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THE ETHIC OF FREETHOUGHT 



AND 



OTHER ADDRESSES AND ESSAYS 



Second Edition, Revised. 

 BY KARL PEARSON, M.A., F R.S., 



PROFESSOR OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND MECHANICS IN UNIVERSITY 

 COLLEGE, LONDON. 



PREFACE. 



The first edition of this book appeared in 1888, and con- 

 tained Essays and Addresses which had been written in the 

 previous eight years. It has been out of print and in some 

 demand for a long time past. The present edition has been 

 carefully revised, but the author has refrained from modifying 

 the opinions expressed (except in bracketed footnotes) even 

 when they have ceased to represent his more fully developed 

 views. In its present form it won its old friends, and can thus 

 still serve best as a stimulus for thought. 



The aim of the book is to contrast the emotional and 

 rationalistic treatments of philosophical and social problems ; 

 to show how the enthusiasm of the study is a real factor of 

 human development, and how the slow and gradual educational 

 work of the thinker is after all more permanent than the emo- 

 tional influence of the market-place. The author would allow 

 no social or religious problem to lie outside the legitimate field 

 of discussion, but he believes that any profitable answer can 

 only be found in a rational treatment of history that all great 

 social changes can only be advantageous if based on a slow 

 educational reform of current ideas. 



ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON 



