I. Pain and Pleasure 270
Chapter XIII. The Reality of the Soul in Relation to
Modern Thought 293
Chapter XIV. The Idea of Communism 323
Conclusion 339

PREFACE

The speculative system which I have entitled "The Philosophy of
the Complex Vision" is an attempt to bring into prominence, in the
sphere of definite and articulate thought, those scattered and chaotic
intimations which hitherto have found expression rather in Art than
in Philosophy.

It has come to be fatally clear to me that between the great
metaphysical systems of rationalized purpose and the actual shocks,
experiences, superstitions, illusions, disillusions, reactions, hope
and despairs, of ordinary men and women there is a great gulf fixed.
It has become clear to me that the real poignant personal drama in all
our lives, together with those vague "marginal" feelings which
overshadow all of us with a sense of something half-revealed and
half withheld, has hardly any point of contact with these formidable
edifices of pure logic.

On the other hand the tentative, hesitating, ambiguous hypotheses of
Physical Science, transforming themselves afresh with every new
discovery, seem, when the portentous mystery of Life's real secret
confronts us, to be equally remote and elusive.

When in such a dilemma one turns to the vitalistic and pragmatic
speculations of a Bergson or a William James there is an almost
more hopeless revulsion. For in these pseudo-scientific,
pseudo-psychological methods of thought something most profoundly
human seems to us to be completely neglected. I refer to the high
and passionate imperatives of the heroic, desperate, treasonable
heart of man.

What we have come to demand is some intelligible system of
_imaginative reason_ which shall answer the exigencies not only of
our more normal moods but of those moods into which we are
thrown by the pressure upon us--apparently from outside the
mechanical sequence of cause and effect--of certain mysterious
Powers in the background of our experience, such as hitherto have
only found symbolic and representative expression in the ritual of
Art and Religion.

What we have come to demand is some flexible, malleable,
rhythmic system which shall give an imaginative and yet a rational
form to the sum total of those manifold and intricate