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54 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



the series of moment-signs — we estimate with more or less 

 exactness ; but as soon as we turn our attention to a sound 

 repeating itself in the outside world, the degree of exactness 

 increases enormously. By contrasting them, we can then 

 estimate with unfailing certainty the number of unaccented 

 moment-signs (the so-called intervals) that lie between those 

 that are accented. 



This enables us to set about making an exact measure- 

 ment of time from a change of sound in the outside world ; 

 and when we have found it to be constant, there is nothing to 

 prevent us from employing this change of sounds as a time- 

 measurement in its turn. Even at the present day, watch- 

 makers correct by means of accented moment-signs the swing 

 of pendulum-clocks, which we then use to measure time. 



We can also replace the external change of sound by 

 innervating our own muscles at equal intervals, dividing the 

 moment-signs into accented and unaccented by our own 

 regularly interrupted movement. We call this " beating 

 time." 



Beating time is a subjective kind of time-measuring 

 which makes very great demands on the attention ; therefore 

 as a rule we rely on a change of sound that is independent of 

 our own effort, such as the stroke of the second pendulum, 

 which we describe as an objective measurer of time. Objec- 

 tive time-measurement has thrust subjective into the back- 

 ground in such a way that we have come to regard even 

 time itself as an objective phenomenon, and naturally this has 

 given rise to very serious mistakes. 



Always and in every connection, time remains subjective, 

 since it is bound up with the process of apperception ; it is 

 only the measurement of time that can be termed objective, 

 in the case where the accentuation of the time-signs results 

 from a change in sound independent of our own activity. 



The behaviour of a conductor and his orchestra will serve 



