ABSTRACT
Metaphysics has to presuppose the general principles of the various sciences and the general forms of practical experience as the materials upon which it works. Metaphysics adds nothing to metaphysicians information, and yields no fresh springs of action. It is finally only justified by the persistency of the impulse to speculate on the nature of things as a whole. For all genuine will implies possession of and actuation by an idea which is entertained explicitly as an unrealised idea, and is inseparable from thought. In the old mediaeval terminology, the Absolute must be said to contain actual intellect and actual volition, not formaliter but eminenter. For the practical man whose interests in life are predominantly ethical value of metaphysical study lies in its critical function of exposing false metaphysical assumptions, which might impair the vigour of spontaneous moral effort.
