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psychology are of the most primary character and certain order, even as compared with those of science. There is no knowledge so direct as that which the mind has of its own states; all other knowledge is indirect being conditioned on this knowledge. The phenomena of mind are given truthfully and synthetically. Its facts are evanescent in each mind, but they are, for the moment at least, certain. In their several forms and their diverse lines of succession, they are exceedingly complex and changeable. Their obscurely synthetical character is their most striking characteristic.

Lesson 8 - 2. Difficulties of Philosophy - p.22

2. The facts of mind are confined, then, to the field of consciousness, and there they are to be sought. In this search there are peculiar difficulties. It is with most an unusual effort of mind to direct attention to interior phenomena. External objects have been the chief subjects of consideration, and to turn the sight of the mind on itself is an unfamiliar and delicate process. It is like an effort to reveal to the eye itself its own chambers, by casting in light and by adroit reflection.

Neither are the several phases of mind observed as transpiring, but as remembered. In the very act of thinking, the mind is so occupied with the subject matter of thought as not to make the process itself the object of attention. Now memory is at best but a dim and obscure vision, and especially so of internal states, which less draw the mind's eye than the objects and facts which are the occasion of them. If natural science were to proceed by the memory of things, seen at periods more or less remote, its progress would be comparatively uncertain. Nor can the phenomena of mind be restored perfectly at pleasure, and thus the recollection of them freshened. This is more possible in thinking than in feeling and volition; yet even in thought, for its natural and full flow in a given direction,