In conclusion, I may say that I have not had the honour of being Mr Bergson's pupil; and, at the time when I became acquainted with his outlook, my own direct reflection on science and life had already produced in me similar trains of thought. I found in his work the striking realisation of a presentiment and a desire. This "correspondence," which I have not exaggerated, proved at once a help and a hindrance to me in entering into the exact comprehension of so profoundly original a doctrine. The reader will thus understand that I think it in place to quote my authority to him in the following lines which Mr Bergson kindly wrote me after the publication of the articles reproduced in this volume: "Underneath and beyond the method you have caught the intention and the spirit...Your study could not be more conscientious or true to the original. As it advances, condensation increases in a marked degree: the reader becomes aware that the explanation is undergoing a progressive involution similar to the involution by which we determine the reality of Time. To produce this feeling, much more has been necessary than a close study of my works: it has required deep sympathy of thought, the power, in fact, of rethinking the subject in a personal and original manner. Nowhere is this sympathy more in evidence than in your concluding pages, where in a few words you point out the possibilities of further developments of the doctrine. In this direction I should myself say exactly what you have said." Paris, 28th March 1912. CONTENTS Preface GENERAL VIEW I. Method. Scope of Henri Bergson's Philosophy. Material and Authorities. Investigation of Common-sense. Value of Science. Perception Discussed. Practical Life and Reality. Concepts and Symbolism. Intuition and Analysis. Use of Metaphor. The Philosopher's Task. II. Teaching. The Ego. Space and Number. Parallelism. Henri Bergson's View of Mind and Matter. Qualitative Continuity. Memory. Real Duration Heterogeneous. Liberty and Determinism. Meaning of Reality. Evolution and Automatism. Triumph of Man. The Vital Impulse. Objections Refuted. Place of Religion in the New Philosophy. ADDITIONAL EXPLANATIONS I. Henri Bergson's Work and the General Directions of Contemporary Thought. Mathematics and Philosophy. The Inert and the Living. Realism and Positivism. Henri Bergson and the Intuition of Duration. II. Immediacy. Necessity of Criticism. Utilitarianism of Common-sense. Perception of Immediacy. III. Theory of Perception. Pure and Ordinary Perception. Kant's Position. Relation of Perception to Matter. Complete Experience. IV. Critique of Language. Dynamic Schemes. Dangers of Language. The Eleatic Dialectic. Scientific Thought and the Task of Intuition. Discussion of Change. V. The Problem of Consciousness: Duration and Liberty. States as Phases in Duration. The Scientific View of Time. Duration and Freedom. Liberty and Determinism in the Light of Henri Bergson's Philosophy.