CREATIVE EVOLUTION

BY HENRI BERGSON

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY

ARTHUR MITCHELL, Ph.D.

NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1911

Copyright, 1911,
by

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY


CAMELOT PRESS, 18-20 OAK STREET, NEW YORK
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

In the writing of this English translation of Professor Bergson's mostimportant work, I was helped by the friendly interest of ProfessorWilliam James, to whom I owe the illumination of much that was dark tome as well as the happy rendering of certain words and phrases for whichan English equivalent was difficult to find. His sympatheticappreciation of Professor Bergson's thought is well known, and he hasexpressed his admiration for it in one of the chapters of A PluralisticUniverse. It was his intention, had he lived to see the completion ofthis translation, himself to introduce it to English readers in aprefatory note.

I wish to thank my friend, Dr. George Clarke Cox, for many valuablesuggestions.

I have endeavored to follow the text as closely as possible, and at thesame time to preserve the living union of diction and thought. ProfessorBergson has himself carefully revised the whole work. We both of us wishto acknowledge the great assistance of Miss Millicent Murby. She haskindly studied the translation phrase by phrase, weighing each word, andher revision has resulted in many improvements.

But above all we must express our acknowledgment to Mr. H. Wildon Carr,the Honorary Secretary of the[Pg vi] Aristotelian Society of London, and thewriter of several studies of "Evolution Creatrice."[1] We asked him tobe kind enough to revise the proofs of our work. He has done much morethan revise them: they have come from his hands with his personal markin many places. We cannot express all that the present work owes to him.

ARTHUR MITCHELL

Harvard University

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CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER I