Contiguity And Distance In Space And Time

Our minds conceives everything contiguous to us in space or time with a peculiar force and vivacity because:

• our self is intimately present to us
• whatever related to self must also be present to us.

But when an object is so far removed, it loses this relation.

• Its idea becomes fainter and more obscure.

The imagination can never totally forget the points of space and time which we exist in.

• It receives their frequent advertisements from the passions and senses.
• No matter how it turns its attention to foreign and remote objects, it needs to reflect on the present at every moment.

We remarkably:

• take real objects in their proper order and situation
• never leap from one real object to another, which is distant from it, without running over all those objects between them.

Therefore, when we reflect on any object distant from ourselves, we reach it by:

• passing through all the intermediate space between ourselves and the object
• renew our progress every moment, recalling the consideration of ourselves and our present situation.

This interruption must weaken the idea by:

• breaking the action of the mind
• hindering the conception from being so intense and continued, as when we reflect on a nearer object.

The fewer steps we make to arrive at the object and the smoother the road, the less this reduction of vivacity is felt.

• But still may be observed more or less in proportion to the degrees of distance and difficulty.

Regarding distance, there are 2 kinds of objects:

1. The contiguous object

This approaches an impression in force and vivacity, through their relation to ourselves.

2. The remote object

The remote object appears in a weaker and more imperfect light, through the interruption in our manner of conceiving them.

This is their effect on the imagination.

They must have a proportional effect on the will and passions.

• Contiguous objects must have an influence much superior to the distant and remote.

Accordingly, we commonly find that men are principally concerned about those objects which are not much removed in space or time.

• They enjoy the present and leave what is afar off, to the care of chance and fortune.

Talk to a man of his condition 30 years hence, and he will not regard you.

• Speak of what is to happen tomorrow, and he will lend you attention.
• The breaking of a mirror gives us more concern when at home, than the burning of a house abroad, some hundred leagues distant.

Distance in space and time has a considerable effect:

• on the imagination
• consequently, on the will and passions, yet the consequence of a removal in space are much inferior to those of a removal in time.

20 years are certainly a small distance of time compared to what history and even the memory of some may inform them of ◦ Yet I doubt if 1,000 leagues, or even the greatest distance this globe can admit of, will so remarkably: ▪ weaken our ideas ▪ reduce our passions. • A West-Indian merchant will tell you that he is concerned with what happens in Jamaica. ◦ Though few extend their views so far into the future, as to dread very remote accidents.

The cause of this phenomenon lies in the different properties of space and time.