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27. I have just now said, then, that we measure times as they
pass, that we may be able to say that this time is twice as much as
that one, or that this is only as much as that, and so of any other of
the parts of time which we are able to tell by measuring. Wherefore,
as I said, we measure times as they pass. And if any one should ask
me, "Whence dost thou know?" I can answer, "I know, because we
measure; nor can we measure things that are not; and things past and
future are not." But how do we measure present time, since it hath
not space? It is measured while it passeth; but when it shall have
passed, it is not measured; for there will not be aught that can be
measured.
But whence, in what way, and whither doth it pass while it is being
measured?
Whence, but from the future? Which way, save through the present?
Whither, but into the past? From that, therefore, which as yet is
not, through that which hath no space, into that which now is not.
But what do we measure, unless time in some space? For we say not
single, and double, and triple, and equal, or in any other way in
which we speak of time, unless with respect to the spaces of times.
In what space, then, do we measure passing time? Is it in the
future, whence it passeth over? But what yet we measure not, is
not. Or is it in the present, by which it passeth? But no space,
we do not measure. Or in the past, whither it passeth? But that
which is not now, we measure not.
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