,000 years from the reign of the sun; and the Chinese now, who account
the world 3,269,000 years old, or more; which longer duration of the
world, according to their computation, though I should not believe to be
true, yet I can equally imagine it with them, and as truly understand,
and say one is longer than the other, as I understand, that Methusalem's
life was longer than Enoch's. And if the common reckoning of 5639 should
be true, (as it may be as well as any other assigned,) it hinders not at
all my imagining what others mean, when they make the world one thousand
years older, since every one may with the same facility imagine (I do
not say believe) the world to be 50,000 years old, as 5639; and may as
well conceive the duration of 50,000 years as 5639. Whereby it appears
that, to the measuring the duration of anything by time, it is not
requisite that that thing should be co-existent to the motion we measure
by, or any other periodical revolution; but it suffices to this
purpose, that we have the idea of the length of ANY regular periodical
appearances, which we can in our minds apply to duration, with which the
motion or appearance never co-existed.

30. Infinity in Duration.

For, as in the history of the creation delivered by Moses, I can imagine
that light existed three days before the sun was, or had any motion,
barely by thinking that the duration of light before the sun was created
was so long as (IF the sun had moved then as it doth now) would have
been equal to three of his diurnal revolutions; so by the same way I can
have an idea of the chaos, or angels, being created before there was
either light or any continued motion, a minute, an hour, a day, a year,
or one thousand years. For, if I can but consider duration equal to one
minute, before either the being or motion of any body, I can add one
minute more till I come to sixty; and by the same way of adding minutes,
hours, or years (i.e. such or such parts of the sun's revolutions, or
any other period whereof I have the idea) proceed IN INFINITUM, and
suppose a duration exceeding as many such periods as I can reckon, let
me add whilst I will, which I think is the notion we have of eternity;
of whose infinity we have no other notion than we have of the infinity
of number, to which we can add for ever without end.

31. Origin of our Ideas of Duration, and of the measures of it.

And thus I think it is plain, that from those two fountains of all
know