I am only too conscious of the fact that the division of my subject
under these categorical heads, and the necessities of special argument,
if not indeed of special pleading, have forced me to such particular
stress on each subject as may very likely give an impression of undue
emphasis. If each lecture were to be taken by itself, such an impression
would, I fear, be unescapable; I ask therefore for the courtesy of a
suspension of judgment until the series is completed, for it is only
when taken as a whole, one paper reacting upon and modifying another,
that whatever merit the course possesses can be made apparent.




II


A WORKING PHILOSOPHY[*]

[*This lecture has been very considerably re-written
since it was delivered, and much of the matter it then contained
has been cut out, and is now printed in the Appendix. These
excisions were purely speculative, and while they have a certain
bearing on the arguments and conclusions in the other lectures,
might very well be prejudicial to them, and for this reason it
has seemed better to remove them from the general sequence and
give them a supplementary place by themselves.]

The first reaction of the World War was a great interrogation, and the
technical "Peace" that has followed brings only reiteration. Why did