consciousness free from all egoity and opposed in nature to everything
else, witnessing Nescience'; what he thinks is only 'I slept well.' From
this form of reflection it appears that even during sleep the Self. i.e.
the 'I,' was a knowing subject and perceptive of pleasure. Nor must you
urge against this that the reflection has the following form: 'As now I
feel pleasure, so I slept then also'; for the reflection is distinctly
_not_ of that kind. [FOOTNOTE 68:1] Nor must you say that owing to the
non-permanency of the 'I' its perception of pleasure during sleep
cannot connect itself with the waking state. For (the 'I' is permanent
as appears from the fact that) the person who has risen from sleep
recalls things of which he was conscious before his sleep, 'I did such
and such a thing,' 'I observed this or that,' 'I said so or so.'--But,
you will perhaps say, he also reflects, 'For such and such a time I was
conscious of nothing!'--'And what does this imply?' we ask.--'It implies
a negation of everything!'--By no means, we rejoin. The words 'I was
conscious' show that the knowing 'I' persisted, and that hence what is
negated is only the objects of knowledge. If the negation implied in 'of
nothing' included everything, it would also negative the pure
consciousness which you hold to persist in deep sleep. In the judgment
'I was conscious of nothing,' the word 'I' clearly refers to the 'I,' i.
e. the knowing Self which persists even during deep sleep, while the
words 'was conscious of nothing' negative all knowledge on the part of
that 'I'; if, now, in the face of this, you undertake to prove by means
of this very judgment that knowledge--which is expressly denied--existed
at the time, and that the persisting knowing Self did not exist, you may
address your proof to the patient gods who give no reply!--But--our
opponent goes on to urge--I form the following judgment also: 'I then
was not conscious of myself,' and from this I understand that the 'I'
did not persist during deep sleep!--You do not know, we rejoin, that
this denial of the persistence of the 'I' flatly contradicts the state