xv PHILOSOPHY AND A FUTURE LIFE 269 



burden ; boldly to disavow all purpose to better or instruct 

 the world, cynically to confess that whether or not his 

 astounding feats of conceptual prestidigitation can entertain 

 the gaping crowd, they do at least amuse himself, honestly 

 to disclaim the search for some more subtle service spring 

 ing from his exercises. It may have happened here and 

 there that the prescience of some wild and philosophic 

 guess outstripped the plodding march of science. It may 

 have happened now and then that in some reflective soul 

 the conduct of life has been improved by study of its 

 theory. But over most men habit bears such sway that 

 this would be a marvel, and such precarious incidents are 

 not enough to prove the useful nature of philosophy. 



And yet if it were permitted to appeal to the philo 

 sophic heresy which just now is stirring up in all the 

 bottled chimeras a buzzing fit to burst their vacuum tubes, 

 if we might argue as pragmatists, it would seem obvious 

 that even philosophy must have some use. For if it had 

 not, society would scarce continue the endowment of 

 philosophy, whose professors might thereupon find them 

 selves reduced to breaking stones instead of systems. It 

 is quite true that there is always a flavour of impertinence 

 about the intervention of a philosopher in a subject of 

 scientific research. For he cannot, as such, be trusted to 

 make original contributions to the facts, and when he 

 makes an attempt to criticise the contributions of others, 

 it is quite true that he is terribly prone to do so from the 

 a priori basis of some far-fetched cosmic theory which 

 nobody else in the world besides himself believes in or 

 even understands, and so achieves a comic rather than 

 a cosmic interest. If, again, he contents himself with 

 ponderously pondering on the accepted facts of a science 

 he becomes a bore, consuming time and getting in the 

 way of more practical workers. 



It must be admitted, therefore, that the usefulness of a 

 philosopher is very limited. It is undeniable only in 

 cases where he is needed to clear out of the way other 

 philosophers who have become obstreperous and ob 

 structive ; but such occasions do not occur frequently, 



