Volume Volume2\Astronomy
Entry# 916. Of time and its divisions (916-918).
Contents: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2
Of time and its divisions (916-918).
Although time is included in the class of Continuous Quantities,
being indivisible and immaterial, it does not come entirely under
the head of Geometry, which represents its divisions by means of
figures and bodies of infinite variety, such as are seen to be
continuous in their visible and material properties. But only with
its first principles does it agree, that is with the Point and the
Line; the point may be compared to an instant of time, and the line
may be likened to the length of a certain quantity of time, and just
as a line begins and terminates in a point, so such a space of time.
begins and terminates in an instant. And whereas a line is
infinitely divisible, the divisibility of a space of time is of the
same nature; and as the divisions of the line may bear a certain
proportion to each other, so may the divisions of time.
Footnote: This passage is repeated word for word on page 190b of
the same manuscript and this is accounted for by the text in Vol. I,
No. 4. Compare also No. 1216.
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