Vlll PREFACE. 



munication is possible between the two. No word with 

 meaning can pass from the higher to the lower intelli- 

 gence. Within sight of plenty the ordinary man must 

 starve, for outside the pale of Philosophy there is no 

 salvation. A few little words rightly spoken on the 

 right occasions might afford a key to all the treasures, 

 give a clue to all the wisdom ; but yet the magic, light- 

 giving words are never spoken. Some fatal impotence 

 or dreadful necessity keeps the oracle's lips locked, keeps 

 back the illuminating words, and allows only the old 

 enigmatical ones, the old abstruse and ambiguous for- 

 mulas, to flow forth. Our metaphysical salvation, we 

 are given to understand, depends on our attaching the 

 precise sense of the philosopher to some particular term, 

 such as Subject, Consciousness, or some other, which it 

 takes him four hundred pages to explain, while usually 

 after the third sentence the general reader, however 

 desperate his endeavour, parts company with light and 

 comprehension till he reaches the final page. The clouds 

 close, and no. ray of light again breaks through the 

 general leaden atmosphere even to the end, should the 

 reader have the resolution to try it out so far. 



The philosopher will only speak, or can only speak, 

 to be understood of the small circle who have mastered 

 his language, and well if even by them. And thus 

 it would seem that truth and wisdom, like other good 

 things, are to be the exclusive monopoly of a privileged 

 class, and that only the philosophically elect can be 

 saved. 



Or perhaps the philosopher would willingly speak to 



