APPENDIX C 



THE SYSTEM vs. THE VIEW OF THE OXFORD 

 ESSAYISTS 1 



The present writing takes its occasion from the publica- 

 tion, in the autumn of 1902, of the vohime entitled Persona/ 

 Idealism, by eight members of the University of Oxford. 

 By this noticeable event I am moved to express what I 

 must frankly admit are "very mingled feelings" indeed. 



One whose fortune it had been to put before the public, 

 some fifteen months earlier, a tlieory bearing the same title 

 of Personal Idealism, might naturally be expected to greet 

 with hvely interest the announcement of a second book 

 under that rubric, especially a book issuing from the Eng- 

 lish seat of philosophy justly most venerated. This lively 

 interest I have certainly felt ; and I have accordingly turned 

 upon the contents of the new volume, not merely with curi- 

 osity, but rather with the earnest hope of finding weighty 

 auxiliaries for views which I count to be so inwrought with 

 our greatest human concerns. I come back from the read- 

 ing, in part fortified and encouraged, but in part also — I 

 fear in greater part — surprised and disappointed. I had 

 supposed, of course, that the cardinal features of the system 

 of Personal Idealism would be agreed about and accepted, 

 if the title was accepted which had been chosen for it by its 

 author. It is the adoption of the title in spite of rejecting 



1 Extracted, with some clianges not material, from an article in 

 Mind, April, 1903, with the heading, "In the Matter of Personal 

 Idealism." 



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