5. The idea of duration applicable to things whilst we sleep.
Indeed a man having, from reflecting on the
succession and number of his own thoughts, got the notion or idea of duration, he can apply that notion to things
which exist while he does not think; as he that has got the idea of extension from bodies by his sight or touch, can
apply it to distances, where no body is seen or felt. And therefore, though a man has no perception of the length of
duration which passed whilst he slept or thought not; yet, having observed the revolution of days and nights, and
found the length of their duration to be in appearance regular and constant, he can, upon the supposition that that
revolution has proceeded after the same manner whilst he was asleep or thought not, as it used to do at other
times, he can, I say, imagine and make allowance for the length of duration whilst he slept. But if Adam and Eve,
(when they were alone in the world), instead of their ordinary night's sleep, had passed the whole twenty-four
hours in one continued sleep, the duration of that twenty-four hours had been irrecoverably lost to them, and been
for ever left out of their account of time.
