it has been impossible to avoid the _oratio obliqua_ of exposition; but,
wherever practicable, we have let the philosophers themselves develop their
doctrines and reasons, not so much by literal quotations from their
works, as by free, condensed reproductions of their leading ideas. If the
principiant view of the forces which control the history of philosophy, and
of the progress of modern philosophy, expressed in the Introduction and in
the Retrospect at the end of the book, have not been everywhere verified
in detail from the historical facts, this is due in part to the limits, in
part to the pedagogical aim, of the work. Thus, in particular, more space
has for pedagogical reasons been devoted to the "psychological" explanation
of systems, as being more popular, than in our opinion its intrinsic
importance would entitle it to demand. To satisfy every one in the choice
of subjects and in the extent of the discussion is impossible; but our hope
is that those who would have preferred a guide of this sort to be entirely
different will not prove too numerous. In the classification of movements
and schools, and in the arrangement of the contents of the various systems,
it has not been our aim to deviate at all hazards from previous accounts;
and as little to leave unutilized the benefits accruing to later comers
from the distinguished achievements of earlier workers in the field. In
particular we acknowledge with gratitude the assistance derived from the
renewed study of the works on the subject by Kuno Fischer, J.E. Erdmann,
Zeller, Windelband, Ueberweg-Heinze, Harms, Lange, Vorlãnder, and Pünjer.

The motive which induced us to take up the present work was the perception
that there was lacking a text-book in the history of modern philosophy,
which, more comprehensive, thorough, and precise than the sketches of
Schwegler and his successors, should stand between the fine but detailed
exposition of Windelband, and the substantial but--because of the division
of the text into paragraphs and notes and the interpolation of pages of
bibliographical references--rather dry outline of Ueberweg. While the