144 TIME 



brilliant parabolas traced by the rockets themselves at varying 

 velocities, rapidly at the start, when rising, then more slowly 

 as they near their apogee, is only perceived by us, thanks to 

 our eyes and to our memory. We only see it behind the rocket, 

 as it rises in darkness. Just as for a Hving being, we perceive 

 its past but not its future. But we can calculate the latter 

 with fairly great precision. Our observer in the moon, even 

 though he possessed powerful means of observation, would 

 see only the trace of these briUiant trajectories, and if thousands 

 of rockets were disposed in a straight line so that each one in 

 falling put fire to another, he would be under the impression 

 that the same Uttle luminous line was advancing slowly on the 

 surface of our globe. The distance would be too great, and 

 the rockets too close to each otlier for him to be able to per- 

 ceive the variations of speed. The latter would appear uniform. 



This picture appHes in a certain measure to life, to the 

 species which perpetuates itself almost uniformly by means of 

 individuals of limited duration. Practically speaking, the time 

 of the species represents an immortality based on mortality. It 

 is the envelope curve of elementary phenomena. But all 

 consciousness is contained in this elementary phenomenon 

 and, as I said above, nothing proves that the 'flow of conscious- 

 ness', or what amounts to the same thing, the perception of 

 time, is in all consciences and at every moment of their 

 individual cycle^ directly proportional to the physical time, the 

 uniform flow of which is purely conceptual and independent 

 of the life of the individual. 



According to Bergson, Hving matter represents *a system of 

 growth comparable to an avalanche, where there is no repeti- 

 tion, but where each step forward is a creation, a manifestation 

 of liberty. The living organism is then a reaUty which creates 

 itself; inorganic matter, on the contrary, is a reality which 

 destroys itself (Creative Evolution.) 



From whatever angle we look at it, on condition that we 

 are of good faith, we are led to the conclusion that it would 

 be interesting to borrow solely from a living organism the 

 units which are used to define it. 



