It is now some thirty years since the Summa Theologica began to circulate in an English translation. Little or no notice was taken of it even by those whom it was calculated to serve in their service of scientific truth. But the lack of welcome which befell it had no dismays for those responsible for an enterprise which seemed on the verge of folly. They were not moved when they were told that no good and little profit could come of an attempt to put the clock of modern progress back seven centuries to the age of Aquinas. Such friendly dissuasion as they were offered they met by silence and a more dogged resolve to forgive even their enemies by offering them not a cup of water but a wine-cup of the best!

Experience and instinct had taught them that after the bewilderment of modern materialistic expansion had settled, the human mind would begin to ask questions, that is, to seek ultimate causes. Some sort of unity would be demanded by the finer minds who could not brook a mere welter of multiplicity. Men would seek to discuss with their fellow men the What and Whence and Why. They would desire both a Synthesis and the power to discuss that synthesis with minds of like desire. All this meant that they would demand such a Synthesis if it existed and accept some standarised vocabulary in order that discussion might become a possibility.