Wisdom of the west

　　 "A BIG BOOK," said Callimachus the Alexandrian poet, "is a big 　　evil!" On the whole I feel inclined to share this view. If, 　　therefore, I venture to put the present volume before the reader, 　　it is because, as evils go, this book is a minor one. 　　Nevertheless, it calls for a special explanation; for I have some 　　time ago written a book on the same subject. Wisdom of the West is 　　an entirely new work; though, of course, it would never have 　　appeared had not my "History of Western Philosophy" preceded it. 　　 What are philosophers doing when they are at work? This is 　　indeed an odd question, and we might try to answer it by first 　　setting out what they are not doing. There are, in the world 　　around us, many things which are understood fairly well. Take, for 　　instance, tile working of a steam engine. This falls within the 　　fields of mechanics and thermodynafiaics. Again, we know quite a 　　lot about the way in which the human body is built and functions.