to superimpose[34] upon the subject--whose Self is intelligence, and
which has for its sphere the notion of the Ego--the object whose sphere
is the notion of the Non-Ego, and the attributes of the object, and
_vice versâ_ to superimpose the subject and the attributes of the
subject on the object. In spite of this it is on the part of man a
natural[35] procedure--which which has its cause in wrong knowledge--not
to distinguish the two entities (object and subject) and their
respective attributes, although they are absolutely distinct, but to
superimpose upon each the characteristic nature and the attributes of
the other, and thus, coupling the Real and the Unreal[36], to make use
of expressions such as 'That am I,' 'That is mine.[37]'--But what have
we to understand by the term 'superimposition?'--The apparent
presentation, in the form of remembrance, to consciousness of something
previously observed, in some other thing.[38]

Some indeed define the term 'superimposition' as the superimposition of
the attributes of one thing on another thing.[39] Others, again, define
superimposition as the error founded on the non-apprehension of the
difference of that which is superimposed from that on which it is
superimposed.[40] Others[41], again, define it as the fictitious
assumption of attributes contrary to the nature of that thing on which
something else is superimposed. But all these definitions agree in so
far as they represent superimposition as the apparent presentation of
the attributes of one thing in another thing. And therewith agrees also
the popular view which is exemplified by expressions such as the
following: 'Mother-of-pearl appears like silver,' 'The moon although one
only appears as if she were double.' But how is it possible that on the
interior Self which itself is not an object there should be superimposed
objects and their attributes? For every one superimposes an object only
on such other objects as are placed before him (i.e. in contact with his