184 HUMANISM xi 



to provide an Outline of Cosmetic Philosophy, and still 

 less to carry owls to Athens by exhorting philosophers 

 to an observation of social proprieties they have rarely 

 shown any tendency to set aside. Its aim is rather to 

 examine the nature and scope of the familiar antithesis 

 between appearance and reality/ the vogue of which 

 I cannot but regard as the chief constructive result of 

 the work of the greatest of English sceptics, Mr. F. H. 

 Bradley. In Oxford, at all events, this antithesis has 

 been an immense success. It is ever hovering on the 

 tongue alike of tutor and of tiro in philosophical 

 discussion, and provides them with a universal solution 

 for the most refractory of facts. It seems to have 

 become the magic master-key which opens and closes 

 every door, the all -accommodating receptacle into 

 which every mystery may be made to enter and to 

 disappear ; in short, it is just now the greatest of the 

 catchwords wherewith we conjure reason into topsy 

 turvydom and common sense out of its senses. If its 

 Olympian author ever deigned to look upon the struggles 

 and contentions of lesser and lower mortals, he would 

 doubtless be vastly amused to see what an Alpha and 

 Omega of Philosophy had sprung invulnerable from his 

 subtle brain. But being myself immersed in the struggle 

 of teaching and having a certain responsibility in seeing 

 to it that what is called thought involves thinking and 

 affords proper training in mental precision and clearness, 

 I find that this antithesis has become to me a consider 

 able nuisance, and also, it must be confessed, a bit of a 

 bore. I propose, therefore, to probe into it a little, and 

 to examine its pretensions, with a view to seeing whether 

 the relation of appearance to reality cannot be put 

 on a different and, to me, more satisfactory footing. 



II 



I must begin however by raising a very general, and, 

 I think, very fundamental, objection to Mr. Bradley s 

 method of constructing the wonderful edifice of his 



