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Show 'Duration, and itr jimple Mode1. < Book II. taker\ into the Computation, ·by any ortewho will efiim~~e or meafure Motion, fo as to judge ri~htofit. Nor, indeed, does Monon any otherwife conduce to the meafuring of Duration, than as tt confiantly bnngs about the return of certain fenfible ideas, m feemmg ~qmdtfi~nt Pen.ods. Fo.r if the Motion of the Sun, were as unequal as of~ Slup dnvcn by ~nficady Winds fometimcs very !low, and at others, trregularly very fwtft ; or i(being co~fiantly equally fwift,it yet was notcircular,and produced not the fame Appearances, it would not at all help us to meafure time, any more than the feeming unequal mot ton of a Comet does. ~. 1-l· Minutes, Hours, Days, and tears, are then .•o more 11eceffary :o 'fime or Duration, than Inches, Feet, Yards, and Miles, marked out m any Matter, ore to Extenfion. For though we m tlus part of the Untverfe by the cortfrartt ufe of them, as Periods fet out by the Rcvoluttons of th~ Sun or known parts of them, have fixed the Ideas of fuch Lengths of Durati~n in our Minds, which we apply to all parts of Time, whofe Lengths we would conf1der; yet there may be other ports of the Uni• verle where they no more ufe thofe meafures of ours, than in Japan they do o~r Inches, Feet, or Miles : tut yet fomething Analagous to them, there mufr be. For without fome regular penod1cal returns, we could not meafure 09r felves, or lignifie to others the length of an~ J?uration,though at the fame time the World were as full of Monon, as tt lS now , but no part of it difpofed into regular and apparent equidifiant Revolutions. But the different meafures that may be made ufe of for the account ofTtme, do not at all alter th• nodon of Duration, which is the thing to be meafured no more than the different fiandards of a Foot and a Cubit alter the notion of Extenfion, to thofe,who.make ufe of thofe different Meafures. §. 25. The Mind having once got fuch a meafure of Time, as the an· nual Revolution of the Sun, can apply that meafure to Duratton, wherein that meafure it fdf did not exifr , and with which in the reality of its being, it had nothing to do: Forfhould <_>n~fay, That Abraham ~as horn in the 2 7 t2 year of the Julran penod, 1t IS altogether as mtelltg1ble as reckoning from the beginning of the World, though there were fo far back no motion of the Sun, nor any other motion at all. For though the Julia" Period be fuppofed to begin feveral hundred years before there were really either Days, Nights, or Years, marked out by any Revolutions of the Sun, yet we reckon as right, and thereby meafurc Durations as well, as if really at that time the Sun had exi!led, and kept the fame ordinary motion it doth now. The lelea of Duration equal to an an""'" Revdution of the Sun,is as eafily applicaMe in our fhoughts to DuratiM, where no Sun nor Motion was, as the Idea of a Foot or Yard taken from Bodies here, can be applied in our Thoughts to Difrances, beyond the Confines of the World, where are no Bodies at all. §.26. For fuppoling it were 5639 miles, or millions of Miles, from this place to the remotefi Body of the Univerfe, (for being finite, it mufi be at a certain difrance,) as we fuppofe it to be 5639 )'Cars, from thi5 time to the firfi exifrence of any Body in the beginning of the World, •ve can, in our Thoughts, apply thiJ meafure of a Tear to Duration before the Creation, or beyond the Duration of Bodies or Motion, as we can this mea· fure of a Mile to Space beyond the utmofr Bodies ; and by the one mea· {ure Duration, where there was no Motion, as well as by the other mea· furc Space in our Thoughts, where there is no Body. .§. 27. If it be objected to me here, That in this way of explaining of Tune, I have beg'd what llhould not, 'Uh. That the World is neither cternol, nor infinite; I anfwer, That to my prefent purpofe, it is not need- Chap. XIV. 'Duration, and itr jimple Moder 9 r ·-----...:..__ needful, in thisplace, to make ufe of Arguments, to evince the World to b~ finite, both m Dura non and Extenfion: But it being at lcafr as conCeivable as the contrary, I have certainly the liberty to fuppofe it, as well as any one. hath to fu~pofe the contrary; and I doubt not but that every •ne that wdl go about It, may eafi!y conceiw in his Mind the !Jeginning; of .fl1ot;o~, t.hou,~h not of :Iii Duratio~ ; and fo may come to a fiop, and non Nlt~a m Ius Confideranoo of Mot1on: fo alfo in his Thoughts he may fer l1m1ts to Body, .and the Extenlion belonging to it, but not to Space where no Body 1s,the utmoll: bounds of Space and Duration being beyond the reach of Thoughts, as well as the utmoft bounds of Number are beyDnd the largell comprehenfion of the Mind and all for the fame reafon as we !lmll lee in another place. ' ' §. 28. By the fame means therefore, and from the fame Original that we come to have the Idea of T1me, we have alfo that Idea wh;ch we call Eternity, 'Uiz. having got the idea of Succeilion and Duration, by retledmgon the Tram of our own Ideas, caufed in us either by the natural appearances of thofc Ideas, coming conllantly of themfelves into our wakmg Thoughts, or elfe caufed by external Objcds fucceilively affecting our Senfes ; and having from the Revolutions of the Sun got the Ideas of certam lengths ofDurat1on, we can, in our Thoughts, add fuch lengths of Duran on to one another, as often as we pleafe, and apply them, fo added, to Durattons pall or to come: And this we can continue to do on J,\lid1out bounds or llmits, and proceed in infi•itum, and apply thus th~ leng,th of the annual modon of the Sun to Dur~tio~, fuppofed before the Suns, or any other Monon had Its bemg ; wh1ch IS no more difficult or abfurd, than to apply the Notion I have of the moving of a Shadow, one Hour to day ·upon the Sun-d1al, to the duration offomething Jail night j v.g. Theburmog of a Candle, which is now abfolntely feparate from all a&ual motion, and it is impolf!ble for the duration of that Flame for an hour lafr night, to co-exifi with any Motion that now is, or for ever tha!l be, as for any ]>art ?f Duration? that was before the beginning of the World to cc-exifi wuh the mouon of the Sun now. But yet this hinders not, but that having the Idea ofthe length of the Motion of the Shaelow on • Dml, between the Marks of two Ho:m, I can as difiinctly meafi1re m my Thoughts the Duration of that Candle lafr night, as l can any rlung that does now exifi: And it is no more than to think, that had the Sun !hone then o~ the Dial, and moved after the fume rate it doth now. the fl1adowon the Dial would have paffed from one Hour-line to another' whilll that flame of the Candle lafred. ' ~. 2!). The notion of an Hour, Day, or Year, being only the Idea I l1av_e. ott be length of certain periodical regular Motions, neither of which Monons do ever all at once exifr, but only in the Id .. s I have of them in my Memory derived from my Senfes or Reflection, I can with the fame ~ate, and for the fame reafon, apply in my Thoughts to Duration, antecedent to all manner of Motion, as well as to any thing that is but a Mmutc, or a Day, antecedent to tllis prcfent Motion that at this very moment the Sun is in. All things pafi are equally and perfectly at ref!; and to this way of conlidcration of them, are all one, whether they were before the beginning of the World, or but yefierday; ti!C mr.ajuring of any D•rtt~ion, by fome motion, depending not at all on the real co-exi· ficnce of that thing to that motion, or any other Periods of Revolution, but the having a cLear Idea of the lewgth of fome periodical known Motion, or other intervals of Duration in my Mind, and appl]ing that to tiJ< Duration of the thiNg I would mea Jure. N 7. ~.JO. |