Page:Critique of Pure Reason 1855 Meiklejohn tr.djvu/15

made a number of very happy conjectural emendations, the accuracy of which cannot be doubted.

It may be necessary to mention that it has been found requisite to coin one or two new philosophical terms, to represent those employed by Kant. It was, of course, almost impossible to translate the Kritik with the aid of the philosophical vocabulary at present used in England. But these new expressions have been formed according to Horace’s maxim—parcè detorta. Such is the verb intuite for anschauen; the manifold in intuition has also been employed for das Mannigfaltige der Anschauung, by which Kant designates the varied contents of a perception or intuition. Kant’s own terminology has the merit of being precise and consistent.

Whatever may be the opinion of the reader with regard to the possibility of metaphysics—whatever his estimate of the utility of such discussions,—the value of Kant’s work, as an instrument of mental discipline, cannot easily be overrated. If the present translation contribute in the least to the advancement of scientific cultivation, if it aid in the formation of habits of severer and more profound thought, the translator will consider himself well compensated for his arduous and long-protracted labour.