Vlll PREFACE. 



for lack of the most ordinary facilities for studying 

 the subject. It is with a view to affording these, 

 and in the hope that his book may be found not 

 only a contribution to modern philosophy, but use- 

 ful also as an introduction to its study, that the 

 author has avoided needless technicalities, and as 

 far as possible explained their use on their first 

 appearance. And to some extent the same motive 

 has led him to treat his subject in the order which 

 It assumes to the individual mind as it sets out on 

 its explorations. By setting out from the anti-meta- 

 physical agnosticism of ordinary men, it starts with 

 a stock of ideas which are more familiar to men 

 than the fundamental conceptions of metaphysics, 

 which come last in the order of discovery. And at 

 the same time this arrangement brings out more 

 clearly the natural dialectic of the soul, and the 

 necessity of the process which impels it, step by 

 step, from the coarsest prejudice and crassest " fact," 

 towards the loftiest ideals of metaphysics. But an 

 adequate defence of the plan of the book may be 

 made also on its intrinsic merits. It is written not 

 only in the order which is likely to be most palat- 

 able to the ordinary reader, but also in the order 

 which is natural both to human thought and to the 

 course of the world, which is required by its induc- 

 tive method of philosophizing (ch. vi. § 2), the order 

 in which it took shape in the author's brain, and the 

 order which is most worthy of the dignity of the 

 subject. For by representing the course of the 

 argument as a sort of philosophical Pilgrim's Pro- 

 gress, it most emphatically asserts the vital import- 

 ance of the points at issue. 



And yet, of course, the author is well aware that 

 his order is not devoid of countervailing disadvan- 



