292 



DISCOVERY 



stable when boundaries arc settled by considerations 

 other than geographical or ethnical. The pre-war 

 Austrian Empire, for example, was such a mixture of 

 political and economic interests that it was bound to 

 come to grief sooner or later, and at the present time 

 it looks as though there were no place at all for it 

 in the new Europe. Again, Italy's northern boundary 

 before the war was unsatisfactory, because much of 

 what was essentially Italy was in Austrian hands. 

 The war settlement, although it has done much, has 

 not straightened out everything. It has established 

 the state of Poland, and this is justifiable on racial 

 grounds, although the country's position geographically 

 is weak principally because there are no natural 

 boundaries to prevent invasion or to restrain the 

 Poles from wandering beyond the racial limits of their 

 country. It has also transferred Alsace-Lorraine to 

 France, and this is justifiable on the ground that the 

 inhabitants are more in sj-mpathy with the French 

 than with the Germans. 



***** 



The treatment of the Hungarian plain, however, is 

 considered to be the most unsatisfactory' part of the 

 peace settlement. This is the country of the Magyars, 

 and the partitioning off of parts of it among neigh- 

 bouring countries is bad, and very likely to lead to 

 trouble in the future. Rumania, for example, by 

 annexing parts of Hungary, has lost her unity of 

 political outlook and her racial homogeneity. 



The new state Czecho-Slovalda, which comprises 

 Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, is in many ways the 

 most interesting country in Europe at present. As a 

 whole, however, it is strategically weak, and it dot - 

 not possess geographical unity. For while Bohemia is 

 geographically individual, and Slovakia strategically 

 strong, Moravia, which unites them, lies across an 

 important route from the Adriatic to the plains of 

 Northern Europe. 



***** 



Of those who have attempted to set down in writing, 

 for the benefit of the general public, what Professor 

 Einstein's great theory of relativity ' is all about, it 

 really looks as if Professor Einstein himself were going 

 to come the nearest to success. As this is something 

 which altogether violates tradition, it is a statement 

 of remarkable importance. The tradition is, of course, 

 that a great scientist must be perfectly unintelligible 

 to all but a favoured few. He can explain the universe, 

 or some part thereof, but no one of the general public 

 can grasp a word of that theory at the time it is pro- 

 posed. Explanations of the theory, when they come at 

 all, come later. They are not given by the Great Man 



> Relativity. The Special and the General Theory. By Pro- 

 fessor A. Einstein. Translated by K. \\ . Lawson, D.Sc. 

 (Methuen, 5s.) 



himself. They are the labour of love of the favoured 

 few. Happily the tradition in this case is violated. 

 In this book it really looks as if Professor Einstein had 

 succeeded. 



***** 



Now the theory of relativity is difficult. All 

 theories are. To understand it really and truly one 

 needs a pretty fair training both in mathematical 

 physics and in philosophy. In addition, a spacious 

 imaginative power, an effort of concentration, and a 

 will-to-understand are not in the way. But the theory 

 is of such importance and interest that an honest 



■<h^t^^''^!;f*^ 



A. EINSTEIN. 

 (Reproduced by kind permission ot Afessrs. Metkuen 6 Co.) 



attempt to learn what it is about, even in the most 

 elementary way, should be made. Professor Einstein's 

 book is a tremendous help towards this end. He 

 presumes a standard of education corresponding to 

 that of a university matriculation examination, and 

 despite the book's shortness, a fair amount of patience 

 and force of will on the part of the reader. There is, 

 however, nothing in the mathematics or in the philo- 

 sophical conceptions which need distress anybody 

 unduly, and I feel sure that anyone who gives the book 

 a decent sitting will have a pretty clear and true con- 

 ception of relativity. 



