PREFACE xxv 



I am well aware that the ideas of which the preceding 

 pages may have suggested the barest outline are capable 

 of endless working out and illustration. And though I 

 believe myself to have made no assertion that could not 

 be fully vindicated if assailed, I realise most keenly that 

 a complete statement of the Humanist position far tran 

 scends, not only my own powers, but those of any single 

 man. But I hoped that those who were disposed to sym 

 pathy and open-mindedness would pardon the defects and 

 overlook the gaps in this informal survey of a glorious 

 prospect, while to those who are too imperviously encased 

 in habit or in sloth, or too deeply severed from me by 

 an alien idiosyncrasy, I knew that I could never hope to 

 bring conviction, however much, nor to avoid offence, 

 however little, I might try to say. And so I thought the 

 good ship Humanism might sail on its adventurous quest 

 for the Islands of the Blest with the lighter freight of these 

 essays as safely and hopefully as with the heaviest cargo. 



F. C. S. SCHILLER. 



OXFORD, August 1903. 



