His thought aims at setting forth, not any system of knowledge, but
rather a method of philosophizing; in a phrase, this method amounts to
the assertion that Life is more than Logic, or, as Byron put it, "The
tree of Knowledge is not the tree of Life."
It is because Bergson has much to say that is novel and opposed to older
conceptions that a certain lack of proportion occasionally mars his
thought; for he--naturally enough--frequently lays little emphasis on
important points which he considers are sufficiently familiar, in order
to give prominent place and emphasis to some more novel point. Herein
lies, it would now appear, the explanation of the seeming disharmony
between Intuition and Intellect which was gravely distressing to many in
his earlier writing on the subject. Later works, however, make a point
of restoring this harmony, but, as William James has remarked: "We are
so subject to the philosophical tradition which treats logos, or
discursive thought generally, as the sole avenue to truth, that to fall
back on raw, unverbalized life, as more of a revealer, and to think of
concepts as the merely practical things which Bergson calls them, comes
very hard. It is putting off our proud maturity of mind and becoming
again as foolish little children in the eyes of reason. But, difficult
as such a revolution is, there is no other way, I believe, to the
possession of reality." [Footnote: Lecture on Bergson and his anti-
intellectualism, in A Pluralistic Universe.
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