act to the consciousness
of those who are entering upon the reflective life. Those who are
rather new to reflection upon philosophical matters are apt to seize
single truths, which are too often half-truths, and to deduce their
consequences remorselessly. They do not always realize the extreme
complexity of society, or see the full meaning of the relations in
which they stand to the state and to the church. Breadth of view can
only come with an increase of knowledge and with the exercise of
reflection.

For this reason I advise patience, and a willingness to accept the
established order of things until one is very sure that one has
attained to some truth--some real truth, not a mere truth of
election--which may serve as the basis of a reconstruction. The first
glimpses of truth cannot be depended upon to furnish such a foundation.

Thus, we may suspend judgment, and, nevertheless, be ready to act. But
is not this a mere compromise? Certainly. All life is a compromise;
and in the present instance it means only that we should keep our eyes
open to the light, whatever its source, and yet should nourish that
wholesome self-distrust that prevents a man from being an erratic and
revolutionary creature, unmindful of his own limitations. Prudent men
in all walks in life make this compromise, and the world is the better
for it.

NOTES

CHAPTER I, sections 1-5. If the student will take a good history of
philosophy, and look over the accounts of the different systems
referred to, he will see the justice of the position taken in the text,
namely, that philosophy was formerly synonymous with universal
knowledge. It is not necessary, of course, to read the whole history
of philosophy to attain this end. One may take such a text-book as
Ueberweg's "History of Philosophy," and run over the summaries
contained in the large print. To see how the conception of what
constitutes universal knowledge changed in successive ages, compare
Thales, the Sophists, Aristotle, the Schoolmen, Bacon, and Descartes.
For the ancient philosophy one may consult Windelband's "History of the
Ancient Philosophy," a clear and entertaining little work (English
translation, N.Y., 1899).

In Professor Paulsen's "Introduction to Philosophy" (English
translation, N.Y., 1895), there is an interesting introductory chapter
on "The Nature and Import of Philosophy" (pp. 1-41). The author pleads
for the old notion of philosophy as universal kno