CHAPTERXII. 515 rent senses, (viz.) of sight and feeling: Colour is the proper object of sight alone ; sound of hearing, and cold of feeling. The subjects of which several sciences treat are called their objects : These are either material or formal : The body of man is the common material object both of anatomy and medicine : though one considers it as a curious engine whose parts are to be dissected and known, the other views it as capable of diseases and healing ; which two considerations added to the human body constitute the proper and formal objects of those two sciences. CHAP. XII.-Of Time, Place, and Ubiety. Time is esteemed a relative affection, for it commonly refers to something that measures it. Time is finite and successiveduration, and it is distinguished (as I have before observed) into past, present and future; it is usually measured by the motion of some bodies, whose motions are supposed to be most regular, uniform and certain. And for this reason mankind have generally agreed to measure time by the revolution of the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars ; and God himself appointed them for this end : Thence centu- ries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes have their rise. v But amongst the ruder and more . untaught parts of the world both in ancient and later ages, time has sometimes been measured by any of those things which are supposed to keep their regular returning periods and seasons, as cold and heat, snow and ice, periodical rains or winds, particular fruits, corn, harvest, the coming or departureof certain birds to particular countries, or fish to particular coasts. All the things before mentioned are a sort of natural mea- sures or determinations of times and seasons : But hour - glasses, by sand or water, clocks, watches, &c. are artificial measurers of time, and some of them perform it with greater exactness even than the motions of the heavenlybodies, at least in their appear- ances to us on the earth. As for the time or duration of spirits while they are united to human bodies or vehicles, or make their appearances on earth, it is measured by some of the things we have mentioned : But the duration or time of those spirits which have no relation to our world, must be measured in some other manner whichat present we know not. Here is a famous question, whether God's duration or eter- nity be not co-existent with our time, and the duration of the world, and whether such a part of eternity be not commensurate therewith ? It is evident this is our common idea of it. But it is hardly just, for in truth eternity is an idea above our present xk2
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=