298 SISTER M. JOCELYN 



almost all holding time to be constituted in its formality by the 

 mind. 



Galen (129-199 A. D.) taught that time was the sucession 

 of our perceptions as known. He then places time as a mental 

 being which does not exist if there is no soul which perceives. ° 



Plotinus (205-270 A. D.) defines time as the life of the soul 

 in movement. It is not to be conceived as outside of soul.^ 



An obscure Boetius on the other hand, thinks nothing pre- 

 vents number from being without that which numbers. Thus 

 time can exist without soul. Perhaps his position is due to a 

 strong Platonic influence.^ 



Themistius (c. 320-390 A. D.) finds fault with Boetius. 

 What can be numbered and numbering are correlative; one 

 cannot be without the other. If there is no one to number there 

 is no numbering and so if there is no soul to number there is no 

 time.^ 



Saint Augustine (354-430 A. D.) shows delightful humility 

 in acknowledging his ignorance of time: " If no one asks me, 

 I know; if I want to explain it to a questioner, I do not 

 know." ^° Yet after much analysis he concludes that it is the 

 mind which gives time: " It is in you, my mind, that I 

 measure time . . . what I measure is the impress produced in 

 you by things as they pass and abiding in you when they have 

 passed: and it is present." ^^ 



In the sixth century Simplicius expressed his disagreement 

 with the thought of Boetius, holding that although the numer- 

 able can exist without soul as does movement, yet number and 

 hence time can in no way exist without soul. Only movement 

 exists in nature, for to consider the prior and posterior belongs 



" Albertus Magnus, Lib. IV Phydcorum, tr. HI, cap. 3, ed. Borgnet, IH, pp. 

 310b-311a. 



'G. H. Turnbull, The Essence of Plotinus (New York, 1934), p. 107. 



^ For this point I am indebted to the unpublished notes of the Rev. J. A. 

 Weisheipl, O. P. 



*See note 8. 



^"St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, chap. 14 (New York, 1943), p. 271. 



" Ibid., Book XI, chap. 32, p. 283. 



