enced by the fame propenfity, ftretch commonly their analogical reafonings beyond just bounds. Opinion and belief are influenced by affection as well as by propensity. The noted ftory of a fine lady and a curate viewing the moon through a telescope, is a pleasant illustration: I perceive, fays the lady, two fhadows inclining to each other; they are certainly two happy lovers: Not at all, replies the curate, they are two fteeples of a cathedral. APPENDIX TO PART V. Methods that Nature bath afforded for computing Time and Space. THIS fubject is introduced, because it af fords feveral curious examples of the influence of paffion to bias the mind in its conceptions and opinions; a leffon that cannot be too frequently inculcated, as there is not perhaps another bias in human nature that hath an influence fo univerfal to make us wander from truth as well as from juftice. I begin with time; and the queftion is, What was the measure of time before artificial measures were invented; and what is the measure at prefent when these are not at hand? I fpeak not of months and days, which are computed by the moon and fun; but of hours, or in general of the time that paffes between any two occurrences when there is not access to the fun. The only natural measure is the fucceffion of our thoughts; for we always judge the time to be long or fhort, in proportion to the number of perceptions and ideas that have paffed during that inter val. This measure is indeed far from being accurate; because in a quick and in a flow fucceffion, it must evidently produce different computations of the fame time but, however inaccurate, it is the only meafure by which we naturally calculate time; and that measure is applied on all occafions, without regard to any cafual variation in the rate of fucceflion. That measure would however be tolerable, did it labour under no other imperfection befide that mentioned but in many inftances it is much more fal·lacious; in order to explain which diftinctly, an analysis will be neceffary. Time is computed at two different periods; one while it is paffing, another after it is past these computations fhall be confidered feparately, with the errors to which each of them is liable. Beginning with computation of time while it is paffing, it is a common and trite obfervation, That to lovers abfence appears immeafurably long, every minute an hour, and every day a year: the fame computation is made in every cafe where we long for a distant event; as where one is in expectation of good news, or where a profligate heir watches for the death of an old rich mifer. Oppofite to these are inftances not fewer in number: to a criminal the interval between fentence and execution appears wofully fhort and the fame holds in every cafe where one dreads an approaching event; of which even a fchool-boy can bear witness: the hour allowed him for play, moves in his apprehenfion, with a very fwift pace; before he is thoroughly engaged, the hour is gone. A computation founded on the num. ber of ideas, will never produce estimates fo regularly oppofite to each other; for our wifhes do not produce a flow fucceffion of ideas, nor our fears a quick fucceffion. What then moves nature, in the cafes mentioned, to defert her ordinary measure for one. very very different? I know not that this question ever has been refolved; the false estimates I have fuggefted being fo common and familiar, that no writer has thought of their caufe. And, indeed, to enter upon this matter without preparation, might occafion some difficulty; to encounter which, we luckily are prepared, by what is faid upon the power of paffion to bias the mind in its perceptions and opinions. Among the circumstances that terrify a condemned criminal, the fhort time he has to live is one which time, by the influence of terror, is made to appear still shorter than it is in reality. In the fame manner, among the diftreffes of an abfent lover, the time of feparation is a capital circumftance, which for that reafon is greatly magnified by his anxiety and impatience: he imagines that the time of meeting comes on very flow, or rather that it will never come: every minute is thought of an intolerable length. Here is a fair, and, I hope, fatisfactory reafon, why time is thought to be tedious when we long for a future event, and not lefs fleet when we dread the event, The reason is confirmed by other inftances. Bodily pain, fixt to one part, produceth a flow train of perceptions, which, according to the common measure of time, ought to make it appear fhort: yet we know, that, in fuch a ftate, time has the oppofite appearance; and the reafon is, that bodily pain is always attended with a degree of impatience, which makes us think every minute to be an hour. The fame holds where the pain fhifts froin place to place; but not fo remarkably, because fuch a pain is not attended with the fame degree of impatience. The impatience a man hath in travelling through a barren country, or in a bad road, makes him think, during the journey, that time goes on with a very flow pace. We fhall fee fee afterward, that a very different computation is made when the journey is over. How ought it to ftand with a perfon who appre→ hends bad news? It will probably be thought, that the cafe of this perfon resembles that of a criminal, who, terrified at his approaching execution, believes every hour to be but a minute: yet the computation is directly oppofite. Reflecting upon the difficulty, there appears one capital diftinguishing circumftance: the fate of the criminal is determined; in the cafe under confideration, the perfon is ftill in fufpenfe. Every one has felt the distress that accompanies fuf penfe: we wish to get rid of it at any rate, even at the expense of bad news. This cafe, therefore, upon a more narrow infpection, resembles that of bodily pain the prefent diftrefs, in both cafes, makes the time appear extremely tedious. The reader probably will not be displeased, to have this branch of the subject illuftrated, by an author who is acquainted with every maze of the human heart, and who bestows ineffable grace and ornament upon every subject he handles: Rofalinda. I pray you, what is't clock? Orlando. You fhould ask me, what time o'day; there's no clock in the forest. Ref. Then there is no true lover in the foreft; elfe, fighing every minute, and groaning every hour, would detect the lazy foot of Time, as well as a clock. Orla. Why not the fwift foot of Time? Had not that been as proper? Rof. By no means, Sir. Time travels in diverfe paces with diverfe perfons. I'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who heftands ftill withal. Orla. I pr'y thee whom doth he trot withal? Raf. Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the contract of her marriage and the day it is folemnized; if if the interim be but a fe'enight, Time's pace is so hard, that it feems the length of feven years. Orla. Whom ambles Time withal? Rof. With a Priest that lacks Latin, and a rich man that hath not the gout: for the one fleeps eafily, because he cannot study; and the other lives merrily, because he feels no pain the one lacking the burden of lean and wasteful learning the other knowing no burthen of heavy tedious penury. These time ambles withal. : : Orle. Whom doth he gallop withal! Ref. With a thief to the gallows: for, though he go as foftly as foot can fall, he thinks himself too foon there. Orla. Whom ftays it ftill withal? Ref. With lawyers in the vacation for they fleep between term and term, and then they perceive not how Time moves. As you like it, act 3. fc. 8. The natural method of computing prefent time, fhows how far from truth we may be led by the irregular influence of paffion: nor are our eyes immediately opened when the fcene is paft; for the deception continues while there remain any traces of the paffion. But looking back upon paft time when the joy or distress is no longer remembered, the conputation is very different: in that condition, we coolly and deliberately make ufe of the ordinary meafure, namely, the courfe of our perceptions. And I fhall now proceed to the errors that this measure is fubjected to. Here we must distinguish between a train of perceptions, and a train of ideas: real objects make a ftrong impreffion, and are faithfully remembered: ideas, on the contrary, however entertaining at the time, are apt to escape a fubfequent recollection. Hence it is, that in retrofpection, the time that was employed upon real objects, appears longer than that employed upon ideas: the former are more accurately recollected than the latter; and we meaf ure |