Page - 708 - in The Complete Plato

and others, by virtue of participation in time? How do you mean? If one is, being must be predicated of it? Yes. But to be (einai) is only participation of being in present time, and to have been is the participation of being at a past time, and to be about to be is the participation of being at a future time? Very true. Then the one, since it partakes of being, partakes of time? Certainly. And is not time always moving forward? Yes. Then the one is always becoming older than itself, since it moves forward in time? Certainly. And do you remember that the older becomes older than that which becomes younger? I remember. Then since the one becomes older than itself, it becomes younger at the same time? Certainly. Thus, then, the one becomes older as well as younger than itself? Yes. And it is older (is it not?) when in becoming, it gets to the point of time between ‘was’ and ‘will be,’ which is ‘now’: for surely in going from the past to the future, it cannot skip the present? No. And when it arrives at the present it stops from becoming older, and no longer becomes, but is older, for if it went on it would never be reached by the present, for it is the nature of that which goes on, to touch both the present and the future, letting go the present and seizing the future, while in process of becoming between them. True. 708