degeneration. It is this conviction that has led to the high
appreciation accorded by intelligent men to courses of liberal study,
and among such courses those which we have recognized as philosophical
must take their place.

81. WHY PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES ARE USEFUL.--But let us ask a little more
specifically what is to be gained by pursuing distinctively
philosophical studies. Why should those who go to college, or
intelligent persons who cannot go to college, care to interest
themselves in logic and ethics, psychology and metaphysics? Are not
these studies rather dry, in the first place, and rather profitless, in
the second?

As to the first point, I should stoutly maintain that if they are dry,
it is somebody's fault. The most sensational of novels would be dry if
couched in the language which some philosophers have seen fit to use in
expressing their thoughts. He who defines "existence" as "the still
and simple precipitate of the oscillation between beginning to be and
ceasing to be" has done his best to alienate our affections from the
subject of his predilection.

But it is not in the least necessary to talk in this way about matters
philosophical. He who is not a slave to tradition can use plain and
simple language. To be sure, there are some subjects, especially in
the field of metaphysics, into which the student cannot expect to see
very deeply at the outset of his studies. Men do not expect to
understand the more difficult problems of mathematics without making a
good deal of preparation; but, unhappily, they sometimes expect to have
the profoundest problems of metaphysics made luminous to them in one or
two popular lectures.