TIME 6i 



years that it covers, but by the number of moments lived 

 through. The Hfe of two human beings who were born on the 

 same day and who died on the same day, may be very different 

 as regards duration and in richness in experience, even if their 

 fates be identical. Let us take an instance. While the 

 second-pendulum swings to and fro once, A lives through 

 10 moments, B, on the other hand, through 20 ; the life of 

 B will accordingly last twice as long and will be twice as full 

 as the life of A. 



If we assume that the stimulation of the moment-sign 

 is connected with the combustion of a certain quantity of 

 oxygen in the brain, then A burns up his oxygen more slowly 

 than B. 



As the local sign represents for each human being the 

 absolute measure for space, so the moment-sign gives him 

 the absolute measure for time. It is only when we compare 

 two individuals with one another that the two measures 

 become relative ; but we must not conclude from this that 

 there is such a thing as a real space with its absolute measure- 

 ment, and a real time with absolute measurement. The 

 attempt to introduce absolute space and absolute time comes 

 from the observer who is investigating the relativity of two 

 subjects necessarily taking as the basis of comparison his own 

 time and his own space. 



The illusion of absolute time is heightened by objective 

 measurement of time, which tries to read off from the same 

 clock everything that happens in the world from the Pole-star 

 to the Southern Cross. As is weU known, the most modern 

 physical theories have shaken this doctrine to its foundation. 

 K. E. von Baer has given us a very striking description 

 of the change that would come over our picture of the world 

 if the number of our moments, which at present extends over 

 80 solar years, held the content of only eight years, or of one 

 year, or of one day, or of one hour ; and of what would become 



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