127

1908 Nov 28
Logic
I.i. 2

At one sidereal hour it will be somewhat more, at another as
much less. Say I can imagine the stars to be twice as thickly scattered
as they are, and I can imagine a thousand.

Shall I tell you what one of all the enormous numbers is the one
which really awes me the most;--not that I can imagine it, but that
the repetitions of multiplications by a thousand vaguely impress me?
It is this. I can imagine a kilometre well; that is I can imagine
walking that distance. I can imagine a a statute mile nearly nearly as
well. I try to imagine a thousand kilometres stretched out end
to end. I cannot say I can imagine that; but if I could,
I should only have to imagine forty such lengths put end to end, and
I should imagine the distance round the earth. Substituting miles for
kilometres and 25 in place of 40, and I get the same result.