 Shepherd subjects this perception to analysis: the fainter sensations are attended by the idea of the present moment and the past moment is only remembered in the present. She maintains that awareness of the present moment and memory of the past moment inspires reasoning to this effect: there must be a continued being in nature capable of uniting the two moments. We saw that time, as she understands it, is a continued existence comprising successive moments. So the perception of a lapse of time between a present and past sensation is the idea of the continued existence of time relative to which the present and remembered sensations are ordered.