to fall from on high upon a plane of stone, it were
against reason to think it would not be broken, being struck against
that which is hard and solid; but it would be more absurd that it should
be broken, falling upon an extremity or point that is incorporeal. So
that the presumptions concerning things incorporeal and corporeal are
wholly disturbed, or rather taken away, by their joining to them many
impossibilities.

It is also against common sense, that there should be a time future and
past, but no time present; and that EREWHILE and LATELY subsist, but NOW
is nothing at all. Yet this often befalls the Stoics, who admit not the
least time between, nor will allow the present to be indivisible; but
whatsoever any one thinks to take and understand as present, one part of
that they say to be future, and the other part past; so that there is no
part remaining or left of the present time: but of that which is said
to be present, one part is distributed to the future, the other to the
past. Therefore one of these two things follows: either that, holding
there was a time and there will be a time, we must deny there is a time;
or we must hold that there is a time present, part of which has already
been and part will be, and say that of that which now is, one part is
future and the other past; and that of NOW, one part is before and the
other behind; and that now is that which is neither yet now nor any
longer NOW; for that which is past is no longer now, and that which is
to come is not yet NOW. And dividing thus the present, they must needs
say of the year and of the day, that part of it was of the year or day
past, and part will be of the year or day to come; and that of what is
together, there is a part before and a part after. For no less are they
perplexed, confounding together these terms, NOT YET and ALREADY and NO
LONGER and NOW and NOT NOW. But all other men suppose, esteem, and think
EREWHILE and AWHILE HENCE to be different parts of time from NOW, which
is followed by the one and preceded by the other. But Archedemus, saying
that now is the beginning and juncture of that which is past and that
which is near at hand, has (as it seems) without perceiving it thereby
destroyeth all time. For if NOW is no time, but only a term or extremity
of time, and if every part of time is such as now, all time seems
to have no parts, but to be wholly dissolved into terms, joints, and
beginnings. But Chrysippus, desiring to show more