356 CREATIVE EVOLUTION CHAP 



When positive science speaks of time, what it refers 

 to is the movement of a certain mobile T on its tra 

 jectory. This movement has been chosen by it as 

 representative of time, and it is, by definition, uniform. 

 Let us call T I} T 2 , T 3 , . . . etc., points which divide 

 the trajectory ot the mobile into equal parts from its 

 origin T . We shall say that I, 2, 3, . . . units of 

 time have flowed past, when the mobile is at the points 

 T 1? T 2 , T 8 , . . . of the line it traverses. Accordingly, 

 to consider the state of the universe at the end of a 

 certain time /, is to examine where it will be when T 

 is at the point T t of its course. But of the flux itself 

 of time, still less ot its effect on~con&quot;c10usness, therefisf 

 here no question ; tor- there enter into the calculation 

 only the points T p T 2 , T 3 , . . . taken on the flux, 

 never the flux itself. We may narrow the time con 

 sidered as much as we will, that is, break up at will the 

 interval between two consecutive divisions T n and 

 T n+1 ; but it is always with points, and with points 

 only, that we are dealing. What we retain of the 

 movement of the mobile T are positions taken on its 

 trajectory. What we retain of all the other points of 

 the universe are their positions on their respective 

 trajectories. To each virtual stop of the moving body 

 T at the points of division T 1? T 2 , T 3 , ... we make 

 correspond a virtual stop of all the other mobiles at the 

 points where they are passing. And when we say that 

 a movement or any other change has occupied a time 

 /, we mean by it that we have noted a number / of 

 correspondences of this kind. We have therefore 

 counted simultaneities ; we have not concerned our 

 selves with the flux that goes from one to another. 

 The proof of this is that I can, at discretion, vary the 

 rapidity of the flux of the universe in regard to a 



