and trend it is that the attention of the reader is especially
directed.  The two books and the pamphlet together are to be regarded as
an essay in presentation.  It is a work that the writer admits he has
undertaken primarily for his own mental comfort.  He is remarkably not
qualified to assume an authoritative tone in these matters, and he is
acutely aware of the many defects in detailed knowledge, in temper, and
in training these papers collectively display.  He is aware that at such
points, for example, as the reference to authorities in the chapter on
the biological problem, and to books in the educational chapter, the
lacunar quality of his reading and knowledge is only too evident; to
fill in and complete his design--notably in the fourth paper--he has
had quite frankly to jerry-build here and there.  Nevertheless, he
ventures to publish this book.  There are phases in the development of
every science when an incautious outsider may think himself almost
necessary, when sketchiness ceases to be a sin, when the mere facts of
irresponsibility and an untrained interest may permit a freshness, a
freedom of mental gesture that would be inconvenient and compromising
for the specialist; and such a phase, it is submitted, has been reached
in this field of speculation.  Moreover, the work attempted is not so
much special and technical as a work of reconciliation, the suggestion