es, had not followed them out
in detail or perceived the difficulties in applying them, gained
immensely by having so many fresh points presented to him, so many
fallacies lurking in currently accepted notions detected, so many
conditions indicated which might qualify the amplitude of a general
proposition. The method of discussion was stimulating. Sometimes it
reminded one of the Socratic method as it appears in Plato, but more
frequently it was the method of Aristotle, who discusses a subject
first from one side, then from another, throws out a number of
remarks, not always reconcilable, but always suggestive, regarding it,
and finally arrives at a view which he delivers as being probably the
best, but one which must be taken subject to the remarks previously
made. The reader often feels in Sidgwick's treatment of a subject as
he often feels in Aristotle's, that he would like to be left with
something more definite and positive, something that can be easily
delivered to learners as an established truth. He desires a bolder and
broader sweep of the brush. But he also feels how much he is benefited
by the process of sifting and analysing to which every conception or
dogma is subjected, and he perceives that he is more able to handle it
afterwards in his own way when his attention has been called to all
these distinctions and qualifications or antinomies which would have
escaped any vision less keen than his author's. For those who, in an
age prone to hasty reading and careless thinking, are disposed to
underrate the difficulties of economic and political questions, and to
walk in a vain conceit of knowledge because they have picked up some
large generalisations, no better discipline can be prescribed than to
follow patiently such a treatment as Sidgwick gives; nor can any
reader fail to profit from the candour and the love of truth which
illumine his discussion of a subject.

The love of truth and the sense of duty guided his life as well as his
pen. Though always warmly interested in politics, he was of all the
persons I have known the least disposed to be warped by partisanship,
for he examined each political issue as it arose on its own merits,
apart from predilections for either party or for the views of his
nearest friends. We used to wonder how such splendid impartiality
would have stood a practical test such as that of the House of
Commons. His loyalty to civic duty was so strong as on one occasion to
bring him,