An Introduction to
Metaphysics

By

Henri Bergson

Member of the Institute and Professor of the Collège de
France

Translated by T. E. Hulme

Authorized Edition, Revised by the Author, with
Additional Material

G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press

COPYRIGHT, 1912

BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Third Printing

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

'HIS celebrated essay was first pub

THIS

lished in the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, in January, 1903. It appeared then after Time and Free Will and Matter and Memory and before Creative Evolution; and while containing ideas set forth in the first two of these works, it announces some of those which were afterwards developed in the last.

Though this book can in no sense be regarded as an epitome of the others, it yet forms the best introduction to them. M. Edouard Le Roy in his lately published book on M. Bergson's philosophy speaks of "this marvelously suggestive study which constitutes the best preface to the books themselves."

It has, however, more importance than a simple introduction would have, for in it M. Bergson explains, at greater length and in greater detail than in the other books,

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