T I M 



460 



TI M 



kr Arab* ; Tratelt of Park, Lyon, 



11 M K. Thu w oru may be considi 



ence to our abstract idea of ilu- thnu hj it. or lo 



the measures of it which have been contrived for use in the 

 buaine* of life. Something on the first point of \ icw will 

 be found in the article SHACK AND TIMK, to which the 

 following intiv be added. 



When we think of time in the usual manner, it is of a 



real thing external to ounelves, which we cannot help 



imagining to have an existence and a measure, both of 



which would iciniiin though tliosc who now speculate 



upon the conception were annihilated. A little more 



I hat we are indebted for the idea to 



. nts. or at least for the power of 



appi. ica to external objects. No description 



.i- adequate ; if we say thai fhaiige necessarily im- 

 plies tun:; aiul t!i:it the perception of that which / being 

 different Iroin that which trust, * ie notion of an in- 



:it we have already i u 1 1 y assumed the idea of 

 time in the vuuds / and /r.iv. liut we may say that space 



and the objects which lill it exist independently of our- 

 selves, and would undergo changes though we were not in 

 existence to perceive them, and that therefore the times 

 which those changes require would also exist : this in- 

 volves the whole of the most abstruse part of metaphysics, 

 and is much beyond the scope of our article. \\ e shall 

 >iv turn to" the mode of moa-ming time : we have 

 a thorough comiction that time i a magnitude, that 

 is, has its more and less. We must ask oun-clvcs in the 

 first instance what we mean by a greater or a smaller 

 time. 



In the perception of time as a magnitude, that is, of in- 

 tervals of time as containing more or less of duration, 

 we lefer in the first in-tance to a habit derived from con- 

 tinual acquaintance with those great natural successions 

 on which the usual actions of our lives depend, with 

 which we can constantly, though unconsciously, compare 

 tlie duration of our thoughts and actions. There is no 

 more an absolutely long or short time than there is an 

 absolutely great or little space ; these words are only 

 comparative. If, for example, any one were to affirm 

 that the universe was continually grow HI i.l less, 



a!l its pails altering in the same proportion, and the 

 dimensions of the human race with the rest, in such 

 manner that the whole solar system would now go into 

 a nut-shell, such as nut-shells were a thousand years ago, 

 it would be impossible cither for him to prove it, if true, or 

 for any one else to prove the contradiction, if false. In 

 like manner if any one were to say that the revolutions of 

 all the heavenly' bodies were continually accelerating, but 

 that the properties of matter were also continually altering, 

 and the speed with which ideas are formed and communi- 

 cated, and muscular efforts made, continually increasing: 

 it would be impossible to prove a contradiction. The 

 oriental story is tin beat illustration of this : A prince was 

 ridiculing the legend of Mohammed being taken up by an 

 angel, and holding many long conferences with his 

 views of heaven and hell to the 

 i short a time, speak inir with rei' 



to thines upon earth, that on his being brought back, the 



water had not (juite flowed out of a jug which lie had 



dropped from his bund when the angel cauirht him. A 



at the court of this pi'mr. liis laughtei 



prove the possibility of the story, if his 



-.mill only dip his head into a basin o'f water. 



.'ed, and the instant his head was 



1. found himself lying by the sea-shore in a st ran ire 



r a reasonable quantity of malediction upon 



..agician, he found himself obliged by hunter to iro 



limning town, and seek the means of support. 



In time h link-pendent, married, and brought up 



a family, but was gradually stripped of all his substance 



anil buried his wife and children. One day he 



.isclf into the sea to bathe, and on hiti 



head out of t. that he had only lifted i! 



out .in and th .irtiers 



On his bitterly reproaching I! 



il him, and was confirmed by all tl: 



tenders that he had done nothing but just dip his 



-, the 



Is about 11 



i of the two tales 



may think that neither t* true, a little reflection will show 

 lhat either iiiixht be so. Perhaps U ;y might 



have been suggested by what is known to Ink 

 dreams ; there ?s e\ ulem-c enough that man . 

 of these illusions reully occupy r.. ,. if so much as, 



a second or two by the pendulum. [l)ni:vxi, p. 143.] 



In the laws of motion it sc-cms as if. 



took cognizance of time: a particle of matter will con- 

 tinue to describe equal spaces in fqiial times, until I 

 on by force from without. Yet it would be possible t.i 

 state this law as follows, in such a manner as to avoid the 

 comparison of quantities of duration. If two paj' 

 acted on by no external forces, are at A and a at the 

 epoch of duration, and at B and b at the same - 

 epoch, then if A (,' be in times A B, and if a c be m i 

 a b, the law of motion is that (' and c will be i. 

 attained at the same instant. The mathematician wifl 

 readily see that the equations of motion do not depend 

 upon the absolute recognition of time as a mcasuiablc 

 quantity, but that any moving particle, as A. beiiur acted 

 on by no force, the distance A ( '. described in 1: 

 might be introduced into all formula' instead of the tune, 

 without any question as to whether, time being phys! 

 considered, the space AC varies as the time. It is ei 

 that the uninfluenced motion of any other particle should 

 be connected with that of the standard particle b\ 

 law above described. But though we can thus avoid the 

 idea of measurement of time, we cannot get rid of its 

 existence or of the notion !is ; grant, 



that we can reduce dynamics to a ihi'iiry </ siiniiltui. 



'ii,i of particles of matter, without reference- to the 

 absolute length of time employed in passing from 

 position to another, there is still the notion of time in tin- 

 notion of simultaneous. But, nevertheless, the idea of 

 succession thus introduced is hardly, if at all, more ph. 

 than that which comes into most of the branches of pure 

 mathematics, a point on which it will be worth while to 

 dwell for a moment. 



When Newton, in his doctrine of fluxions, or flowing 

 quantities, imagined length, space, solidity, and oven num- 

 ber, to be generated by a continual and gradual 

 line by the motion of a point, a surface by that of a line, 

 and so on, it was objected that he introduced the ideas of 

 time and motion, both of which were foreign to pure ma- 

 thematics, and properly belonged to mechanics. T. 

 rid of these intruders, {he theory of limits, which th. 

 tion of fluxions immediately requires, was attached, not to 

 flowing quantities, but to variable quantities. Let .r be ft 

 variable quantity, is one of the most common phra.- 

 the systems which have supciseded that of Newton. Now 

 variation means change ; it is never pretended that a va- 

 riable has two values at once. All the difference is, that 

 by Newton the object of consideration is supposed to 

 larger or smaller, while the moderns pass in thought from 

 a larger quantity to a smaller, or ri<-/' v/-.wi. taking one- 

 first and the other afterwards. If so slight a difl 

 this be worth a contest, the distinction of pure and mixed 

 science must be trivial enough: the fact is. that bot 1 

 terns con>; -'.vc values, and xnrrfsnion is timr. 



If two computers were to quarrel which was the purer 

 arithmetician, the one who stood still and counted the car- 

 - as they passed by him. or the other who walked from 

 one to another and counted them as they stood still, they 

 would, to us. much resemble some of the disputant 

 and against the piinciplc of flux:. 



The actual measure of time depends upon our being abfu 



TC successions of similar events which si : 

 epochs separated by equal intervals of time. We cannot 

 do this by our thoughts, except approximately, and for 

 short periods. The memory of a musician, aided 1 

 sentiment or feeling of tune which is part of a good tur 

 for music, will do remarkably well for a short period : a 

 pel-sou who could not well preserve the division of a second 

 into eight parts at least would make a ) in an 



As to the judgment, of considerable 



time, it is materially influenced by the manner in which it 

 has been spent : u time which .V/V/HA- to have 

 through weariness linx been long, and the contraiy. mi 

 ground* already alluded to. Tin of mature a 



reallv, to the thoughts, of a different length from one of 

 childhood. Again, when we talk of a long period of time 

 having pa.-scd quickly or slowly, we speak not of the time, 

 but of our mode ot ''remembering it. A person of rapid 



