CHAPTER II
SPIRITUALISM[1] AND IDEALISM
Flournoy has somewhere written that the chief interest of the systems of metaphysics lies less in the intellectual constructions they raise than in the aspirations of the mind and of the heart to which they correspond. Without taking literally this terribly sceptical opinion, it would be highly useful to begin the study of any metaphysical system by the psychology of its author. The value of each system would be better understood, and their reasons would be comprehended.
This book is too short to permit us to enter into such biographical details. I am obliged to take the metaphysical systems en bloc, as if they were anonymous works, and to efface all the shades, occasionally so curious, that the thought of each author has introduced into them. Yet, however brief our statement, it seems indispensable to in-
- ↑ It is, perhaps, needless to point out that by “spiritualism” M. Binet does not mean the doctrine of the spirit-rappers, whom he, like other scientific writers, designates as “spiritists,” but the creed of all those who believe in disembodied spirits or existences.—Ed.
