Europeans have a way of combining erudition and statesmanship. Lord Balfour is a distinguished philosopher. Raymond Poincare is a well-known litterateur and comes from a famous scientific family. Now Paul Painlevé, mathematician and former Premier of France, has come forward with a new variation on the theme of relativity. He has not made public its details, but has thus far written two parts of a work on his new theory, and intends to complete it during the coming summer.
Professor Painlevé asserts that his conception is based on mechanics of broader lines than Einstein's. It...