Lewes said: "The teaching of most modern psychologists is that consciousness forms but a small item in the total of psychical processes. Unconscious sensations, ideas and judgments are made to play a great part in their explanations. It is very certain that in every conscious volition—every act that is so characterized—the larger part of it is quite unconscious. It is equally certain that in every perception there are unconscious processes of reproduction and inference,—there is a middle distance of subconsciousness, and a background of unconsciousness."