of achieved possession, which, he found, only writing down could give.
The stories and essays in this collection are arranged in an order roughly chronological. But whenever it has seemed to be more illuminating or interesting to bring things together that did not follow one another closely, the chronological order has been disregarded. Each volume will have a brief introduction placing its contents in relation to the rest of the work. It is the most difficult judgment of all to judge oneself, but the writer believes that the whole effect of the collection upon any one who finds it worth while to look through it, will be one of growth and increasing clearness. Certain ideas appear very early and develop. There is, for example, a profound scepticism about man's knowledge of final reality. While the writer was still a science student he was seized by the idea that time is a dimension of space differing only in the relation of the human consciousness towards it, and that both Newtonian space and syllogistic reasoning are simplifications of a more subtle and intangible reality, simplifications imposed upon us by the limitations and imperfections of our minds. This line of thought leads to the recognition that such ideas as the idea of Right and the idea of God may also prove to be relative and provisional, that they are attempts to simplify and so bring into the compass of human reactions what is otherwise humanly inexpressible.
And another leading idea that grows throughout these writings is the idea of a synthetic Collective Mind, arising out of and using and passing on beyond
xvi
