Philosophy
As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a
sleeping dog lie. It is an attempt to deny, circumvent or otherwise
escape from the consequences of the interlacing of the roots of
things with one another. It professes to appease our ultimate "Why?"
though in truth it is generally the solution of a simplex ignotum by
a complex ignotius. This, at least, is my experience of everything
that has been presented to me as philosophy. I have often had my
"Why" answered with so much mystifying matter that I have left off
pressing it through fatigue. But this is not having my ultimate
"Why?" appeased. It is being knocked out of time.
Philosophy and Equal Temperament
It is with philosophy as with just intonation on a piano, if you get
everything quite straight and on all fours in one department, in
perfect tune, it is delightful so long as you keep well in the middle
of the key; but as soon as you modulate you find the new key is out
of tune and the more remotely you modulate the more out of tune you
get. The only way is to distribute your error by equal temperament
and leave common sense to make the correction in philosophy which the
ear does instantaneously and involuntarily in music.
Hedging the Cuckoo
People will still keep trying to find some formula that shall hedge-
in the cuckoo of mental phenomena to their satisfaction.
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