238 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

more glaring ! How could we ever gain experience at all

unless we trusted our memory in gaining it? What the

physicist said, in effect, amounted to this : " You may trust

your present memory because experience has confirmed

it, while you can only know that it has confirmed it by

trusting your present memory ! "

But memory, as will be quickly pointed out, performs

a yet more wonderful office than any we have yet described.

In the beginning of this work * we pointed out the

great distinction which exists between the "objective" and

the "subjective."

Every "feeling," "thought," "desire," "volition," or other

" state of consciousness " present to the mind of whoever

is the subject of it, is spoken of as being " subjective."

It is a thing which pertains to the subject to the mind

which feels or thinks. The whole of such experiences,

taken together, constitute the subjective world, or the sphere

of subjectivity.

On the contrary, everything whatever which exists

externally to our present consciousness or feelings is

spoken of as being " objective " ; and all that is thus

external to the mind constitutes the objective world, and

is the region of objectivity. It is the world of real objects

the world which occasions thought or feeling as opposed

to the subjective modifications so occasioned.

Everything which is subjective pertains to the self or Ego

during the time in which that " self" is feeling or thinking.

Everything which is objective is external to the self which

is feeling or thinking, so that all states, even of the "self"

or " Ego," which are anterior to the time when that self

or Ego feels, are also objective objects of thought, indeed,

but not the thought or feeling of the thinking subject-

not subjective.

* See ante, pp. 8, 9.

more glaring ! How could we ever gain experience at all

unless we trusted our memory in gaining it? What the

physicist said, in effect, amounted to this : " You may trust

your present memory because experience has confirmed

it, while you can only know that it has confirmed it by

trusting your present memory ! "

But memory, as will be quickly pointed out, performs

a yet more wonderful office than any we have yet described.

In the beginning of this work * we pointed out the

great distinction which exists between the "objective" and

the "subjective."

Every "feeling," "thought," "desire," "volition," or other

" state of consciousness " present to the mind of whoever

is the subject of it, is spoken of as being " subjective."

It is a thing which pertains to the subject to the mind

which feels or thinks. The whole of such experiences,

taken together, constitute the subjective world, or the sphere

of subjectivity.

On the contrary, everything whatever which exists

externally to our present consciousness or feelings is

spoken of as being " objective " ; and all that is thus

external to the mind constitutes the objective world, and

is the region of objectivity. It is the world of real objects

the world which occasions thought or feeling as opposed

to the subjective modifications so occasioned.

Everything which is subjective pertains to the self or Ego

during the time in which that " self" is feeling or thinking.

Everything which is objective is external to the self which

is feeling or thinking, so that all states, even of the "self"

or " Ego," which are anterior to the time when that self

or Ego feels, are also objective objects of thought, indeed,

but not the thought or feeling of the thinking subject-

not subjective.

* See ante, pp. 8, 9.