spectively at the most seven and
sixteen vibrations in a second as separate beats. That insect must
therefore be able to follow a flash of lightning under the conditions
of a Time microscope magnifying a thousand times compared with our
vision. The whole life of some of these insects extends over a few
hours only, but owing to their quick unit of perception it is to them
as full of detail as our life of seventy years; but to them there is
no day and night, the Sun is always stationary in the Heavens, they
can have no cognisance of Seasons.

I have already referred in View One to the curious results of
increasing our unit of perception by a Time Microscope, and I will now
carry the investigation of this subject a step further.

As conceptional knowledge is based on perceptional knowledge, and we
can only perceive about six times per second, and as the principal
forms of knowledge are gained through the eye, we are conceiving
progress in phenomena under a very restricted outlook; we cannot
recognise such slow motions as, for instance, the hour-hand of a
watch, the growth of a tree, or rise of the tide, except by noting the
change that has occurred after a long interval; there is therefore a
whole world of events which we cannot see. Owing to this limit, in our
unit of time perception, we also cannot perceive events which are
taking place beyond a certain quickness, they become blurred and give
the impression of continuity, and constitute another world of events
lost to us. For the same reason there is a whole world of sensation
lost to us by our limited unit of sound perception; we cannot follow
separate sound-events if they occur quicker than sixteen in a second,
beyond that they become blurred and give the impression of continuity.
If, on the other hand, our units of perception were increased a
thousandfold, as is probably the case with some insects, our conscious
lives would contain a thousand more events than they do at present,
and, as the consciousness of length of life is dependent upon the
number of events that have been perceived, we should under these
conditions have passed on this earth a life equivalent to, say, 70,000
years under our present restricted unit; every second of that long
period would have been as full of events for us as is a second in our
present life of seventy years. If, on the other hand, our unit of
perception were decreased a thousandfold, our length of life, based
upon perception of even