PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xU 



my meaning. Systematic exposition the essays un- 

 doubtedly do not contain ; for that would imply that 

 I took up the system as a whole, that I began at its 

 beginning, and went on, through all the intervening 

 and successive steps, to the final result, having nothing 

 directly in view but the orderly establishment of the 

 logical whole that the system constitutes ; and this, 

 of course, I was not doing: I was occupied, rather, in 

 exhibiting the Rational Pluralism in the light of its 

 bearings upon the deeper human problems. But ade- 

 quate exposition, in the sense of thorough proof of 

 every essential principle, as well as clear enunciation 

 of it, I certainly intended they should contain; and I 

 am firmly persuaded that they do. I presumed that 

 I should gain a wider and a more interested attention 

 by the method of separate essays on questions that 

 have always deeply engaged the most thoughtful ; 

 and I took it for granted — with good reason, as I still 

 believe — that I should thus establish a favourable 

 presumption, to say no more, in behalf of a theory 

 that could show itself capable of casting a new 

 and clarifying light upon our oldest and obscurest 

 puzzles. But it could cast no lasting or solving 

 Hght unless its sources were shown to be real, and 

 this showing I still suppose the essays actually 

 accomplish. 



It will be pertinent to point out here, that, of the 

 ten propositions in which I state the theory in out- 



