- 
‘ iy " ; wr % 
434 Mr. Taylor in reply to Mr, Saint. [June 1, , a 
In other words, having no ideas besides 
those derived from our experience, we 
Measure, in general, all future impres- 
sions by the number of past ones ; and 
every given future period is to every 
equal past period in the inverse propor- 
tion of the length of past life. Thus 
supposing the powers of reason and re- 
tention to commence at five years of age, 
the year that passes from seven to eight 
will be one half of all past existence, 
and will consequently be of great appa- 
rent duration; but the year that passes 
from twenty to twenty-one will be but 
a fifteenth part of all past existence, and 
will therefore in its impression on the 
‘mind, be greatly less than the former year. 
The consideration, however, is a mixed 
one. If the recollections of all events 
were equal, and if events at different 
periods were exactly alike, then the ra- 
tios of apparent time, at different ages 
of the same life, would be as above; 
but as recent impressions are so much 
stronger than remote ones, and some 
events mark a period more emphatically 
than others, the ratio is rather to be as- 
certained from the experience of mankind, 
than from reasoning @ priori, Nor can 
we reduce so subtle and varied a prin- 
ciple to the nice proportion of successive 
months or years ; but periods of five or 
ten years, which average modes of life, 
and varieties of impressions, are to be 
preferred for such a purpose. Specu- 
dative inathematicians may amuse them- 
selves by drawing out tables calculated 
for the smallest periods, but every moral 
purpose will he effected by the results of 
% general calculation. 
Dividing life then into periods of five 
years or sixty months ; considering the 
period.of infancy as extending to five 
years; taking one fourth or fifteen months 
.a8, the proportion arising from proximity, 
or peculiar force of recent impressions ; 
and taking the successive proportions of 
sixty, according to the above general 
principle, the following will be the num- 
bers indicative of the apparent length of 
every five years in sixty such months as 
the mind measured in the first five years 
of rational existence. 
1to5 infancy, 
-§ to 10 enjoys the full sivty months, 
10 to 15 equal only to forty-five, 
45 to 20 equal to thirty-five 
20 to 25 equal to thirty, 
25 to SO equal to twenty-seven, 
S30 to 35 equal te twenty-five, 
35 to 40 equal to twenty-three, 
49to 45 equal to twenty-one, nearly, 
“46 to 50 equal to twenty, 
50 to 85 equal to nineteen, 
55 te 60 equal to eighteen 
After sixty, I conccive the season of 
active life is so far gone by, that the efs 
fect of novelty and variety may be re 
duced from a fourth to a fifth or si:.th; 
so that at three score and ten, the sixty 
months of early life will bereduced nearly 
to anapparent or relative twelve months ! 
By the table then it appears, that with 
reference to the apparent duration of the 
first sixty months of rational existence, 
the same nominal period will, from the 
age of twenty to twenty-five be reduced 
one half; and from forty-five to fifty, 
will be reduced one third. Hence the 
five years from twenty to twenty-five, 
will appear, under ordinary circumstances 
of life, to be only half as long as the pe- 
riod from five to ten, when the mind ac 
quired the ‘greatest stock of sensations 
and recollections. But the same period 
will apparently be half as long again as 
the five years from forty-five to fifty, 
and twice as long as a similar period at 
sixty ! 
It appears too that the 660 calendar 
months which elapse in a man’s life be- 
tween five years of age and sixty, are 
reduced by this operation of the mind 
to about one half; so that the apparent 
and conscious existence which a man 
has passed at sixty is but the half of its 
nominal duration! Further, the ten 
“years which elapse between ten and 
twenty, are equal to the twenty years 
which elapse from forty to sixty, the two 
periods in the table being respectively 
equal to eighty and seventy-eight ! 
Every man’s experience will verify the 
positions here insisted on, and his. feel- 
ings will justify the preceding dedué- 
tions. Others may be made ‘by the con- 
templative reader, and a variety of 
strong practical lessons may’ ‘be ‘in- 
ferred at their leisure by °moralists and 
divines. Iam content with having called 
attention to a principle which ] am per. 
suaded has been felt, without being un- 
derstood, and which is in all respects toe 
interesting to remain longer among philo- 
sophical desiderata. Common SENSE, 
Buckingham Gate, May 20, 1814. 
a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
To w.SAInT, ESQ. of NORWICH, 
sTR, erly 
OF aes your remarks on my Ele- 
meats of the True Arithmetic of 
Infinites, from the asperity with whieh 
they ‘are written, and the facility wit 
6 whiels 
