it determines as transition the point's extremes outward on both sides of the stretching. This transition belongs to the point and is itself, as now, not a part of time, in the sense that this time would be composed of now-parts; instead, each part has transitional character, that is, it is not strictly speaking a part. Therefore Aristotle says directly: οὐδὲν μόριον τὸ νῦν τοῦ χρόνου, οὐδ᾿ ἡ διαίρεσις τῆς κινήσεως;35 the now is consequently not a part of time but is always time itself, and, because it is not a part, motion itself-since motion is measured by means of time-also is not cut into parts. Because the now is transition, it is capable of making motion accessible as motion, in its unbroken character of transition. That time is a limit in the sense that I say that motion ceases, stands still, in a now-this is a συμβεβηκός: it is only an attribute of the now, but it does not reach its essential nature.
The now is what it is, ᾗ δ᾿ ἀριθμεῖ, so far as it counts, hence number. Time as now is not limit but transition, and as transition it is possible number, possible mensural number of motion. It measures a motion or a rest in such a way that a specific motion, a specific change and advance is fixed, for example, the advance from one stroke of a second to the next, with which mensural number then the entire movement is measured. Because the now is transition it always measures a from-to, it measures a how-long, a duration. Time as number fixes the limits of a specific movement. This delimited movement is intended for measuring the whole of the movement to be measured: μετρεῖ δ᾿ οὗτος τὴν κίνησιν τῷ ὁρίσαι τινὰ κίνησιν ἣ καταμετρήσει τὴν ὅλην.36
Because time is ἀριθμός, it is μέτρον. The being measured of a moving thing with respect to its motion, this μετρεΐσθαι, is nothing but τὸ ἐν χρόνῳ εἶναι,37 the motion's "being in time." According to Aristotle, "things are in time" means nothing but that they are measured by time on the basis of their transitional character. The intratemporality of things and events must be distinguished from the way the nows, the earlier and later, are in
35. Physica, 5, 220-19.
36. Ibid., 12.221a 1f. ["Time is a measure of motion and of being moved, and it measures the motion by determining a motion which will measure exactly the whole motion, as the cubit does the length by determining an amount which will measure out the whole." Trans. Hardie and Gaye.]
37. Ibid., 221a 4.