Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Johannis Wyclif Miscellanea Philosophica, Vol. 1: Containing De Actibus Anime; Replicacio De Universalibus; De Materia Et Forma
So great a fall from such a height does not in the least imply that Wyclif, whether in the past or now, has met with more or with less attention than he deserved. He was a man of his time, great in his generation: but changing times have not only taken away all savour of actuality from the work he did. And the problems which he tried to solve; they have rendered him unintelligible both to the general public and to those who are not ignorant of philosophy. Out ofa thousand men trained in modern Metaphysical lore, scarcely one would be able to read and understand the five volumes of Wyclif's philosophical works that have lately seen the light; and not many would care to peruse the Introductions and side-notes in which the editors have striven' to set forth Wyclif's meaning. Not only the problems which interested his contemporaries are dead, but the methods and the very terminology by which he attempted their solution are dead likewise. And to all such as are not philosophers, these volumes are no better than waste paper. On looking through them if respect for the name of the great forgotten one kept back some very natural expression of contempt they surely would experience something of what the Arab may feel, when he pitches his goat-skin tent on the ruins of some vast city: I wonder how anyone could under take such gigantic and such useless work!
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