72

82

I limit myself to saying that the syllogism of transposed
quantity is valid for every enumerable universe
and for such alone. Here is a specimen of this reasoning
applied to a question of philosophy:

No second of past time was immediately followed
by two different seconds of past time.

But the last second of past time has no second
of past time immediately following it.

Hence there must have been some second of
past time that did not follow any second, that is
time must have had an absolute beginning.

Whatever definitely exists
or has existed forms an enumerable collection,
and the reasoning about time must be accepted
so long as you suppose the passage of seconds to be