Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge

ty we should have no natural measures of Time. If that statement be true it follows that apart from the operation of this l

t never repeated succession of impressions the Knowledge of Time would be equally awanting.[12:1] Yet so it is. The operation of the Law of Periodicity is necessary to the measurement of Time. It is by means, and only by means, of periodic pulsative movements tha

ure amply supplies us with this necessary instrument. The Law of Perio

ient life but the musculo-motor activity as well. Eating, Walking,-all our most elementary movements are pulsatory. We wake an

lsation-equally affects the vegetal forms of lif

ral motions of those so-called material masses which constitute our physical environment that Periodicity most eminently prevails. Indeed it was by ast

th. In like manner the more inert vitality of the vegetable kingdom is determined by the periodic law of the Earth's annual revolution. When fanciful speculators seek to imagine what kind of living beings might be encountered on the other planets of our system, they usually make calculations as to the force of gravity on the surface of these planets and conjure up from such data the possible size of the inhabitants, their relative strength and agility of movement, etc. So far so good. But the first question we should ask, before proceeding to our speculative synthesis, should rather be the length of the planet's diurnal rotation and ann

operation throughout Nature of the Law of Periodicity, and (2) that the periodicities which affect and determine

ction to the periodic law. If these heavenly bodies moved for ever in straight lines, as t

sustained are attributable to the constraint and limitation which we recognise as the effect of the operation of Natural Force. It is to this same cause that we ascribe the resistance of cohering masses in virtue of which sensation arises and by which our expe

ch are thereby imposed upon our activity appear at once to determine the

ation conceive, either as reality or as fancy, the illimitable puissance of a Life perfectly free and unrestrained. Yet the assurance that Perfect Love could overcome the bonds of Materiality and Death encourages in mankind the Hope of an existence beyond the impenetrable

TNO

ime was born with the Heavens, and that Sun, Moon,

réatrice, p. 11): "Plus nous approfondirons la nature du temps plus nous comprendrons que

s have favoured the view that the day o