124 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



the positions which I advocate, but for which time is 

 lacking now, will be found indicated in my book on 

 Our Knowledge of the External World. 1 



The adoption of scientific method in philosophy, if 

 I am not mistaken, compels us to abandon the hope of 

 solving many of the more ambitious and humanly 

 interesting problems of traditional philosophy. Some 

 of these it relegates, though with little expectation of 

 a successful solution, to special sciences, others it shows 

 to be such as our capacities are essentially incapable of 

 solving. But there remain a large number of the re- 

 cognised problems of philosophy in regard to which the 

 method advocated gives all those advantages of division 

 into distinct questions, of tentative, partial, and pro- 

 gressive advance, and of appeal to principles with which, 

 independently of temperament, all competent students 

 must agree. The failure of philosophy hitherto has 

 been due in the main to haste and ambition : patience 

 and modesty, here as in other sciences, will open the 

 road to solid and durable progress. 



1 Open Court Company, 1914. 



