Continuity 43 



yet. If the "Principle of Relativity" in 

 an extreme sense establishes itself, it 

 seems as if even Time would become dis- 

 continuous and be supplied in atoms, as 

 money is doled out in pence or centimes 

 instead of continuously; in which case 

 our customary existence will turn out to 

 be no more really continuous than the 

 events on a kinematograph screen; 

 while that great agent of continuity, the 

 Ether of Space, will be relegated to the 

 museum of historical curiosities. 



In that case differential equations 

 will cease to represent the facts of nature, 

 they will have to be replaced by Finite 

 Differences, and the most fundamen- 

 tal revolution since Newton will be 

 inaugurated. 



Now in all the debatable matters of 

 which I have indicated possibilities I 

 want to urge a conservative attitude. I 

 accept the new experimental results on 

 which some of these theories such as the 

 Principle of Relativity are based, and 

 am profoundly interested in them, but 

 I do not feel that they are so revolution- 



