[12] The expression in the first edition was ‘large objects and extensive spaces.’ In the text as now given, I state a definite size and extent, within which the sight by itself can judge of position and figure.
The doctrine, that we require the assistance of the muscular sense to enable us to perceive space of three dimensions, is not at all inconsistent with this other doctrine, that within the space which is seen by the fixed eye, we perceive the relative positions of points directly by vision, and that, consequently, we have a perception of visible figure.
Sir Charles Bell has said, (Phil. Trans. 1823, p. 181,) ‘It appears to me that the utmost ingenuity will be at a loss to devise an explanation of that power by which the eye becomes acquainted with the position and relation of objects, if the sense of muscular activity be excluded which accompanies the motion of the eyeball.’ But surely we should have no difficulty in perceiving the relation of the sides and angles of a small triangle, placed before the eye, even if the muscles of the eyeball were severed. This subject is resumed b. iv. c. ii. [sect. 11].
We now quit the consideration of the properties of Space, and consider the Idea of Time.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Idea of Time.
1. RESPECTING the Idea of Time, we may make several of the same remarks which we made concerning the idea of space, in order to show that it is not borrowed from experience, but is a bond of connexion among the impressions of sense, derived from a peculiar activity of the mind, and forming a foundation both of our experience and of our speculative knowledge.
Time is not a notion obtained by experience. Experience, that is, the impressions of sense and our consciousness of our thoughts, gives us various perceptions; and different successive perceptions considered together exemplify the notion of change. But this very connexion of different perceptions,—this successiveness,—presupposes that the perceptions exist in time. That things happen either together, or one after the other, is intelligible only by assuming time as the condition under which they are presented to us.
Thus time is a necessary condition in the presentation of all occurrences to our minds. We cannot conceive this condition to be taken away. We can conceive time to go on while nothing happens in it; but we cannot conceive anything to happen while time does not go on.
It is clear from this that time is not an impression derived from experience, in the same manner in which we derive from experience our information concerning the objects which exist, and the occurrences which take place in time. The objects of experience can easily be conceived to be, or not to be:—to be absent as well as present. Time always is, and always is [132] present, and even in our thoughts we cannot form the contrary supposition.
2. Thus time is something distinct from the matter or substance of our experience, and may be considered as a necessary form which that matter (the experience of change) must assume, in order to be an object of contemplation to the mind. Time is one of the necessary conditions under which we apprehend the information which our senses and consciousness give us. By considering time as a form which belongs to our power of apprehending occurrences and changes, and under which alone all such experience can be accepted by the mind, we explain the necessity, which we find to exist, of conceiving all such changes as happening in time; and we thus see that time is not a property perceived as existing in objects, or as conveyed to us by our senses; but a condition impressed upon our knowledge by the constitution of the mind itself; involving an act of thought as well as an impression of sense.