NATURE'S PLAN OF STRUCTURE 29 



significance. She herself has paid no attention to them, 

 and they can only obscure the simplicity of her scheme. 

 I do not mean to suggest that we should entirely rewrite 

 physics, eliminating all reference to frames of space or 

 any quantities referred to them; science has many tasks 

 to perform, besides that of apprehending the ultimate 

 plan of structure of the world. But if we do wish to 

 have insight on this latter point, then the first step is to 

 make an escape from the irrelevant space-frames. 



This will involve a great change from classical con- 

 ceptions, and important developments will follow from 

 our change of attitude. For example, it is known that 

 both gravitation and electric force follow approximately 

 the law of inverse-square of the distance. This law 

 appeals strongly to us by its simplicity; not only is it 

 mathematically simple but it corresponds very naturally 

 with the weakening of an effect by spreading out in 

 three dimensions. We suspect therefore that it is 

 likely to be the exact law of gravitational and electric 

 fields. But although it is simple for us it is far from 

 simple for Nature. Distance refers to a space-frame; 

 it is different according to the frame chosen. We cannot 

 make sense of the law of inverse-square of the distance 

 unless we have first fixed on a frame of space; but 

 Nature has not fixed on any one frame. Even if by 

 some self-compensation the law worked out so as to give 

 the same observable consequences whatever space-frame 

 we might happen to choose (which it does not) we should 

 still be misapprehending its real mode of operation. In 

 chapter VI we shall try to gain a new insight into the 

 law (which for most practical applications is so nearly 

 expressed by the inverse-square) and obtain a picture 

 of its working which does not drag in an irrelevant frame 

 of space. The recognition of relativity leads us to 



