another example: that of inert matter, of the perception on which the
physical is based. It is in this case that the divergence between common
perception and pure perception, however real it may be, assumes least
proportions.

Therefore it appears most in place in the sketch I desire to trace of an
exceedingly complex work, where I can only hope, evidently, to indicate the
main lines and general direction.

We readily believe that when we cast our eyes upon surrounding objects, we
enter into them unresistingly and apprehend them all at once in their
intrinsic nature. Perception would thus be nothing but simple passive
registration. But nothing could be more untrue, if we are speaking of the
perception which we employ without profound criticism in the course of our
daily life. What we here take to be pure fact is, on the contrary, the
last term in a highly complicated series of mental operations. And this
term contains as much of us as of things.

In fact, all concrete perception comes up for analysis as an indissoluble
mixture of construction and fact, in which the fact is only revealed
through the construction, and takes on its complexion. We all know by
experience how incapable the uneducated person is of explaining the simple
appearance of the least fact, without embodying a crowd of false
interpretations. We know to a less extent, but it is also true, that the
most enlightened and adroit person proceeds in just the same manner: his
interpretation is better, but it is still interpretation.

That is why accurate observation is so difficult; we see or we do not see,
we notice such and such an aspect, we read this or that, according to our
state of consciousness at the time, according to the direction of the