ABSTRACT
It is disconcerting to the layman to be told, first that matter consists of solid round atoms in empty space; next, that it is made of mere particles of elec tricity and negative at th at; then that it is consti tuted out of strains in the ether; again, that the atoms are bubbles in the ether; and finally, that there is not any ether. But these various hypotheses are like the crayon strokes that an artist makes about a figure he is trying to draw. They are all attempts at preliminary sketches for mental pictures of natural phenomena. We do not call the geographers incon
sistent and contradictory because one colours Massachusetts red on the map and another colours it green. All scientific hypotheses are put to the pragmatic test of which works the best in unlocking the secrets of nature. Is “ wheat55 or “ sesame ” the magic word ? Whether we call a dog “ Fido ” or 46 Towser ” depends not on which name is shorter or sounds better, but on which the dog answers to. If gravitation comes to heel better when we say 66 Einstein ” than when we say “ Newton,’ 9 all right, we’ll change. I trust that these frivolous illustrations will not lead my readers to accuse me of treating gravity with levity.
