INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,
NOVEMBER 1856.
1. You scarcely require to be told that the world is imbued with a pretty strong prejudice against metaphysics. Go where we will, we find that the very term is a word of bad omen, a synonym for subtle trifling, an abbreviated expression for the unprofitable, the perplexing, the indefinite, the uncertain, and the incomprehensible.
2. This prejudice, it must be admitted, is by no means unfounded. Looking to the past and the present state of metaphysical literature, we behold, certainly, a most bewildering prospect. In selecting our own opinions amid such conflicting testimonies, by what principle of choice shall we be directed? We look in vain for a conductor in whom implicit reliance can be placed. The more one reads, the more confused does one become; the farther one sails, the farther one seems to recede from the wished-for
