This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization. The book, having originated in connection with lectures and being in the first instance intended for these, is adapted to the horizon of students; hence its encyclopedic character; and also the interspersed quotations, which are meant to incite to the study of the original languages, without which a full understanding of Indian, Biblical and Greek metaphysics is scarcely possible. Apart from these the work might be accessible, by a little effort of thought, to every educated mind, more especially after the whole has been read through a second time, when what has hitherto been obscure will become perfectly clear, and indeed the whole will first appear in its true light. The table of contents, forming a series of questions on all the chief points of philosophy, is designed to facilitate repetition and meditation, which should be unremittingly practiced.