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An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 92

Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German. Mean line confidence on this page: 0.92.

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The machine reads it as

  1. Duration, and its simple Modes.
  2. 5. 30. FTence We lec, that some Nen imagine the Duration of the W orid
  3. trom its Arst existence, to this present rear 1689. to havebcen 5639Y CarS,
  4. Or equal to 5639 annual Rerolutions ot the sun, and others a great deal
  5. more; 25 the Ferptians oF old, Who in thetime ot alexander counted
  6. 23300Years, From cheReion of the Sun; and the Chineses no, who
  7. account the Norid 3, 259,000 Tears old, or more; Which loneer dura-
  8. tion of the Worid, accordins to their Computation, thouoh IMould
  9. not beliere to be true, vet P can equalse imagine it with them, and as tru-
  10. Iy understand, and lay one is longer chan the ocher, a5 Punderstand that
  11. Methusalem Slite waslonger than FnochS: And il the common reckonins
  12. OF 5639 Thould betrue, (as it maz be, as ell as any other altioned,) ithrin-
  13. dersnot acall my imagimino whatochers mean, wrhenther malietheWorid
  14. a 1000 rears older, since everr one mas with the same FPacility imagine
  15. (1I do not lay beliere) the Worid to bc 50000 vears olc, 255639; and
  16. may a5 W’ell conceive thie duration oF 5000OYCarS, 25 5639. Whereby
  17. it appears, that to the measurine the duration of any thine by Time, it is
  18. not requisite, thac that thing Mould Be co. existent to the Motion e mea.
  19. sure br, or any other periodical Revolution; Dut it suffices to this purpole,
  20. that ve have the Ideaof the leneth of any regular periodicat appearances,
  21. wrtich ve can in our Ninds apply to Duration, with which the Morion
  22. Or Appearance never co. existed.
  23. 3F. For as in the Fistory oF the Creation delivered Dy Moses, I can
  24. imaxine that Lighe existed three dars betore the Sun ras, or had any mo-
  25. tion, barely by thinkring, that che duration oF Lighe betore the sun as
  26. created, was (0 lono as (iftho Sun hrad movedttien, as it dochnon,) vould
  27. have been equal to chree ol his diurnal Revolutions; (0 by the same way
  28. Pcan hare an Idea oFthe Chaos, Or Ansels, beins creared betore there ras
  29. cither Lighr, or anz continued motion, a Minure, an TTOur, a DaY, 2 YCaF,
  30. Ox TOOO XCarS. FOr it P ean but consider Duration equal to one Minute,
  31. belore cither the Being or Motion of any Body, Pcan add one more Mi
  32. nute till PCome t0 60. a And by the same ray ol addins Minutes, ITOuIS,
  33. Or Vears, (1. c. Tuch or such parts of the suns revolution, or anr other pe-
  34. riod whereotP havethe Idea,) procced in infinitum, a And suppole a du-
  35. ration exceedinq as mans such periods as l can reckon, let me add whilst
  36. P NilI, Wrhich Pthink isthe notion e have ol Pternier, ofwhose intinier
  37. re hrave no ocher notion, than wehave oftheintinier of Number, to ntrich
  38. re can add for ever Without end.
  39. 6. 32. And chus Fthink ic is plain, that from thosetro Fountains oF aII
  40. Rnomledse belorementioned, (2i2.) Reflection and Sensation, me cet the
  41. Ideas of Duration, and the meatures ot it.
  42. For First, By observing erhatpasses in our Minds, hon our Ideas there in
  43. train constants lomeranis, and others besin ro appear, we come by the
  44. Idea OF Succession.
  45. Secondly, By observine a distance in the parrs ofthis Succestion, eget
  46. the Idea OF Duration.
  47. Thiraly, By Senlation obterrine certain appearances, at certain regular
  48. and cemine equidictant periods, re set the ideas ot certain Lenoths or
  49. Measures of Duration, as Minutes, FTOurS, DayS, PCarS, (5c.
  50. Fourthly, Bybeins able ro repeat thole Measures oF Lime, Or Ideas of
  51. Aated lenorh of Duration in our Minds, as oten as wewill, e can come
  52. to imaxine Duration, vhere nothine does really endure or exist; and thus
  53. We imasine tomorrow, nextrcar, or seren rears hence.
  54. BOc
  55. ly

Cite

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, fol. 92. Machine transcription, not an edition: Leibniz Legible (model FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74). https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0108?run=74