Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06
PROF. ALBERT EINSTEIN
PUZZLE TO SCIENCE
Mathematical Wizard Shows Intellectual
Passion of the Renaissance
Philosopher.

ANO. OOI1 IIlulk III WOulu WOEk.
But why not?" Einstein was play
ing the Uncle Jake" with gusto.
Because well because the
helicopter is too heavy to get beyond
the air which is needed to support 1t
:. and then of course
the air is going round with the earth
as it revolves. and so the man in the
helicopter would never get anywhere"
Good anSwer!' Einstein was de-
lighted. He got up and clapped the
boy jovially on the shoulder. Good
answer! You're clever young mani"
Einstein has a special sympathy and
understanding for children. He him
self, instructive and self-tutored, bears
close resemblance to those great men
who f1ourished during the childhood
OF the modern mind. Were 1t not for
his Self-conSciouSness he might really
be considered the reincarnation of one
Of those multipleX souls who enriched
the Renaissance with their wide va
riety OF interest. In his virtuosity on
musical instruments, his curiosity be-
fore the mysteries of nature and his
resolute attempt to take all science as
his province, he is more the man of
the Quattrocento than the man of to-
day. Few other physicists have such a
grasp on the whole realm of knowledge
once embraced by the single word
philosophy"
Leaps Amid Extremes.
After his doctoral dissertation on
method Of measurements for molecules,
Einstein leaps to the other extreme of
creation and proposes that the uni
verse, although without fixed bounda-
rtes because of its curving round upon
itself, is none the less finite and COM
IN IL
verse has diameter Of a hundred mil
lion light years and a weight of about
billion billion suns. This would
sound like some small boy Dragging
about his fathers wealth were it not
that 1t curiously resembles the first
scientific essays OF a Leonardo. In
terpret Einstein'S self-consciousness as
merely personal by-product the
ransom of his century and of his
race then his vast enterprise in
universal science, his daring and his
Zest are the immortal attributes of
the pathfinder, the Renaissance man
In whom humanity finds a new birth
of knowledge.
Einstein Is most akin to his own age
through his fierce efforts to keep the
theory of relatively strictly scientific
and aloof from mysticism. He has
discovered mathematical fourth
dimension. Nothing puts him so out
of humor as the pretensionS of occult
lists and spiritualists that he has proved
at last what they have contended all
along.
Science" he declares, exists for
sciences sake. like art for arts sake,
and does not go in for special pleading
or for the demonstration of abSurdities."
Just as Einstein remains utterly in
different to the inventions which try
to harness his discoveries, he has moth
ing to say about the philosophers who
try to base systems upon them. Henri
Bergson has written a book showing
how relatively and Bergsonism check
up and corroborate each other A Balkan
professor has tried to build a whole
philosophical creed on "Einsteinism."
But Einstein himself simply says:
1T is impossible to break down the
barriers between the world of optics,
mechanics, acoutics, thermo -dynamics,
chemistry and astronomy on the one
hand and the world Of metaphysics on
the other. The one is territory Of
measurement, the other of speculation.
They have nothing in common"
In spite Of his extraordinarily i'm
aginative theories about the elasticity
OF time and space, their fluid inter-
relations and their Illuminating one
ness, Einstein remains the scientist.
All that he has said can be proved.
Similarly, the interest which he allows
himself in human development never
goes out to anything but demonstrable
knowledge, to national economy, So
GEOLOGY, law, medicine, or, again, music.
In life, as IN science, Einstein has few
convictions which he does not hold
subject to modification His own life,
however, has fixed and hardened his
attitude toward nationality and the
struggle of life.
InternatiOnalist by Principle.
Einstein is an internationalist by
principle and by expediency. His re-
spect for national integrity can be
imagined from the fact that he did
not hesitate to change from German
to Swiss papers when it was simply
question of getting better job in
Zurich If he renowned the Father
land. Here again he is mentally of
the period when states were but po-
litical units and nationality was an
unknown word. He has recently given
his nominal support to Zionism, yet
the idea would not have entered his
mind il an American propaganda had
not visited him in his retreat and
talked with him for nearly '24 hours.
Over such a question Einstein will not
argue long. He will yield and go back
to his day dreams. If pressed for some
opinion on International collaboration
he will reply:
THE solidarity Of any group Of work.
ers, scientists especially, is so strong
that they will always find each other
IN spite OF political or commercial dis
turbances :. and they will find each
other whether there are international
congresses or not"
Thus, for Einstein, the World War
hardly existed except as q period of
comparative privation. With an opti-
m1sn1 which Is banal as many another
OF his personal opinions he Is con-
WINGED that the world Is getting better.
Inevitably, he believes, modern states
VII! be driven toward a sense of union
Just as the Italian cities of the Renais-
sance finally, in self-protection, ceased
trying to tear one another down. AL
though Einstein Is not great reader,
he Is acquainted with, the standard
classics, and one of his favorite quota
tions is the Sophoclean line from
"Antigone'':
MY work is not to hate with you
but to love with you."
Lacked Self Confidence a. Child.
Like every other element of Einstein's
science and personality his attitude
toward conflict, whether it be the
struggle Of a nation for existence or
the struggle of AN individual for COM
potency, is directly traceable to his
childhood. Einstein was daring enough
in his imagination, in his puzzling with
equations and infinitesimals, yet in his
contact with other men he was lacking
IN seh-conhdence and ambition. His
kindness, his willingness to help
others, his deeply emotional religion
are all woven about his early timidity.
His pacifism Is really a defeatism,
moving aside to avoid all conflict, all
| discord which takes him from his work.