Transcribed from the 1887 William Blackwood and Sons edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
FASHIONABLE PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER SKETCHES
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BY LAURENCE OLIPHANT
AUTHOR OF
’PICCADILLY,’ ‘ALTIORA PETO,’ ‘MASOLLAM,’ ETC.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXXXVII
PRICE ONE SHILLING
PREFACE.
That railway travel is not, as a rule, conducive to serious thought, may fairly be inferred from the class of literature displayed on the bookstalls at the stations. I have therefore refrained from any attempt to excite the reflective faculties of the reader, excepting in the first and third of the accompanying sketches, and even in these have only ventured to suggest ideas, the full scope and pregnancy of which it must be left to his own idiosyncrasy to appreciate and develop, the more especially as they bear upon a certain current of investigation which has recently become popular.