FIRST LAWS OF SCIENCE OF POWER 188 



Truth and Power that had been brought into view, 

 ventured hot-foot upon definitions of Truth that 

 swept the builders and definers of dialectic systems 

 of Truth into a state of amazed defence. And well 

 it might be so. For pragmatists began forthwith 

 to define Truth in a way in which the conception 

 of Power alone was visible. They proceeded to 

 define Truth as "That which works"; "That 

 which is expedient " ; " That which has value " ; 

 and so on. 



The time has come when I must respectfully 

 ask pragmatists to give me that right-of-way which 

 is my due. The beginning of this development 

 has not been with them. These definitions of 

 Truth have a lasting value in the history of know- 

 ledge. But they are in the nature of things tentative 

 and incomplete attempts, the natural product of 

 that period of transition which followed the un- 

 covering of the position which I had brought into 

 view. I must in my own way carry this philosophy 

 of Power to the further issues that are involved in 

 it. I, therefore, ask the reader not to be startled 

 if I proceed to give him the answer to the question 

 -What is Truth ? and to follow it up by asserting 

 that it is a complete answer and that the develop- 

 ment of knowledge two thousand years hence, or 

 twenty thousand years hence, will only have served 



