PREFATORY NOTE HENRY SIDGWICK had long intended to collect together essays and addresses written by him at different times; and some essays on ethical subjects he had published under the title of Practical Ethics in the "Ethical Library series (Swan Sonnenschein and Co.) in 1898. The volume now published contains miscellaneous essays on other subjects. Several of them were specified by the author during the last few weeks of his life as suitable for such a collection, though with some hesitation in one or two cases. After due consideration, all the papers that he named have been included; and we have added a few others, which seemed likely to be of interest to the general reader. We have not included any of the papers published in Mind; some of them will appear more appropriately along with some hitherto unpublished philosophical lectures in a volume which is being edited by Professor James Ward. It will be seen that the papers fall mostly into three divisions, according as they deal with literature, economics and sociology, or education; and it seemed best to arrange them, within the limits of each division, in chronological order. The only exceptions are the essay on Bentham and Benthamism, which we have placed between the |