If it be replied that this belief is simply assertive, that it is knowledge of the first kind, one of those vague appearances in which one does not believe in the full sense of the word, and which persist only in the absence of critical scrutiny, in short a mere de facto state of our knowledge, the question will then be how a consciousness can be in this state of deficiency without being aware of it, or, if it is aware of it, how it can remain in it.