Suppose that with some expositors we cut out the reference to familiar velocities such as the rate of rotation of the earth.

We are then driven to admit that there is no meaning in temporal congruence except that certain assumptions make the laws of motion true.

Such a statement is historically false.

King Alfred the Great was ignorant of the laws of motion, but knew very well what he meant by the measurement of time, and achieved his purpose by means of burning candles.

Also no one in past ages justified the use of sand in hour-glasses by saying that some centuries later interesting laws of motion would be discovered which would give a meaning to the statement that the sand was emptied from the bulbs in equal times.
Uniformity in change is directly perceived, and it follows that mankind perceives in nature factors from which a theory of temporal congruence can be formed.