xii PREFACE 



man, three or four years spent in this way should 

 enable you to attain your object. 



If, on the contrary, you are animated by the 

 much rarer desire for real knowledge; if you 

 want to get a clear conception of the deepest prob- 

 lems set before the intellect of man, there is no 

 need, so far as I can see, for you to go beyond 

 the limits of the English tongue. Indeed, if you 

 are pressed for time, three English authors will 

 suffice; namely, Berkeley, Hume, and Hobbes. 



If you will lay your minds alongside the works 

 of these great writers not with the view of merely 

 ascertaining their opinions, still less for the 

 purpose of indolently resting on their authority, 

 but to the end of seeing for yourselves how far 

 what each says has its foundation in right 

 reason you will have had as much sound philo- 

 sophical training as is good for any one but an 

 expert. And you will have had the further advan- 

 tage of becoming familiar with the manner in 

 which three of the greatest masters of the English 

 language have handled that noble instrument of 

 thought. 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



HODESLEA, EASTBOURNE, 

 January, 1894. 



