220* 



our ideas and actions, asserts, that " however these may 

 " be accelerated or retarded, time will be just the same, 

 " that is, neither shorter nor longer, provided the same 

 " ideas and actions succeed one another: as far, I mean, 

 " as it relates to beings so thinking and acting. For in- 

 " stance; were the earth, and all the celestial bodies, to 

 " perfoi'm the same revolutions in one day, which they 

 *'■ now perform in a whole year; and were all the ideas, 

 " actions, and lives of mankind, hastened on in the same 

 " proportion; the period of our lives would not be in the 

 " least shortened, but that day Avould be exactly equal 

 " to the present year. If, in the space of seventy or 

 " eighty of these days, a man was born, educated, and 

 " grown up, had seen his children come to maturity, &c. 

 " and, during this period, had all his ideas and actions, 

 " all his enjoyments and suft'erings, accelerated in the same 

 " proportion, he would not only seem to himself, and to 

 " all who lived in the same state with him, and measured 

 " time by the same standard, to haA'e lived as long, but 

 " actunll]/, mid in fact, Avould have lived as long as one 

 *' who resides on this globe as great a number of our 

 " present years." — Is not this to say, that, actually, and 

 in tact, seventy .or eighty of our days ai'e equal to seventy 

 or eighty -of our years? It is plain, that, even if the hy- 

 |X)thesis wei'e possible, it is only in appearance that an 

 equality could subsist between them. But the hypothesis 

 itself is grounded on no analogy whatsoever; to deduce 

 anv consequences from it, is, therefore, an idle attempt. 



Judging 



