hand is at the point A. I move it to the point B, traversing the
interval AB. I say that this movement from A to B is a simple thing--
each of us has the sensation of this, direct and immediate. Doubtless,
while we carry our hand over from A to B, we say to ourselves that we
could stop it at an intermediate point, but then that would no longer be
the same movement. There would then be two movements, with an interval
of rest. Neither from within, by the muscular sense, nor from without,
by sight, should we have the same perception. If we leave our movement
from A to B such as it is, we feel it undivided, and we must declare it
indivisible. It is true that when I look at my hand, going from A to B,
traversing the interval AB, I say to myself 'the interval AB can be
divided into as many parts as I wish, therefore the movement from A to B
can be divided into as many parts as I like, since this movement covers
this interval,' or, again, 'At each moment of its passing, the moving
object passes over a certain point, therefore we can distinguish in the
movement as many stopping-places as we wish--therefore the movement is
infinitely divisible.' But let us reflect on this for a minute. How can
the movement possibly coincide with the space which it traverses? How
can the moving coincide with the motionless? How can the object which
moves be said to 'be' at any point in its path? It passes over, or, in
other words, it could 'be' there. It would 'be' there if it stopped
there, but, if it stopped there, it is no longer the same movement with
which we are dealing. It is always at one bound that a trajectory is
traversed when, on its course, there is no stoppage. The bound may last
a few seconds, or it may last for weeks, months, or years, but it is
unique and cannot be decomposed. Only, when once the passage has been
made, as the path is in space, and space is infinitely divisible, we
picture to ourselves the movement itself as infinitely divisible. We
like to imagine it thus, because, in a movement it is not the change of
position which interests us, it is the positions themselves which the