48 TIME 



cone or hour-glass figure (Fig. 4). These hour-glasses 

 (drawn through each point of the world considered in 

 turn as a Here-Now) embody what we know of the abso- 

 lute structure of the world so far as space and time are 

 concerned. They show how the "grain" of the world 

 runs. 



Father Time has been pictured as an old man with 

 a scythe and an hour-glass. We no longer permit him 

 to mow instants through the world with his scythe; but 

 we leave him his hour-glass. 



ABSOLUTE FUTURE 



ABSOLUTE ^**^rv^^ ABSOLUTE 



ELSEWHERE ^^^itMtrnvw ELSEWHERE 



ABSOLUTE PAST 



«*g£^~- — -^W 



Fig. 4 



Since the hour-glass is absolute its two cones provide 

 respectively an Absolute Future and an Absolute Past 

 for the event Here-Now. They are separated by a 

 wedge-shaped neutral zone which (absolutely) is neither 

 past nor future. The common impression that relativity 

 turns past and future altogether topsy-turvy is quite 

 false. But, unlike the relative past and future, the 

 absolute past and future are not separated by an in- 

 finitely narrow present. It suggests itself that the 



