ate in
history; it opens up a phase of metaphysical thought; it lays down a
principle of development the limits of which are indeterminable; and it
is after cool consideration, with full consciousness of the exact value
of words, that we are able to pronounce the revolution which it effects
equal in importance to that effected by Kant, or even by Socrates.

Everybody, indeed, has become aware of this more or less clearly. Else
how are we to explain, except through such recognition, the sudden
striking spread of this new philosophy which, by its learned rigorism,
precluded the likelihood of so rapid a triumph?

Twenty years have sufficed to make its results felt far beyond
traditional limits: and now its influence is alive and working from one
pole of thought to the other; and the active leaven contained in it can
be seen already extending to the most varied and distant spheres:
in social and political spheres, where from opposite points, and not
without certain abuses, an attempt is already being made to wrench it
in contrary directions; in the sphere of religious speculation, where
it has been more legitimately summoned to a distinguished, illuminative,
and beneficent career; in the sphere of pure science, where, despite old
separatist prejudices, the ideas sown are pushing up here and there;
and lastly, in the sphere of art, where there are indications that it
is likely to help certain presentiments, which have till now remained
obscure, to become conscious of themselves. The moment is favourable to
a study of Mr Bergson's philosophy; but in the face of so many attempted
methods of employment, some of them a trifle premature, the point of
paramount importance, applying Mr Bergson's own method to himself, is
to study his philosophy in itself, for itself, in its profound trend and
its authenticated action, without claiming to enlist it in the ranks of
any cause whatsoever.

I.

Mr Bergson's readers will undergo at almost every page they read an
intense and singular experience. The curtain drawn between ourselves
and reality, enveloping everything including ourselves in its illusive
folds, seems of a sudden to fall, dissipated by enchantment, and display
to the mind depths of light till then undreamt, in which reality itself,
contemplated face to face for the first time, stands fully revealed. The
revelation is overpowering, and once vouchsafed will never afterwards be
forgotten.

Nothing can convey to the reader