128 TIME 



our body. The universe seems to us to form a whole. 

 We think that if the part which surrounds us lasts in the 

 same manner as we do, the same must be true for that which 

 surrounds this first part, and so on indefinitely. Thus is 

 born the idea of a duration of the universe, that is to say, 

 of an impersonal consciousness which would be the con- 

 necting link between all the individual ones as well as 

 between these and the rest of nature. ... 



'Thus our duration and a certain felt and lived participa- 

 tion of our material environment to this interior duration, 

 are experimental facts. One cannot speak of a reality which 

 lasts without introducing consciousness. The metaphysician 

 will bring into play the direct intervention of a universal 

 consciousness. The common mortal will only think about 

 it vaguely. The mathematician will not need to take it 

 into consideration, for he is interested in the measurement 

 of things and not in their nature. But should he ask himself 

 what he measures, and fix his attention on time itself, he 

 would necessarily visualize succession, and in consequence 

 the before and the after, and therefore a bridge between 

 the two (otherwise there would only be one of the two, 

 a pure instantaneity). Now, we repeat once more, it is 

 impossible to imagine or to conceive a hyphen between the 

 before and the after, without an element of memory and, 

 consequently, of consciousness. 



*The use of this word may perhaps repel if an anthropo- 

 morphic meaning is attached to it. But to visuaHze a thing 

 which lasts, it is not necessary to transport into the interior 

 of the object one's personal memory, even though attenuated. 

 No matter how much it is diminished in its intensity a 

 certain amount of the variety and richness of the interior 

 life would remain there and it would therefore conserve its 

 personal or, at any rate, human character. We should 

 consider one moment of the unrolUng of the universe, that 

 is an instantaneity existing independently of all conscious- 

 ness, then try to evoke conjointly another moment as close 

 as possible to the first, and thus bring into the world a 



