Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is not that I am under the illusion that my own beliefs, or those of other men, orthodox or unorthodox, with very few exceptions, have been actually reached purely or mainly by an argumenta tive process. They have been the result Of a complex of movements within the soul, and of influences from without it, which are largely emotional, moral and social, and not in the narrower sense intellectual. But if the resultant belief or theory is to be described as rational, that must mean that it can account for the relevant experience in its widest sense, and the facts of nature and history, better than any other theory and the best way to test the ability of any theory to do this is not mainly by attacking other theories, but by approaching the facts constructively and critically and seeing what theory appears to emerge out of their free consideration.

It is not that I am under the illusion that my own beliefs, or those of other men, orthodox or unorthodox, with very few exceptions, have been actually reached purely or mainly by an argumenta tive process. They have been the result Of a complex of movements within the soul, and of influences from without it, which are largely emotional, moral and social, and not in the narrower sense intellectual. But if the resultant belief or theory is to be described as rational, that must mean that it can account for the relevant experience in its widest sense, and the facts of nature and history, better than any other theory and the best way to test the ability of any theory to do this is not mainly by attacking other theories, but by approaching the facts constructively and critically and seeing what theory appears to emerge out of their free consideration.