Time we may comprehend, 'tis but five days
elder than ourselves.

            Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, 1642.

The leading idea which is present in all our
researches, and which accompanies every
fresh observation, the sound to which the ear
of the student of Nature seems continually
echoed from every part of her works, is—
Time! Time! Time!

            George P. Scrope, leading British geologist, in
            1827. This quote has become a virtual cliché
            by overuse in modern textbook epigraphs.