PREFACE 



IN two essays upon the life and work of Descartes, 

 which will be found in the first volume of this col- 

 lection, I have given some reasons for my conviction 

 that he, if any one, has a claim to the title of 

 father of modern philosophy. By this I mean that 

 his general scheme of things, his conceptions of 

 scientific method and of the Conditions and limits 

 of certainty, are far more essentially and charac- 

 teristically modern than those of any of his 

 immediate predecessors and successors. Indeed, 

 the adepts in some branches of science had not 

 fully mastered the import of his ideas so late as 

 the beginning of this century. 



The conditions of this remarkable position in 

 the world of thought are to be found, as usual, 

 primarily, in motherwit, secondarily, in circum- 

 stance. Trained by the best educators of the seven- 

 teenth century, the Jesuits; naturally endowed 

 with a dialectic grasp and subtlety, which even 

 they could hardly improve; and with a passion 

 for getting at the truth, which even they could 



