which is very widespread at the present time, a distrust of systems,
theories, logical constructions, the assumption of premisses and then
the acceptance of everything that follows logically from them. There
is a sense of impatience with thought and a thirst for the actual, the
concrete. It is because the whole drift of Bergson's writing is an
incitement to throw over abstractions and get back to facts that so
many people read him, hoping that he will put into words and find an
answer to the unformulated doubt that haunts them.

It was in this spirit that the writer undertook the study of Bergson.
On the first reading he appeared at once too persuasive and too vague,
specious and unsatisfying: a closer investigation revealed more and
more a coherent theory of reality and a new and promising method of
investigating it. The apparent unsatisfactoriness of the first reading
arose from a failure to realize how entirely new and unfamiliar the
point of view is from which Bergson approaches metaphysical
speculation. In order to understand Bergson it is necessary to adopt
his attitude and that is just the difficulty, for his attitude is the
exact reverse of that which has been inculcated in us by the
traditions of our language and education and now comes to us
naturally. This common sense attitude is based on certain assumptions
which are so familiar that we simply take them for granted without
expressly formulating them, and indeed, for the most part, without
even realizing that we have been making any assumptions at all.

Bergson's principal aim is to direct our attention to the reality
which he believes we all actually know already, but misinterpret and
disregard because we are biassed by preconceived ideas. To do this
Bergson has to offer some description of what this reality is, and
this description will be intelligible only if we are willing and able