8 INTRODUCTORY. 



upon them and go his way, his ears sealed against 

 them as against the allurements of the Siren ? This 

 is, alas, impossible. The Sphinx is seated in the 

 soul of each man, and though we endeavour to be 

 deaf, their penetrating sounds, more subtle than the 

 Siren's song, will search us out and ask — What then 

 art thou ? And to her riddles we may not gainsay 

 an answer : it was no false myth that symbolized the 

 mystery of life in the figure of the " Strangler," 

 whose cold embrace constricts the warm glow of 

 life, and stifles by degrees the voice of hope. Thus 

 life depends upon the answer, and death, spiritual 

 and physical, is the penalty for him that answers 

 wrongly. We are the subjects of the Sphinx, and 

 often too her victims ; and it is neither right nor 

 possible for us to evade her questions. For it may 

 boldly be affirmed that the speculative impulse, both 

 in its origin and in its inmost essence, is practical. 

 It sprang from practical necessities, and it is still 

 concerned with them. The ultimate questions of 

 philosophy are what we come to when we follow 

 out their conclusions, the practical problems of life : 

 they concern the theory upon which all practice is 

 based. And the neglect of the theoretic foundation 

 of life ultimately ruins its whole fabric, and leads 

 from agnosticism to the despair of scepticism and 

 pessimism. The question — What is life .^ — is not 

 propounded by the idleness of a leisure hour, but by 

 the most pressing realities of life, and must be de- 

 cided in one way or another in every action. And 

 in order to know what life is, we must inquire into 

 its whence and whither ; we are exercised about the 

 past and the future, in order to know what use to 

 make of the present. And the threefold riddle of 

 the Sphinx is merely the articulation of the question, 



