All phenomena exist in time, wherein alone as substratum, that is, as
the permanent form of the internal intuition, coexistence and
succession can be represented. Consequently time, in which all changes
of phenomena must be cogitated, remains and changes not, because it is
that in which succession and coexistence can be represented only as
determinations thereof. Now, time in itself cannot be an object of
perception. It follows that in objects of perception, that is, in
phenomena, there must be found a substratum which represents time in
general, and in which all change or coexistence can be perceived by
means of the relation of phenomena to it. But the substratum of all
reality, that is, of all that pertains to the existence of things, is
substance; all that pertains to existence can be cogitated only as a
determination of substance. Consequently, the permanent, in relation to
which alone can all relations of time in phenomena be determined, is
substance in the world of phenomena, that is, the real in phenomena,
that which, as the substratum of all change, remains ever the same.
Accordingly, as this cannot change in existence, its quantity in nature
can neither be increased nor diminished.
Our apprehension of the manifold in a phenomenon is always successive,
is Consequently always changing. By it alone we could, therefore, never
determine whether this manifold, as an object of experience, is
coexistent or successive, unless it had for a foundation something
fixed and permanent, of the existence of which all succession and
coexistence are nothing but so many modes (modi of time). Only in the
permanent, then, are relations of time possible (for simultaneity and
succession are the only relations in time); that is to say, the
permanent is the substratum of our empirical representation of time
itself, in which alone all determination of time is possible.
Permanence is, in fact, just another expression for time, as the
abiding correlate of all existence of phenomena, and of all change, and
of all coexistence. For change does not affect time itself, but only
the phenomena in time (just as coexistence cannot be regarded as a
modus of time itself, seeing that in time no parts are coexistent, but
all successive). If we were to attribute succession to time itself, we
should be obliged to cogitate another time, in which this succession
would be possible. It is only by means of the permanent that existence
in different parts of the successive series of time receives a
quantity, which we entitle duration. For in mere succession, existence
is perpetually vanishing and recommencing, and therefore never has even
the least quantity. Without the permanent, then, no relation in time is
possible. Now, time in itself is not an object of perception;
consequently the permanent in phenomena must be regarded as the
substratum of all determination of time, and consequently also as the
condition of the possibility of all synthetical unity of perceptions,