22. Time not the measure of motion.
One thing seems strange to me,--that whilst all men manifestly measured
time by the motion of the great and visible bodies of the world, time yet should be defined to be the "measure of
motion": whereas it is obvious to every one who reflects ever so little on it, that to measure motion, space is as
necessary to be considered as time; and those who look a little farther will find also the bulk of the thing moved
necessary to be taken into the computation, by any one who will estimate or measure motion so as to judge right
of it. Nor indeed does motion any otherwise conduce to the measuring of duration, than as it constantly brings
about the return of certain sensible ideas, in seeming equidistant periods. For if the motion of the sun were as
unequal as of a ship driven by unsteady winds, sometimes very slow, and at others irregularly very swift; or if,
being constantly equally swift, it yet was not circular, and produced not the same appearances,--it would not at
all help us to measure time, any more than the seeming unequal motion of a comet does.
