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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XXIV.--That Time is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure by Time.

31. Dost Thou command that I should assent, if any one should say that time is "the motion of a body?" Thou dost not command me. For I hear that no body is moved but in time. This Thou sayest; but that the very motion of a body is time, I hear not; Thou sayest it not. For when a body is moved, I by time measure how long it may be moving from the time in which it began to be moved till it left off. And if I saw not whence it began, and it continued to be moved, so that I see not when it leaves off, I cannot measure unless, perchance, from the time I began until I cease to see. But if I look long, I only proclaim that the time is long, but not how long it may be because when we say, "How long," we speak by comparison, as, "This is as long as that," or, "This is double as long as that," or any other thing of the kind. But if we were able to note down the distances of places whence and whither cometh the body which is moved, or its parts, if it moved as in a wheel, we can say in how much time the motion of the body or its part, from this place unto that, was performed. Since, then, the motion of a body is one thing, that by which we measure how long it is another, who cannot see which of these is rather to be called time? For, although a body be sometimes moved, sometimes stand still, we measure not its motion only, but also its standing still, by time; and we say, "It stood still as much as it moved;" or, "It stood still twice or thrice as long as it moved;" and if any other space which our measuring hath either determined or imagined, more or less, as we are accustomed to say. Time, therefore, is not the motion of a body.

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Confessiones

Caput 24

Iubes ut adprobem, si quis dicat tempus esse motum corporis? non iubes. nam corpus nullum nisi in tempore moveri audio: tu dicis. ipsum autem corporis motum tempus esse non audio: non tu dicis. cum enim movetur corpus, tempore metior, quamdiu moveatur, ex quo moveri incipit, donec desinat. et si non vidi, ex quo coepit, et perseverat moveri, ut non videam, cum desinit, non valeo metiri, nisi forte ex quo videre incipio, donec desinam. quod si diu video, tantummodo longum tempus esse renuntio, non autem, quantum sit, quia et quantum cum dicimus, conlatione dicimus, velut: tantum hoc, quantum illud aut: duplum hoc ad illud et si quid aliud isto modo. si autem notare potuerimus locorum spatia, unde et quo veniat corpus, quod movetur, vel partes eius, si tamquam in torno movetur, possumus dicere, quantum sit temporis, ex quo ab illo loco usque ad illum locum motus corporis vel partis eius effectus est. cum itaque aliud sit motus corporis, aliud, quo metimur quamdiu sit, quis non sentiat, quid horum potius tempus dicendum sit? nam si et varie corpus aliquando movetur, aliquando stat, non solum motum eius, sed etiam statum tempore metimur et dicimus: tantum stetit, quantum motum est aut: duplo vel triplo stetit ad id quod motum est et si quid aliud nostra dimensio sive conprehenderit sive existimaverit, ut dici solet plus minus. non ergo tempus corporis motus.