THE VISIBLE IS UNLY ITS SHADOW. 



63 



of perception or limitations called Time and Space, making 

 Motion the only possible basis of objectivity, because motion 

 is the combination of these two modes ; the very sensing of 

 motion is the perception of the time taken to traverse a certain 

 space ; and we cannot imagine motion unless it contains both 

 of these modes in however small a quantity. We may have the 

 greatest imaginable space traversed in a moment of time, or the 

 smallest imaginable space traversed in what may be called, for 

 want of a better word, an eternity ; but we still have to postulate 

 motion. This, of course, follows from the fact that when we 

 are looking outwards, as we are doing when looking at the world 

 of appearances, our thoughts require both these modes for 

 forming concepts. 



Let us now take another step forward and examine these 

 two factors of vibration under which our senses act. If 

 we try to analyse our conception of Time and Space we seem 

 forced to postulate that they are both infinitely divisible 

 and infinitely extensible, they, are both what we call continuous 

 and not discrete; both duration ^'u time and extension in space 

 can be reduced to a mathematical point. All parts of time are 

 time, and all parts of space are space ; there are no holes, as it 

 were, in space which are not space, nor intervals in time which 

 are not time, they are both complete units. Space cannot be 

 limited except by space, and time cannot be limited except by 

 time. So far they are alike, but on the other hand space is 

 comprised of three dimensions, namely length, breadth and 

 depth, whereas time has the appearance to us as comprising only 

 one dimension, namely length. 



Our conception of time is an inconceivable intangible some- 

 thing which gives us the impression of movement without any- 

 thing that moves it. Space is an omnipresent intangible nothing, 

 outside which nothing that has existence can be even thought 

 to exist. 



We arbitrarily divide each of these two modes of perception 

 into two parts, which parts are separated from each other, in 

 either case, by a point which has, apparently as its centre, our 

 very consciousness of living. In the case of Space we call the 

 point the Here and on one side of it we have extension towards 

 the infinitely great and on the other intension towards the 

 infinitely small. In the case of time, we call the middle point 

 the Now, and on one side of this we have the duration of time 

 towards the future, and on the other, what we call the duration 

 of time towards the past. In the case of space we have the 

 here and the overthere, equivalent in time to the present and the 

 future ; but though time and space are as it were twin sisters, 

 upon whose combined action depends our very consciousness of 

 existence, we do not treat them both equally. 



