ABSTRACT
The eighteenth century, once present, is now two hundred years past. This does not mean that all eighteenth-century facts about the A-times of events like Hume’s death (and of B-times like 1776) have altered since then. For example, all events and B-times that were past then are still past now, and all events that are future now were future then. But most facts about A-times have altered in the last two centuries. All nineteenth-century events, which were future in the eighteenth century, are past now. Seventeenth-century events, which were past then, are still more past now; and thirtieth-century events, which are future now, were still more future then. The last two hundred years have seen quantitative if not qualitative changes in the A-times of all events and of B-times.
