Not only has our direct observation of the person been very limited, even that which we have been able to see has not been perfectly mirrored in our memory.

It has already been remarked that recollection is a selective process, and this truth is strikingly illustrated in the growth of our enduring representations of things.

What stamps itself on my memory is what surprised me or what deeply interested me at the moment.

And then there are all the risks of mnemonic illusion to be taken into account as well.

Thus, my idea of a person, so far even as it is built up on a basis of direct personal recollection, is essentially a fragmentary and to some extent a misleading representation.
Nor is this all.