Excerpt from A Philosophical System of Theistic Idealism "A philosophical system": That sounds audacious enough in days when we are being constantly told that philosophers have ceased to frame systems, and now merely write essays. No further back than 1900, Sidgwick wrote that "the philosophic mind of the modern world is now at the ebb, with its constructive impulses comparatively feeble" (Mind, 1900). Doubtless he was thinking mainly of metaphysical construction, of which he had at another time said that system-making is pre-eminently the affair of philosophy (Mind, 1895). But, even as to "system," it is possible to do a bold thing in a modest spirit. I have called my "Theistic Idealism" a "system" because it is, as far as may be, concerned with, and drawn from, the system of things, rather than from the systems of the Schools. To all of these latter I am yet debtor, and like Gods people when they spoilt the Egyptians, I have not hesitated to lay violent hands - but more frequently critical hands - on what is valuable in any of them that incidentally chanced to lie in the line of my thought-aims and purpose. But this without savour of anything resembling eclecticism, or the admission of heterogeneous elements into the synthesis. I share the modern aversion to the word "system," but so long as thought remains orderly and systematic, system is necessary, and need convey no outworn suggestions of finality. In dealing with the inner connection of philosophical thought, it is thereby justified. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.