Genre:

Short Fiction, Autobiography; Poetry

Subjects:

Time, Anthropocentrism, Astronomy, Geology, Palaeontology, Zoology, Progress, Natural Economy, Design, Piety

    Time narrates having been born 'in the beginning', but notes that people have differed about when that was. Observes: 'I think they were wrong when they measured my age by their own, which it now seems clear, is scarcely six thousand years'. In their conceit people thought 'Time had nothing to do till they came into being', although this was contradicted both by the stars and by the structure of the earth. Notes that the 'recent researches' of geologists have enabled humankind 'not only to trace various changes in this planet, but to assign to the organic remains discovered in the bowels of the earth their proper place in its history, before it was tenanted by any of our fellow-creatures'. (331) Reviews some recent palaeontological discoveries. Observes that he has 'witnessed a regular succession of existence' from simpler to more complex. The remainder of the narrative relates to the right use of time as a religious duty.