The Idea of Duration applicable to Things whilst we sleep.
Indeed a man having, from reflecting on the succession and number of
his own thoughts, got the notion or idea of duration, he can apply that
notion to things which exist while he does not think; as he that has got
the idea of extension from bodies by his sight or touch, can apply it to
distances, where no body is seen or felt. And therefore, though a man
has no perception of the length of duration which passed whilst he slept
or thought not; yet, having observed the revolution of days and nights,
and found the length of their duration to be in appearance regular
and constant, he can, upon the supposition that that revolution has
proceeded after the same manner whilst he was asleep or thought not, as
it used to do at other times, he can, I say, imagine and make allowance
for the length of duration whilst he slept. But if Adam and Eve, (when
they were alone in the world,) instead of their ordinary night's sleep,
had passed the whole twenty-four hours in one continued sleep, the
duration of that twenty-four hours had been irrecoverably lost to them,
and been for ever left out of their account of time.
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