Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 9.pdf/382

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SCEPTICISM OF THE INSTRUMENT

entertain in this uncertain and fluctuating world of unique appearances. . . .

So frankly I spread my little equipment of fundamental assumptions before you, heartily glad of the opportunity you have given me of taking them out, of looking at them with the particularity the presence of hearers insures, and of hearing the impression they make upon you. Of course such a sketch must have an inevitable crudity of effect. The time I had for it—I mean the time I was able to give in preparation—was altogether too limited for any exhaustive finish of presentation; but I think on the whole I have got the main lines of this sketch map of my mental basis true. Whether I have made myself comprehensible is a different question altogether. It is for you rather than me to say how this sketch map of mine lies with regard to your own more systematic cartography.

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