INTRODUCTION. 



T^REDERICK SCHLEGEL once observed 

 JL and Coleridge paid him the compliment of steal- 

 ing the aphorism that "every man is born either 

 a Platonist or an Aristotelian ; " is naturally predis- 

 posed to unriddle the pageant of which he finds him- 

 self a spectator, after the fashion of the Academy or 

 of the Lyceum. 



Perhaps we are not to apply this maxim of Schle- 

 gel's too literally ; but surely an arbitrary division of 

 humanity into potential philosophers of one type or 

 the other is too sweeping. The critics are not the 

 only ones that come to the play; and quietly apart 

 from the wrangling a-priorist and empiricist camps 

 there has always been a section of mankind paradoxi- 

 cally styled "philosophical" because of a natural 

 inability and distaste to philosophize at all. To 

 such unharassed, piously receptive souls the sense- 

 world is a delightful spectacle benevolently arranged 

 for their entertainment, where the mechanism by 

 which the ingenious illusion is produced may be 

 admired and applauded, without being intrusively 

 pried into. They come, as it were, to enjoy, not to 

 judge ; to commend, not to fret over the price of ad- 

 mission, or to vex themselves and their neighbors 

 with untimely misgivings as to foul weather impend- 



