THE METHODS AND SNARES OF PSYCHOLOGY. 185 



reporter of subjective as well as of objective facts, we must 

 presently speak. But not until we have considered the 

 methods he uses for ascertaining what the facts in question 

 are. 



THE METHODS OF INVESTIGATION. 



Introspective Observation is lohat ice have to rely on first 

 and foremost and ahvays. The word introspection need 

 hardly be defined — it means, of course, the looking into our 

 own minds and reporting what we there discover. Every 

 one agrees that ice there discover states of consciousness. So 

 far as I know, the existence of such states has never been 

 doubted by any critic, however sceptical in other respects 

 he may have been. That we have cogitations of some sort is 

 the inconcussum in a world most of whose other facts have 

 at some time tottered in the breath of philosophic doubt. 

 All people unhesitatingly believe that they feel themselves 

 thinking, and that they distinguish the mental state as an 

 inward activity or passion, from all the objects with which 

 it may cognitively deal. / regard this belief as the most 

 fundamental of all the postulates of Psychology, and shall dis- 

 card all curious inquiries about its certainty as too meta- 

 physical for the scope of this book. 



A Question of Nomenclature. We ought to have some 

 general term by which to designate all states of con- 

 sciousness merely as such, and apart from their par- 

 ticular quality or cognitive function. Unfortunately most 

 of the terms in use have grave objections. ' Mental 

 state,' ' state of consciousness,' ' conscious modification,' are 

 cumbrous and have no kindred verbs. The same is true 

 of 'subjective condition.' 'Feeling' has the verb 'to feel,' 

 both active and neuter, and such derivatives as ' feelingly,' 

 'felt,' 'feltness,' etc., which make it extremely convenient. 

 But on the other hand it has specific meanings as well as 

 its generic one, sometimes standing for pleasure and pain, 

 and being sometimes a synonym of ' sensation ' as opposed 

 to thought ; whereas we wish a term to cover sensation and 



