4l6 A SCHOLASTIC VIEW OF TIME. 



Angels are called separated substances by tbe philosophers be- 

 cause they are removed from all matter. Hence the measure of 

 duration in their actions is in no sense a material number, 

 whether discrete or continuous. But a multiplicity of succession 

 there must me ; and since it does not fit into any of the cate- 

 gories that we are familiar with, it is called a " transcendental 

 multiplicity." This is the only n-ay in which we can describe 

 the time which measures the mental activity of these separated 

 substances. 



Hence it also follows that in the mental operations of these 

 immaterial beings there is no such thing as a break measurable 

 by time. In our mental operations .such a break must occur 

 when we pass from one subject to another, and may occur when 

 we pause in our thought upon one subject. The second suppo- 

 sition is self evident, and the first becomes clear when we analyse 

 what it means. 



Let A be the moment of time when we cease thinking one 

 subject, and B be the moment when we begin to think of the 

 next. They cannot be identical ; for we are unable to grasp two 

 different subjects of thought at the same moment. These two 

 jK>ints of time are like the points of an unbroken line ; for time 

 is flowing on in this unbroken succession during all our thoughts. 

 But between any two ix)ints of a line there is a divisible exten- 

 sion, no matter how small it may be conceived to be. This is the 

 necessary transition-time between one subject (^f thought and 

 another. 



There is therefore no break m the successive thoughts of 

 the separated intelligences. With us the break is caused some- 

 times by the subject matter of our thoughts, which must always 

 leave a gap measurable by our time when we change the sub- 

 ject of our thoughts ; sometimes by the cessation from the act 

 of thinking, which ])ause is likewise computed in terms of con- 

 tinuous time. But in the case of the immaterial substances the 

 indivisible particles of time are not related to any external 

 measure which runs on continuously and registers a break or 

 transiti(Mi. C)uv ])article of that indivisil)le time mav ]:)ersist 

 whilst much of our time passes; but there can be no proportion 

 between the ])arts of our time and the parts of the other.* All 

 this transcends our imagination, because we arc tied to the 

 iOiit'miiiim of our time. 



It is clear, however, that all time consists in a certain succes- 

 sion of duration. It depends entirely upon the things which arc 

 measured by time whether this succession will be contintious or 

 discrete. There being no trace of material being in the Angels. 

 c.v hypothcsi, even the dksgregated. particles of their time cannot 

 l)e numbered or labelled as can the periods of our time. 



Now, if the Scholastics stand for anything in this matter, 

 it is for the reality <^f time. In modern si^eculation there has 

 been an undoubted tendency to set down the idea of time as one 



* Aquinas, " Opuscula," p. 3S2_ 



