TIME. 



Thus tranflated by Creech : 



" Time of itfelf is nothing, but from ttiouglit 

 Receives its rife, by labouring fancy wrought 

 From things confidered, whilil we think on fome 

 As prefent, fome as pall, or yet to come. 

 No thought can think on time, that's ftill confeil, 

 But thinks on things in motion or at reft." 



The above opinion of Lucretius, though fanAioned by 

 many of the ancients, and even by fome of the moderns, does 

 not appear to have fatisfied philofophers in gencrah Cicero 

 fays (i de Invent.) "difficile eft tempus deiinere." Thus 

 alfo St. Auftin (2 Confeif. 24.) obferves, " fi nemo ex me 

 quaa-at quid fit tempus, fcio ; fe quasrenti exphcare vehni, 

 nefcio." 



Locke feems to have confidered time more profoundly 

 than perhaps any other philofoplier. The following 

 are among his opinions on the fubjeft. Human Underft. 

 vol. i. ch. 14. 



" The anfwer of a great man to one who adied him what 

 time was, ' fi non rogas intelHgo,' (which amounts to this ; 

 the more I fet myfelf to think of it, the lefs 1 undcrftand 

 it,) might perhaps perfuade one that time, which reveals all 

 things, is not itfelf to be difcovered. Duration, time, and 

 eternity, are, not without reafon, thought to have fometliing 

 very abftrufe in their nature. 



" To underftand time and eternity aright, we ought with 

 attention to confider what idea it is we have of Jiirnl'wn, and 

 how we came by it. 'Tis evident to one who will but ob- 

 ferve what palTes in his own mind, that there is a train of 

 ideas which conftantly fucceed one another in his under- 

 flanding as long as he is awake. Refleftion on thcfe ap- 

 pearances of feveral ideas, one after another in our minds, is 

 that which furnifhes us with the idea of fticceffioii ; and 

 the diftance between the appearance of any two ideas in 

 our minds, is that which we call duration (which fee). 

 Having thus got the idea of duration, the next thing na- 

 tural for the mind to do, is to get fome meafure oi th\i com- 

 mon duration, whereby it might judge of its different 

 lengths, and confider the diftinft order wherein feveral 

 things exift : without which, a great part of our knowledge 

 would be confufed, and a great part of hiftory rendered 

 very ufelefs. This confideration of duration, as fet out by 

 certain periods, and marked by certain mcafures or epochs, 

 is that, I think, which moft properly we call time." 



Nearly according to the above our modern Encyclopredifts 

 define time ; vhx,. " a fucceffion of phenomena in the univcrfe, 

 or a mode of duration marked by certain periods and mea- 

 fures, and principally by the motions or apparent revolutione 

 of the fun." Others define time to be "the duration of a thing, 

 the exiftcnce of which is not without beginning or end ; 

 which diftinguiflies time from eternity." 



Time is diftinguiftied into abfoliite and relative. 



Aljolute lime is confidered in itfelf, without any relation to 

 bodies or their motions flowing uniformly. Relative time is the 

 fenfiblemeafureof any portion of duration by means of motion. 

 As the equal and uniform flax of time does not affeft our 

 fenfes ; and as there is nothing in this flux that can make 

 us know immediately time itfelf; we muft, of necelfity, have 

 rccourfe to fome motion, by which we can determine the quan- 

 tity of time, by comparing parts of time with thofe of fpace 

 that the moving body traverfes. Therefore, as we judge that 

 limes are equal, when they flow whilft a body which is in an 

 uniform motion traverfes equal fpaces ; fo likewife we judge 

 bat times are equal, when they flow whilft the fun, 

 ■loon, and the other celeftial luminaries, complete their ordi' 



nary revolutions, which to our fenfes appear uniform. See 

 Motion. 



But as the flowing of time cannot be accelerated nor 

 rctartled ; as all bodies move fometimes quicker and fome- 

 times flower ; and as there is perhaps no perfeftly Uniform mo- 

 tion in nature, except the earth's rotation on its axis, fome 

 authors are of opinion that abfolute time cannot be concluded 

 to be fomething i-eally diftinft from motion : for fuppofing 

 for a moment the earth and the other planets have been with- 

 out motion ever fince the creation, does it thence follow that 

 the courfe of time would have been ftopped or inteiTupted i 

 Would not the duration of this ftate of reft have been equal 

 to the time which has elapfed fince the creation ? 



As abfolute time is a quantity which flows in a uniform 

 manner, and which is very finiple in its nature, mathemati- 

 cians reprefent it to the imagination by tlie moft fimple fen- 

 fible magnitudes, particularly by right lines and by circles, 

 with which abfolute time appears to have a great analogy in 

 refpcft of fucceffion, the fimilarity of parts, &c. 



In faft, it is not ablolutely ncceflary to meafure time by 

 motion ; for the conftant and periodical return of a thing 

 which happens or manifefts itfelf by intervals equally diftant 

 from each other, as, for inttance, the budding of a plant, &c. 

 may do the fame thing. It is faid there are people in Ame- 

 rica who reckon years by the arrival and departure of birds. 



Time is ufually reprefented by the uniform motion of a 

 point that defcribcs a right line. The point is the fucceffive 

 ftate, prefent fucceflively at different places, and producing 

 by its fluxion a continual fuccelfion, to whicii we attach the 

 idea of time. The uniform motion of an objeCl alfo mea- 

 fures time ; for when this motion takes place, the moving- 

 body traverfes, for example, one foot in the fame time in 

 which it has traverfed a firft foot ; therefore, the duration 

 of things that co-exift with the moving body whilft it tra- 

 verfes one foot being taken as one, the duration of thofe 

 that will co-exift with its motion whilft it will be traverfing 

 two feet will be two, and fo on ; fo that by this means time 

 becomes commenfurable, fince we can affign the reafon of 

 one duration to another duration that we had taken for 

 unity. ThuSj in clocks, the hand moves uniformly in a 

 circle : the twelfth part of the circumference of this 

 circle is unity, and time is meafured by tliis unity, by fay- 

 ing two hours, three hours, &c. So likewife one year is 

 taken for one, becaufe the revolutions of the fun in the 

 ecliptic are equal, or nearly fo, to our fenfes ; and we make 

 ufe of it to meafure other durations in relation with this 

 unity. We know the attempts made by aftronomers to 

 find a uniform motion, to enable them to meafure time ex- 

 aiftly ; and this is what has been beft done by means of 

 pendulums. See Pendulum. 



There is no meafure of time exaftly correft. Every one 

 has his own meafure of time in the quicknefs or flownefs 

 with which his ideas fucceed each otlier ; and from thefe 

 different degrees of quicknefs in different perfons, or in the 

 fame perfon at different times, arife thefe modes of fpeaking, 

 / have found the time very long, or very Jhort ; for time ap- 

 pears long to us, when the ideas fucceed each other flowly 

 in our mind, and viee verfd. The meafures of time are ar- 

 bitrary, and may vary among different people ; the only 

 one that is univerfal is the prefent inftant ; and yet fome 

 deny the exiftence of prefent time, as being conftantly on 

 the wing ; or, according to Horace, (Carmen XI.) 



" Dum loquimur fugerit invida itas." 



Time is indeed an inexhauftiblc fubjedl for figurative and 



poetical allufions, and even for paradoxes. Thus, it is faid 



11 to 



