ABSTRACT
My philosophy, such as it is, owes most, I believe, to the teaching of Edward Caird. But I was always a somewhat recalcitrant pupil, in constant rebellion against what seemed to me his over-confident optimism. His disciple and successor, Sir Henry Jones, to whom also I owed a good deal, was even more remarkable than his master for the fervour of his convictions. Probably my own defect lies on the opposite side. Though I have never been altogether sceptical or pessimistic, yet I have always had a feeling that there were lions in my path—fundamental difficulties that have often seemed insuperable. Like Burke, I may say that nitor in adversum has been my motto; and the path of my advance is already strewn with wreckage. Hence I cannot regard any of my writings as containing more than the least inadequate solutions of the great problems with which they deal that I was able to discover at the time when they were produced. Yet I have never been without the hope of finding more adequate solutions, and in what follows I intend to indicate the directions in which I am looking for further light. I am only feeling my way as yet, and am very conscious that I have not so far succeeded in expressing even the truths that I think I see in a manner that can be regarded as clear and convincing. More and more, however, I find myself comirig into accord with Plato (especially as interpreted by Professor Burnet); and in most of my more recent writings I have been trying to give a modern setting to some of the leading ideas of his philosophy.
