Page:The Works of John Locke - 1823 - vol 01.djvu/268

192 and thus we imagine to-morrow, next year, or seven years hence.

Fifthly, By being able to repeat ideas of any length of time, as of a minute, a year, or an age, as often as we will, in our own thoughts, and adding them one to another, without ever coming to the end of such addition any nearer than we can to the end of number, to which we can always add; we come by the idea of eternity, as the future eternal duration of our souls, as well as the eternity of that infinite Being, which must necessarily have always existed.

Sixthly, By considering any part of infinite duration, as set out by periodical measures, we come by the idea of what we call time in general.

§ 1. we have in the precedent of greater chapters dwelt pretty long on the considerations of space and duration; yet they being ideas of general concernment, that have something very abstruse and peculiar in their nature, the comparing them one with another may perhaps be of use for their illustration; and we may have the more clear and distinct conception of them, by taking a view of them together. Distance or space, in its simple abstract conception, to avoid confusion, I call expansion, to distinguish it from extension, which by some is used to express this distance only as it is in the solid parts of matter, and so includes, or at least intimates, the idea of body: whereas the idea of pure distance includes no such thing. I prefer also the word expansion to space, because space is often applied to distance of fleeting successive parts, which