SO METAPHYSICS. 



It ought to be immoveable, for if it experienced the 

 least change, something comes into it which was not 

 there before, and then the fundamental position 

 would be destroyed that nothing is made from no- 

 thing. (Anacharsis.) 



Time. 



There is, perhaps, nothing of which the mind is 

 less capable of forming a distinct idea than time, un- 

 connected with the notions of sensible objects ; and 

 yet, on account of this connexion, every one thinks 

 it a subject with which he is familiarly acquainted, 

 until an explanation be required. 



The query is Is absolute time any thing distinct 

 from motion? But supposing the earth, planets, &c. 

 had been without motion from the creation, still 

 would not the duration of this state of rest have been 

 equal to the time which has elapsed since the cre- 

 ation? 



Every one has his own measure of time in the 

 quickness or slowness with which his ideas succeed 

 each other, for time appears long to us when the 

 ideas succeed each other rapidly in our minds, and 

 vice versd. 



The only universal measure of time is the present 

 instant, and yet some deny the existence of the pre- 

 sent time, as being gone before we can note it. If 

 there be no present there cannot be any future time, 

 and the past certainly has no existence. 



One Idea. 



Time, abstracted from thoughts, actions, and mo- 

 tions, is actually nothing, the succession of these be- 

 ing what we call time. Perhaps this may account 

 for the apparent sufferings of animals. The useful 

 and patient horse, which to us appears to suffer from 

 ten to twenty years of torture, perhaps, under this 

 view of time, does not exist so many months. Sup- % 



