Before we walked, like Demokritus, in empty space, whither we had flown on the butterfly-wings of metaphysics, and there we had conversed with spiritual beings. Now, since the sobering power of self-recognition has caused the silky wings to be folded, we find ourselves again on the ground of experience and common sense. Happily, if we look at it as the place allotted to us, which we never can leave with impunity, and which contains everything to satisfy us as long as we hold to the useful.

The philosophical remarks in this book are, as it were, a number of sketches of landscapes which were made in the course of these long and involved journeyings. The same or almost the same points were always being approached afresh from different directions, and new sketches made. Very many of these were badly drawn or uncharacteristic marked by all the defects of a weak draughtsman. And when they were rejected a number of tolerable ones were left, which now had to be arranged and sometimes cut down, so that if you looked at them, you could get a picture of the landscape. Thus this book is really an album.