FEBRUARY 23, 1912] 
he answered that he was not willing to 
spend his days in a wilderness of pedantry 
that his children might enjoy an ortho- 
graphical Canaan; and mutatis mutandis 
the same answer may be given in this case. 
But a more pertinent answer is, to my 
mind, this, that the attempt to reorganize 
the perceptions of the human mind in re- 
spect to space and time is doomed to fail- 
ure. ‘‘Which of you by taking thought 
ean add one cubit unto his stature?’’ I 
believe that these ultimate perceptions are 
the same for all men now, have been the 
same for all men in the past, and will be 
the same for all men in the future. I be- 
lieve, further, that this is true because the 
universe has a real existence apart from 
our perceptions of it, and that through its 
relations to our minds it imposes upon us 
certain common elementary notions which 
are true and shared by everybody. 
Therefore, from my point of view, I can 
not see in the principle of relativity the 
ultimate solution of the problem of the 
universe. A solution to be really service- 
able must be intelligible to everybody, to 
the common man as well as to the trained 
scholar. All previous physical theories 
have been thus intelligible. Can we ven- 
ture to believe that the new space and time 
introduced by the principle of relativity 
are either thus intelligible now or will be- 
come so hereafter? A theory becomes in- 
telligible when it is expressed in terms of 
the primary concepts of force, space and 
time, as they are understood by the whole 
race of man. When a physical law is ex- 
pressed in terms of those concepts we feel 
that we have a reason for it, we rest intel- 
lectually satisfied on the ultimate basis of 
immediate knowledge. Have we not a 
right to ask of those leaders of thought to 
whom we owe the development of the the- 
ory of relativity, that they recognize the 
limited and partial applicability of that 
SCIENCE 
293 
theory and its inability to describe the 
universe in intelligible terms, and to exhort 
them to pursue their brilliant course until 
they succeed in explaining the principle of 
relativity by reducing it to a mode of ac- 
tion expressed in terms of the primary 
concepts of physics? 
WIitu1aAM FRANCIS MaGir 
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
THE MOVEMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC INTER- 
NATIONALISM AT THE HAGUE 
Prpagoey lays ever greater emphasis on posi- 
tive suggestion of the things that are good to 
do, rather than on negative prohibition of 
what is undesirable. The peace movement, as 
one of the biggest educational problems now 
in hand, is applying this principle in many 
ways. Everything which makes more evident 
the common interests of mankind tends toward 
peace as it awakens the larger loyalties which 
more and more take the place of primitive 
Chauvinism. The things which are specifically 
national are few and the things which are co- 
extensive with human thought and human 
effort, many. If a realization of this fact were 
deep enough and wide enough men would alto- 
gether refuse to allow their interest and their 
public moneys to be diverted from the great 
common task, the advance of knowledge and 
its application to human welfare, by the little 
jealousies between groups which happen to 
live under different political organizations. 
The Foundation for the Promotion of Inter- 
nationalism at The Hague has for its purpose 
the furthering of those movements for intel- 
lectual and social progress which are inter- 
national in scope, and by so doing it plays an 
important part in the growth of the spirit of 
world peace. 
It is obvious that, if such ends are to be 
realized, the efforts made must tend to meet 
practical needs in various fields of thought 
and action and not merely express a vague 
aspiration toward abstract ends. The Founda- 
tion for the Promotion of Internationalism 
has therefore addressed itself to a systematic 
study of the various movements for inter- 
