Note 9 — Chapter XVII · THE EPICUREAN VIEWS ON NATURE.

Diog. 68; 40. Lucr. i. 449, who expresses συμβεβηκότα by conjuncta, and συμπτώματα by eventa. Among the latter Lucretius, 459, reckons time, because in itself it is nothing, and only comes to our knowledge through motion and rest. Likewise Epicurus, in Diog. 72 (conf. Stob. i. 252), shows that time is composed of days and nights, and their portions, of states of feeling or unconsciousness, of motion or rest, and hence that it is only a product (σύμπτωμα) of these phenomena; and these being again συμπτώματα, time is defined by the Epicurean Demetrius (Sext. Math. x. 219; Pyrrh. iii. 137): σύμπτωμα συμπτωμάτων παρεπόμενον ἡμέραις τε καὶ νυξὶ καὶ ὥραις καὶ πάθεσι καὶ ἀπαθείαις καὶ κινήσεσι καὶ μοναῖς. The distinction between abstract and sensuous or undivided time (Steinhart, l.c. 466) does not appear to exist in Diogenes. His χρόνοι διὰ λόγου θεωρητοὶ (Diog. 47) are imperceptibly small divisions of time, tempora multa, ratio quæ comperit esse, which, according to Lucret. iv. 792, are contained in every given time. ↑