6 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



something rather fascinating in a theory of space by which the more 

 matter there is, the more room is provided." 



Einstein appears unwilling to admit that a thinkable space 

 without matter could exist. But Eddington agrees with de Sitter in 

 being unwilling to assent to vast quantities of world-matter which 

 "fulfils no other purpose than to enable us to suppose it not to exist." 



To those of us advancing in years the following recipe may be of 

 interest, though hard of achievement: 



"If you wish to achieve immortality and eternal youth, cruise 

 about space with the velocity of light. You will return to the earth 

 after what seems an instant, to find many centuries have passed 

 away." Time has been stationary to the traveller! 



There is a further elusive speculation. If light rays are bent in 

 space, "apart from absorption of light in space we should see an 

 anti-sun, at the point of the sky opposite to the sun equally large and 

 equally bright, the surface-markings corresponding to the back of the 

 sun" .... "not of the sun as it is now, but as the sun as it was when 

 it emitted the light perhaps millions of years ago, when it was at 

 another part of the stellar system." "We regret being unable to 

 recommend the rather picturesque theory of anti-suns and anti-stars" 

 (Eddington). 



To conclude. Are these theories real and stable ? In some form, 

 almost certainly. Yes! Modifications will no doubt be made, but the 

 essentials have the aspect of lasting truth. 



Practical affairs remain unmodified, but there has been achieved a 

 permanent revolution in thought. What is that revolution ? 



"It is impossible by any conceivable experiment to detect uniform 

 motion through the aether?" (Eddington) and "We have assumed 

 fixed axes where nothing is fixed" (Jeans) and 



"Henceforth space and time in themselves vanish to shadows, and 

 only a kind of union of the two preserves an independent existence" 

 (Minkovski). 



Lastly, "All laws of nature shall be invariant as regards different 

 sets of orthogonal axes in the continuum" (Jeans). 



There is a story in the Arabian Nights that a crew landed from 

 their ship on an island. When they kindled a fire the island proved 

 to be the back of a whale ! 



Science has kindled a fire which has detected the whale, but it 

 continues so closely to resemble an island that the bulk of mankind 

 will continue their existence with little modification of their practical 

 experiences. But the few will have acquired a profound alteration in 

 their intellectual outlook. 



