354 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



6/0, The common divifion of Time is mio prefent, paj, 2<x\^ future. 

 The prefent is the noiv indant ; which, like all the inftants of time, i& 

 the beginning of one portion of it, and the end of another, as the fame 

 point in a line is the beginning of one portion of it, and the end of 

 another. The miv, therefore, ftands betwixt the part and the future, 

 being the end of the one, and the beginning of the other. Bur, as it 

 has no parts, and is not time, it follows, that what we call ihc prefent 

 tune, is made up of fo much of the time immediately before this noiv, 

 and of lb much of the time immediately after it ; that is to fay, of fo 

 much of the part, and fo much of the future ; fo that, properly fpeak- 

 ing, there is no fuch thing as time prefent '*. 



7^0, It is therefore true what Mr Harris has faid, that Time iVa 

 being of a moft fhadowy and unfubftantial nature, and which comes 

 nearer than any other to no-~being : For the paft is no longer, the 

 future is not yet, and the prefent has no exigence \ he might have add- 

 ed, nor ever had : For there is this difference betwixt the paft and 

 the prefent, that the paft had an exiftence ; and Horace fays, that even 

 the Divinity cannot make it not to have exifted 



Non tamen irritum cfficiet, infedumque reddet 

 Quod fugiens fcmel hora vexit 



and alfo, betwixt the prefent and future, that the future has a 

 certain exiftence, potentially at leaftj, whereas the prefent neither 



has^ 

 * There are fome words denoting the prefent, ^vhIch take in a portion c£ either 

 paft or future. Thus, Ariftotle tells us, Phyf. lib, 4. cap. 19. § 2.. that ,1, applies to 

 any portion of time near to the prefent noiv, whether before or after it. Thus, I can 

 fay, ritn /3^^..«, or «^« /3s/3.,^...«. The fame I take to be the fignification of the Latin moM, 

 ^nd the Englifh ;2o-u. ; for I can fay moxfeci, and mo^faciam; and, in Engiifh, 1 have 

 m-oi done it, and I fhall now do it. In^ie fame pafTage, Arillotle tells us, that «gT, 

 is confined to the time immediately preceding the prefent na-w ; and, I think, itihould 

 be rendered in Englifli h^j jvjl novj. M'hen came you ? Juft now ; which is in Gxeek 

 u^n -heov On the other hand, if I have a mind to exprefs only the future time, near- 

 eft to the prefent inftant, the word, in Englifti, is prefen^Jy. When will you do it ? 

 Pre/snt/y. 



