Translator's Preface

It has become customary in our times to depreciate the philosophy of Aristotle, which had served during so many generations as an adequate vehicle of thought for philosophers and theologians of every school. This universal mind-language of the civilized world was virtually discarded, and lost, among other things, that fixed standard of expression without which mutual understanding is impossible, a loss to which may be at least partially attributed the amazing misrepresentations of Catholic doctrine which confront the reader in almost every non-Catholic work of the day (and in some also which ought to be Catholic), when they treat of religion either directly or indirectly.

Of the so-called Scholastic Philosophy a contemporary writer says it was "professedly the philosophy of common-sense and common language which, by reason of its child-like directness and simplicity, departed as little as possible from the fundamental conceptions common to all philosophies," adding, that owing to its being likewise "coherent, systematic, and well worked out, the Aristotelian philosophy will perhaps always take precedence as an educational instrument," as indicated by the number of revivals and reactions which have taken place in its favour.

Whatever may be the deficiencies of this venerable philosophy, it may surely compare favourably with modern sectarian systems (almost as numerous as the religious sects with which they have been contemporaneous) and what a still more recent exponent of philosophy! calls "their muddled conclusions," while its acceptance by the Church, as the mind-language best suited to the expression of religious dogma, should induce seekers for truth to make themselves so far acquainted with it as to understand, at least, what the Christian Church really believes and teaches, before rejecting it as inconsistent with modern science or their own spiritual needs.

As it is chiefly to facilitate such an understanding that this work has been undertaken, it has been the translator's aim to render it into plain English, avoiding as far as possible technical words and expressions, without attempting to modernize the more or less archaic simplicity of the original style.

- A. J. M., Fiesole, 1905