Let us see how it begins, and what is its generating act.


III.

How are we to attain the immediate? How are we to realise this perception
of pure fact which we stated to be the philosopher's first step?

Unless we can clear up this doubt, the end proposed will remain to our gaze
an abstract and lifeless ideal. This is, then, the point which requires
instant explanation. For there is a serious difficulty in which the very
employment of the word "immediate" might lead us astray.

The immediate, in the sense which concerns us, is not at all, or at least
is no longer for us the passive experience, the indefinable something which
we should inevitably receive, provided we opened our eyes and abstained
from reflection.

As a matter of fact, we cannot abstain from reflection: reflection is
today part of our very vision; it comes into play as soon as we open our
eyes. So that, to come on the trail of the immediate, there must be effort
and work. How are we to guide this effort? In what will this work
consist? By what sign shall we be able to recognise that the result has
been obtained?

These are the questions to be cleared up. Mr Bergson speaks of them
chiefly in connection with the realities of consciousness, or, more
generally speaking, of life. And it is here, in fact, that the
consequences are most weighty and far-reaching. We shall need to refer to
them again in detail. But to simplify my explanation, I will here choose