CONFESSIONS(BOOKXI) 285
only hope to measure it as it passes by, because once it has passed by there will be no
measuring; it will not exist to be measured.
But when it is measured, where does it come from, by what path does it pass, and
whither go? Where from, if not from the future? By what path, if not the present?
Whither, if not into the past? It comes, then, from what is not yet real, travels through
what occupies no space, and is bound for what is no longer real. But what are we
trying to measure, if not time that does have some extension? We speak of “half as
long,” “double the time,” “three times as long,” “equal in length,” and make similar
statements about time only in reference to extended time, or duration. Where then is
this duration which will give us a chance to measure passing time? In the future,
whence it has come to pass us by? But we do not measure what does not yet exist. In
the present, perhaps, through which it passes on its way? But where there is no
extension we cannot measure. In the past, then, to which it has gone? But we cannot
measure what no longer exists.
22, 28. My mind is on fire to solve this most intricate enigma. O Lord, my God,
my good Father, through Christ I beg you not to shut against me the door to these truths,
so familiar yet so mysterious. Do not slam the door in the face of my desire, nor forbid
me entrance to that place where I may watch these things grow luminous as your mercy
sheds its light upon them, Lord. To whom should I put my questions about them? And
to whom should I confess my stupidity with greater profit than to you, who do not
weary of my intense, burning interest in your scriptures? Give me what I love; for I love
indeed, and this love you have given me. Give this to me, Father, for you truly know
how to give good gifts to your children; give me this gift, for I have only just begun to
understand, and the labor is too much for me until you open the door. Through Christ
I implore you, in the name of that holy of holies, let no noisy person stand in my way.
I too have believed, and so I too speak. This is my hope, for this I live: to contemplate
the delight of the Lord. See how old you have made my days; they are slipping away
and I know not how.
We speak of one time and another time, of this period of time or that; we ask,
“How long did that man speak?” or “How long did he take to do it?” We say, “What a
long time it is since I saw so-and-so,” and “This syllable has twice the length of that short
one.” We say these things and listen to them, we are understood and we understand. They
are perfectly plain and fully familiar, yet at the same time deeply mysterious, and we still
need to discover their meaning.
23, 29. I was once told by a certain learned man that the movements of the sun,
moon and stars themselves constitute time. I did not agree with him. Why, in that case,
should not the movements of all corporeal things constitute time? Suppose the luminar-
ies of heaven were to halt, but a potter’s wheel went on turning, would there not still be
time by which we could measure those rotations, and say either that all of them took the
same time, or (if the speed of the wheel varied) that some were of longer duration,
others shorter? And when we said this, would we too not be speaking within time; and
in the words we used, would there not be some long syllables and some short; and why
could that be said of them, unless because some of them had taken a longer time to
pronounce than others?
Through this small thing, O God, grant our human minds insight into the principles
common to small things and great. The stars and the other luminaries in the sky are there
to mark our times and days and years. Yes, granted; but as I would not assert that the rev-
olution of that little wooden wheel itself constituted a day, so my learned informant on the
other hand had no business to say that its gyrations did not occupy a space of time.