xiii-xiv

His son, Henry, Jr. writes, "He began the actual writing of this 'introductory text-book for students in metaphysics,' as he once called it, in March, 1909, and to complete it was at last his dearest ambition. But illness, and other demands on his diminished strength, continued to interfere, and what is now published is all that he had succeeded in writing when he died in August, 1910."

William James wrote instructions on July 26, 1910, "Say it is fragmentary and unrevised...Call it 'A beginning of an introduction to Philosophy.' Say that I hoped by it to round out my system, which now is too much like an arch built only on one side..." (Our bold italic.)