nuevas, creo que no puede, aunque comúnmente puede elegir si ha de observarlas y considerarlas con atención.
- Las ideas, de cualquier modo que se formen, no incluyen ninguna sensación de movimiento.
Whether these several ideas in a man’s mind be made by certain motions, I will not here dispute; but this I am sure, that they include no idea of motion in their appearance; and if a man had not the idea of motion otherwise, I think he would have none at all, which is enough to my present purpose; and sufficiently shows that the notice we take of the ideas of our own minds, appearing there one after another, is that which gives us the idea of succession and duration, without which we should have no such ideas at all.
It is not then MOTION, but the constant train of IDEAS in our minds whilst we are waking, that furnishes us with the idea of duration; whereof motion no otherwise gives us any perception than as it causes in our minds a constant succession of ideas, as I have before showed: and we have as clear an idea of succession and duration, by the train of other ideas succeeding one another in our minds, without the idea of any motion, as by the train of ideas caused by the uninterrupted sensible change of distance between two bodies, which we have from motion; and therefore we should as well have the idea of duration were there no sense of motion at all.
- El Tiempo es la Duración establecida por Medidas.
Habiendo adquirido así la idea de duración, lo siguiente que es natural para la mente es obtener alguna medida de esta duración común, mediante la cual pueda juzgar sus diferentes longitudes y considerar el orden distintivo en que existen diversas cosas; sin lo cual una gran parte de nuestro conocimiento sería confusa, y una gran parte de la historia se volvería muy inútil.