TIME . 53 



We must therefore employ the word moment-sign. 

 According to Kant, the unity of the apperception creates the 

 unity of our ego, which, although destitute of local signs, is 

 always furnished with a moment-sign. As a consequence, all 

 psychic processes, feelings and thoughts are invariably bound 

 to a definite moment and proceed contemporaneously with 

 the objective sensations. Time envelops both subjective 

 and objective worlds in the same way, and, unlike space, 

 makes no distinction between them. 



In order to understand in what respect we can nevertheless 

 distinguish between subjective and objective in time, we must 

 try to penetrate deeper into the nature of the moment-sign. 



We have taken the local sign to be the smallest spatial 

 magnitude into which the various qualities were poured in 

 order to give us the atom : in like manner, we may compare V 

 the moment-signs with the smallest receptacles that, by being 

 filled with a content of various qualities, become converted 

 into moments as they are lived. Like the local sign, the 

 moment-sign remains constant in its magnitude and intensity, 

 changing only in its content. 



We might be led to suppose that the content of the 

 moment-signs would distinguish between* their objective or 

 subjective character. This is never the case. I may give 

 myself up to my thoughts, or pLunge into contempla- 

 tion of a landscape ; I may even engage in observation of 

 the movements of men and animals — the time that elapses 

 while I am thus occupied is always subjective. This indeed 

 is not surprising, for the same process of apperception is gone 

 through on each occasion, and with it appear its moment- 

 signs. 



For whether we are looking at objects or formulating 

 thoughts, the same business of construction is initiated for 

 the forming of higher unities from simpler elements. 



The duration pf time that has passed — i.e. the length of 



