(Some objector might ask) why we reduce the movement of the universe
to the movement of the containing Soul, and admit that she is within
time, while we exclude from time the (universal) Soul's movement, which
subsists within her, and perpetually passes from one actualization
to another? The reason is that above the activity of the Soul there
exists nothing but eternity, which shares neither her movement nor her
extension. Thus the primary movement (of Intelligence) finds its goal
in time, begets it, and by its activity informs its duration.
WHY TIME IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE; POLEMIC AGAINST ANTIPHANES AND
CRITOLAUS.
How then is time present everywhere? The life of the Soul is present in
all parts of the world, as the life of our soul is present in all parts
of our body. It may indeed be objected,[465] that time constitutes
neither a hypostatic substance, nor a real existence, being, in
respect to existence, a deception, just as we usually say that the
expressions "He was" and "He will be" are a deception in respect to
the divinity; for then He will be and was just as is that, in which,
according to his assertion, he is going to be.
To answer these objections, we shall have to follow a different method.
Here it suffices to recall what was said above, namely, that by seeing
how far a man in motion has advanced, we can ascertain the quantity
of the movement; and that, when we discern movement by walking, we
simultaneously concede that, before the walking, movement in that man
was indicated by a definite quantity, since it caused his body to
progress by some particular quantity. As the body was moved during
a definite quantity of time, its quantity can be expressed by some
particular quantity of movement--for this is the movement that causes
it--and to its suitable quantity of time. Then this movement will be
applied to the movement of the soul, which, by her uniform action,
produces the interval of time.