The present also is necessarily indivisible-the present, that is,
not in the sense in which the word is applied to one thing in virtue
of another, but in its proper and primary sense; in which sense it
is inherent in all time. For the present is something that is an
extremity of the past (no part of the future being on this side of it)
and also of the future (no part of the past being on the other side of
it): it is, as we have said, a limit of both. And if it is once
shown that it is essentially of this character and one and the same,
it will at once be evident also that it is indivisible.

    Now the present that is the extremity of both times must be one
and the same: for if each extremity were different, the one could
not be in succession to the other, because nothing continuous can be
composed of things having no parts: and if the one is apart from the
other, there will be time intermediate between them, because
everything continuous is such that there is something intermediate
between its limits and described by the same name as itself. But if
the intermediate thing is time, it will be divisible: for all time has
been shown to be divisible. Thus on this assumption the present is
divisible. But if the present is divisible, there will be part of
the past in the future and part of the future in the past: for past
time will be marked off from future time at the actual point of
division. Also the present will be a present not in the proper sense
but in virtue of something else: for the division which yields it will
not be a division proper. Furthermore, there will be a part of the
present that is past and a part that is future, and it will not always
be the same part that is past or future: in fact one and the same
present will not be simultaneous: for the time may be divided at
many points. If, therefore, the present cannot possibly have these
characteristics, it follows that it must be the same present that
belongs to each of the two times. But if this is so it is evident that
the present is also indivisible: for if it is divisible it will be
involved in the same implications as before. It is clear, then, from
what has been said that time contains something indivisible, and
this is what we call a present.

    We will now show that nothing can be in motion in a present. For
if this is possible, there can be both quicker and slower motion in
the present. Suppose then that in the present N the quicker has
traversed the distance AB. That being so, the slower will in the
same present traverse a distance less than AB, say AG. But since the
slower will have occupied the whole present in traversing AG, the
quicker will occupy less than this in traversing it. Thus we shall
have a division of the present, whereas we found it to be indivisible.
It is impossible, therefore, for anything to be in motion in a
present.

    Nor can anything be at rest in a present: for, as we were saying,
only can be at rest which is naturally designed to be in motion but is
not in motion when, where, or as it would naturally be so: since,
therefore, nothing is naturally designed to be in motion in a present,
it is clear that nothing can be at rest in a present either.

    Moreover, inasmuch as it is the same present that belongs to both
the times, and it is possible for a thing to be in motion throughout
one time and to be at rest throughout the other, and that which is
in motion or at rest for the whole of a time will be in motion or at
rest as the case may be in any part of it in which it is naturally
designed to be in motion or at rest: this being so, the assumption
that there can be motion or rest in a present will carry with it the
implication that the same thing can at the same time be at rest and in
motion: for both the times have the same extremity, viz. the present.

    Again, when we say that a thing is at rest, we imply that its
condition in whole and in part is at the time of speaking uniform with
what it was previously: but the present contains no "previously":
consequently, there can be no rest in it.

    It follows then that the motion of that which is in motion and the
rest of that which is at rest must occupy time.