that a person's own past states of consciousness become the object of
his own cognition--as appears from judgments such as 'At one time I knew.'
It cannot therefore be said 'If it is consciousness it is self-proved'
(above p. 33), nor that consciousness if becoming an object of
consciousness would no longer be consciousness; for from this it would
follow that one's own past states, and the conscious states of others--
because being objects of consciousness--are not themselves consciousness.
Moreover, unless it were admitted that there is inferential knowledge of
the thoughts of others, there would be no apprehension of the connexion
of words and meaning, and this would imply the absolute termination of
all human intercourse depending on speech. Nor also would it be possible
for pupils to attach themselves to a teacher of sacred lore, for the
reason that they had become aware of his wisdom and learning. The
general proposition that consciousness does not admit of being an object
is in fact quite untenable. The essential 'nature of consciousness or
knowledge--consists therein that it shines forth, or manifests itself,
through its own being to its own substrate at the present moment; or (to
give another definition) that it is instrumental in proving its own
object by its own being [FOOTNOTE 48:1].

Now these two characteristics are established by a person's own state of
consciousness and do not vanish when that consciousness becomes the
object of another state of consciousness; consciousness remains also in
the latter case what it is. Jars and similar things, on the other hand,
do not possess consciousness, not because they are objects of
consciousness but because they lack the two characteristics stated
above. If we made the presence of consciousness dependent on the absence
of its being an object of consciousness, we should arrive at the
conclusion that consciousness is not consciousness; for there are
things--e.g. sky-flowers--which are not objects of consciousness and at