professor Bergson has 

 himself carefully revised the whole work. We both 

 of us wish to acknowledge the great assistance of Miss 

 Millicent Murby. She has kindly studied the trans 

 lation phrase by phrase, weighing each word, and her 

 revision has resulted in many improvements. 



But above all we must express our acknowledgment 



