24 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



steered their course in science are becoming submerged. And 

 the task awaits the future out of this fluid situation and 

 these instabilities once more to build a stable world of ideas, 

 which will be in closer harmony with the reality around us 

 and within us. One of the aspects of Darwin's Theory has 

 already briefly engaged our attention in the last chapter, and 

 other aspects of it will be considered in Chapter VIII. In the 

 present chapter reference must be made to Einstein's Gen- 

 eral Theory of Relativity and the bearing it has on our ideas 

 of space and time as the framework in which events are lo- 

 cated, and the medium in which Evolution takes place. The 

 resulting view of the universe as structural, and of the ele- 

 ment of structure as fundamental to the universe and all its 

 forms, is important for the subject and the argument of this 

 work. 



People become frightened when they are invited to con- 

 sider Einstein's theory. Its refined abstractions, its abstruse 

 mathematical form, its complete novelty and reversal of 

 ordinary common-sense view-points make it a terror to the 

 uninitiated. And yet I believe the Einstein view-point can 

 be quite simply and intelligibly put. Indeed it must be so 

 put if it is ever to become part and parcel of ordinary 

 educated thought. We must distinguish between the simple 

 and clear view-point itself, and the recondite mathematical 

 processes by which it was reached, and the technical mathe- 

 matical form in which it is expressed, and from which for 

 all ordinary purposes it can be separated. The understand- 

 ing and appreciation of the Relativity view-point are not 

 dependent on a knowledge of the process by which Einstein 

 reached that view-point. The result is quite distinct from 

 the process. It is like groping our way through a long, dark, 

 rough tunnel, and at the end emerging into the clear daylight 

 beyond: it is not necessary for the appreciation of the new 

 view that one should plunge back into the dark tunnel. 

 Besides, I must frankly state my own opinion that the 

 Einstein theory, as distinguished from the broad view-point 

 ] attained, has not yet found its final expression. All great 

 \ truths are in their essence simple; and the absence of sim- 



