ed
states of any one thing, so there are no intervals, not even
infinitely small, between what we call one thing and any other
thing which we speak of as immediately preceding or following
it. What we call time is an idea derived from our notion of a
succession of things or events, an idea which is a part of our
constitution, but not an idea which we can suppose to belong to
an infinite intelligence and power. The conclusion then is
certain that the present and the past, the production of
present things and the supposed original order, out of which we
say that present things now come, are one, and the present
productive power and the so-called past arrangement are only
different names for one thing. I suppose then that Antoninus
wrote here as people sometimes talk now, and that his real
meaning is not exactly expressed by his words. There are
certainly other passages from which I think that we may collect
that he had notions of production something like what I have
expressed. We now come to the alternate: "or even the chief
things ... principle." I do not exactly know what he means by
[Greek: ta kureotata] "the chief," or "the most excellent," or
whatever it is. But as he speaks elsewhere of inferior and
superior things, and of the inferior being for the use of the
superior, and of rational beings being the highest, he may here
mean rational beings. He also in this alternative assumes a
governing power of the universe, and that it acts by directing
its power towards these chief objects, or making its special,
proper motion towards them. And here he uses the noun ([Greek:
horme]) "movement," which contains the same notion as the verb
([Greek: ormese]) "moved," which he used at the beginning of
the paragraph, when he was speaking of the making of the
universe. If we do not accept the first hypothesis, he says, we
must take the conclusion of the second, that the "chief things
towards which the ruling power of the universe directs its own
movement are governed by no rational principle." The meaning
then is, if there is a meaning in it, that though there is a
governing power which strives to give effect to its efforts, we
must conclude that there is no rational direction of anything,
if the power which first made the universe does not in some way
govern it still. Besides, if