428 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



erence being usually given to the exact methods. 

 This is equivalent to saying that the best preparation 

 for the philosopher is to be found in the training of 

 the scientific expert or learned specialist. And in 

 quite recent timee a further step has been taken, 

 inasmuch as it is being more and more recognised that 

 an acquaintance with the practical objects of life, a 

 familiarity — in some iorm or other — with the actual 

 work that goes on around us, is indispensable as a pre- 

 paration for higher speculation : assuming that this is to 

 be of real use to humanity and to the furtherance of 

 culture. The one - sided influence which the much 

 vaunted training of the scientific specialist exerts has 

 to be balanced by the very different interests and 

 methods which govern practical work and application. 

 In passing I may remark that here again we are only 

 reviving views which are as old as philosophy itself; 

 that Plato had already proclaimed geometry as the best 

 training for the philosopher, and that philosophy with 

 him was not a purely theoretical occupation. 

 5. All the different changes which I refer to, work in the 



Discredit _ _ _ _ _ 



°h^sk^ direction of bringing discredit upon that central branch 

 of philosophy which is usually termed Metaphysics; so 

 much so that we find it frequently stated that no 

 definite branch of knowledge exists which deserves this 

 name. Scientific, religious, and practical interests have 

 combined in denouncing metaphysics as a useless occupa- 

 tion, as an undertaking which has no foundation and 

 method, no beginning and no end. Some have tried to 

 save the dignity of philosophy by giving to the word 

 quite a different meaning from that which it originally 



