history of human thought.

ADDITIONAL EXPLANATIONS

I. Mr Bergson's Work and the General Directions of Contemporary Thought.

A broad survey of the new philosophy was bound to be somewhat rapid
and summary; and now that this is completed it will doubtless not be
superfluous to come back, on the same plan as before, to some more
important or more difficult individual points, and to examine by
themselves the most prominent centres on which we should focus the light
of our attention. Not that I intend to probe in minute detail the folds
and turns of a doctrine which admits of infinite development: how can I
claim to exhaust a work of such profound thought that the least passing
example employed takes its place as a particular study? Still less do
I wish to undertake a kind of analytic resume; no undertaking could be
less profitable than that of arranging paragraph headings to repeat too
briefly, and therefore obscurely, what a thinker has said without any
extravagance of language, yet with every requisite explanation.

The critic's true task, as I understand it, in no way consists in
drawing up a table of contents strewn with qualifying notes. His task
is to read and enable others to read between the lines, between the
chapters, and between the successive works, what constitutes the dynamic
tie between them, all that the linear form of writing and language has
not allowed the author himself to elucidate.

His task is, as far as possible, to master the accompaniment of
underlying thought which produced the resonant atmosphere of the
inquirer's intuition, the rhythm and toning of the image, resulting in
the shade of light which falls upon his vision. His task, in a word,
is to help understanding, and therefore to point out and anticipate the
misunderstandings to be feared. Now it seems to me that there are a few
points round which the errors of interpretation more naturally gather,
producing some astounding misconceptions of Mr Bergson's philosophy. It
is these points only that I propose to clear up. But at the same time I
shall use the opportunity to supply information about authorities, which
I have hitherto deliberately omitted, to avoid riddling with references
pages which were primarily intended to impart a general impression.

Let us begin by glancing at the milieu of thought in which Mr Bergson's
philosophy must have had birth. For the last thirty years new currents
are traceable. In what direction do