The problem of freedom
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| The problem of freedom |
The following chapters are the substance of a course of lectures delivered in 1909 before the Lowell Institute of Boston. Delivered without notes, they were carefully reported and subsequently much revised.
The circumstances of their delivery were, I feel sure, favourable to certain good habits which I have tried to retain. My hearers, though exceptionally intelligent and critical, were for the most part untrained in the subject.
Being hearers too and not readers, they constantly forced me, if I would be understood, to turn away from technicalities toward naturalness of speech; they led me to emphasize crucial points in the argument; and then by short sentences, easy transitions, and homely illustrations, to make the necessarily close attention rewarding and agreeable. These are useful habits for anyone who undertakes to treat contentious topics.
Nor do I see that such adjustments unfit a discussion for consideration by specialists.
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