organic structure of the system, considered as a unity, has no
danger to apprehend. But few possess the ability, and still fewer
the inclination, to take a comprehensive view of a new system. By
confining the view to particular passages, taking these out of their
connection and comparing them with one another, it is easy to pick
out apparent contradictions, especially in a work written with any
freedom of style. These contradictions place the work in an unfavourable
light in the eyes of those who rely on the judgement of others, but
are easily reconciled by those who have mastered the idea of the whole.
If a theory possesses stability in itself, the action and reaction
which seemed at first to threaten its existence serve only, in the
course of time, to smooth down any superficial roughness or
inequality, and--if men of insight, impartiality, and truly popular
gifts, turn their attention to it--to secure to it, in a short time,
the requisite elegance also.



Konigsberg, April 1787.
INTRODUCTION




I. Of the difference between Pure and Empirical Knowledge

That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt.
For how is it possible that the faculty of cognition should be
awakened into exercise otherwise than by means of objects which affect
our senses, and partly of themselves produce representations, partly