But it must be observed that such a principle constitutes in the highest
degree a metaphysical thesis which it would be on all hands illegal to
assert previously as a postulate of method. Secondly, and above all, it
must be observed that on this head experience is decisive, and manifests
more plainly every day the failure of the theories which try to assimilate
the world of consciousness to that of matter, to copy psychology from
physics. We have here two different "orders." The apparatus of the first
does not admit of being employed in the second. Hence the necessity of the
attitude adopted by Mr Bergson. We have an effort to make, a work of
reform to undertake, to lift the veil of symbols which envelops our usual
representation of the ego, and thus conceals us from our own view, in order
to find out what we are in reality, immediately, in our inmost selves.
This effort and this work are necessary, because, "in order to contemplate
the ego in its original purity, psychology must eliminate or correct
certain forms which bear the visible mark of the outer world." ("Essay on
the Immediate Data of Consciousness", Conclusion.) What are these forms?
Let us confine ourselves to the most important. Things appear to us as
numerable units, placed side by side in space. They compose numerical and
spatial multiplicity, a dust of terms between which geometrical ties are
established.

But space and number are the two forms of immobility, the two schemes of
analysis, by which we must not let ourselves be obsessed. I do not say
that there is no place to give them, even in the internal world. But the
more deeply we enter into the heart of psychological life, the less they
are in place.

The fact is, there are several planes of consciousness, situated at
different depths, marking all the intervening degrees between pure thought