The difficulty of beginning, of formulating a "first" question, has already sufficiently been exposed. If Hegel's thought, or metaphysical thought as such, presents itself as a flawless whole, then any entry into it from outside brings an acute consciousness of the problem of communication. And this, as a relation between author and reader, finds its original statement in the prior question of self-communication. Words, we say, "come to mind" to carry and to constitute our thought. If they did no more than carry a thought that is achieved apart from them, the problem of communication — with oneself and with others — would be merely a technical one. If they were a perfect incarnation of thought, a simple identity with it, then there would be no problem, no struggle of thought to find itself in its expression.