4l6 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



ing before the public with a theory somewhat startling in its 

 departure from the ruling opinion, I had indulged the mere 

 desire to stir up a sensation, and had omitted even an 

 attempt to prove my main proposition. I have not been 

 guilty of this negligence. On the contrary, I have argued 

 the proposition of the eternity of each individual mind — 

 that is, its genuinely self-active reality — in the most careful 

 way, and in the only way that I can conceive of its being 

 proved in. This I have done, in some sense, in every essay 

 in the volume, but chiefly, of course, in the first, in the third, 

 in the latter part of the fifth, and especially in the sixth. 

 The argument, in brief, is simply that of taking up the 

 problem of the reality and the source of knowledge, and, 

 in face of the supposed evolutionary explaining of all a 

 priori knowledge away by the cumulative force of heredi- 

 tary habit massed through ages, proving with exact care 

 that every human mind, and therefore by analogy every 

 individual mind as such, does have and exercise this a priori 

 knowledge. Supposing this to have been done (and I must 

 refer readers to the book to test my proofs), the unavoidable 

 meaning of the flict is that every mind possesses a spontane- 

 ous objective cognition, and is therefore a case of what, quot- 

 ing the ever memorable expression used by the writer of 

 the Fourth Gospel, I have called the possession of " life in 

 itself." This, I maintain, is the only intelligible meaning 

 which anybody can attach to self-existence, independent 

 being, and real freedom ; as also it is the only intelligible 

 meaning of knowing a priori. 



My readers, I fear, have like my reviewer been somewhat 

 misled by looking into my concluding essay for the most 

 important proofs of my main position. But there I am 

 dealing with a problem, or with problems, imjiortant and 

 intricate, indeed, but still subordinate to this main one, 

 and only auxiliary to my principal aim. I am there chiefly 

 concerned with showing that if we arc to have a moral 



