Absolute Time

Abstract

Now pray tell me what Time is? You know the very trite Saying of St. Augustin, If no one asks me, I know; but if any Person should require me to tell him, I cannot. But because Mathematicians frequently make use of Time, they ought to have a distinct Idea of the meaning of that Word, otherwise they are Quacks. My Auditors may therefore, on this Occasion, very justly require an Answer from me, which I shall now give, and that in the plainest and least ambiguous Expressions, avoiding as much as possible all trifling and empty Words. Time, (to speak abstractedly) is the continuance of any Thing in its own Being. But some Things continue longer in their Beings than others; those were when these were not, and are when these are not; they enter’d first into Being, and cease to be after these; nor is there any Person but perceives, that some Things enter into Being, and cease to be at the same Time; keeping an equal Pace, as it were, from the beginning to the end of their Duration. Time absolutely therefore is Quantity, as admitting in some Manner the chief Affections of Quantity, Equality, Inequality, and Proportion; nor do I believe there is any One but allows that those Things existed equal Times, which rose and perished together; and that those Things had unequal Durations, when the one was in Being before the other had existance, and continue in its Being, after the other had ceased to be.

From Lectiones geometricae, pp. 4–15.