 Descartes by Charles Bradlaw This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Reading by Greg Marguerite Descartes by Charles Bradlaw René Descartes du Péran, better known as Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, was born at Lahaix in Torrain of Breton parents, near the close of the 16th century, at a time when Bacon was like the morning sun rising to shed new rays of bright light over the then dark world of philosophy. The mother of Descartes died while he was but a few days old, and himself a sickly child, he began to take part in the battle of life with but little appearance of ever-possessing the capability for action on the minds of his fellows, which he afterwards so fully exercised. Debarred, however, by his physical weakness from many boyish pursuits, he devoted himself to study in his earliest years, and during his youth gained the title of the young philosopher, from his eagerness to learn, and from his earnest endeavors by inquiry and experiment to solve every problem presented to his notice. He was educated in the Jesuits College of La Flèche, and the monument erected to him at Stockholm informs us that, having mastered all the learning of the schools which proved short of his expectations, he betook himself to the army in Germany and Hungary, and there spent his vacant winter hours in comparing the mysteries and phenomenon of nature with the laws of mathematics, daring to hope that one might serve as a key to the other. Quitting therefore all other pursuits, he retired to a little village near Egmont in Holland, where, spending twenty-five years in continual reading and meditation, he affected his design. In his celebrated discourse on method, he says, As soon as my age permitted me to leave my preceptors, I entirely gave up the study of letters and, resolving to seek no other science than that which I could find in myself, or else, in the great book of the world. I employed the remainder of my youth in travel, in seeing courts and camps, in frequenting people of diverse humours and conditions, in collecting various experiences, and above all in endeavoring to draw some profitable reflection from what I saw, for it seemed to me that I should meet with more truth in the reasonings which each man makes in his own affairs, and which, if wrong, would be speedily punished by failure, than in those reasonings which the philosopher makes in his study upon speculations which produce no effect, and which are of no consequence to him, except perhaps that he will be the more vain of them, the more remote they are from common sense, because he would then have been forced to employ more ingenuity and subtlety to render them plausible. At the age of thirty-three, Descartes retired from the world for a period of eight years, and his seclusion was so effectual during that time that his place of residence was unknown to his friends. He there prepared the meditations and discourse on method which have since caused so much pen and ink warfare amongst those who have aspired to be ranked as philosophical thinkers. He became European in fame and invited by Christina of Sweden he visited her kingdom, but the rudeness of the climate proved too much for his delicate frame, and he died at Stockholm in the year sixteen-fifty, from inflammation of the lungs, being fifty-four years of age at the time of his death. Descartes was perhaps the most original thinker that France had up to that date produced, and contemporary with Bacon he exercised a powerful influence or the progress of thought in Europe. But although a great thinker, he was not a brave man, and the fear of giving offense to the Church and government has certainly prevented him from making public some of his writings, and perhaps has toned down some of these thoughts which, when first uttered, took a higher flight and struck full home to the truth itself. The father and founder of the deductive method Descartes still proudly reigns to the present day, although some of his conclusions have been overturned and others of his thinkings have been carried to conclusions which he never dared to dream of. He gave a strong aid to the tendency of advancing civilization, to separate philosophy from theology, thereby striking a blow, slow in its effect, and effectual in its destructive operation on all priestcraft. In his dedication to the meditations he says, I have always thought that the two questions of existence of God and the nature of the soul were the chief of those which ought to be demonstrated rather by philosophy than by theology. For although it is sufficient for us, the faithful, to believe in God and that the soul does not perish with the body, it does not seem possible ever to persuade the infidels to any religion unless we first prove to them these two things by natural reason. Having relinquished faith, he found that he must choose an entirely new faith in which to march with reason. The old ways were so combered with priests and bibles that progression would have been impossible. This gave us his method. He wanted a starting point from which to reason, some indisputable fact upon which to found future thinkings. He has given us the detailed history of his doubts. He has told us how he found that he could plausibly enough doubt of everything except his own existence. He pushed his skepticism to the verge of self-annihilation. There he stopped. There in self, there in his consciousness he found at last an irresistible fact and irreversible certainty. Firm ground was discovered. He could doubt the existence of the external world and treat it as a phantasm. He could doubt the existence of God and treat the belief as a superstition. But of the existence of his own thinking, doubting mind, no sort of doubt was possible. He, the doubter, existed if nothing else existed. The existence that was revealed to him in his own consciousness was the primary fact, the first induitable certainty, hence his famous cogito ergo sum, I think, therefore I am. Proceeding from the certainty of his existence, Descartes endeavors to rind other equally certain tax, and for that purpose presents the following doctrine and rules for our guidance. The basis of all certitude is consciousness. Consciousness is the sole foundation of absolute certainty. Whatever it distinctly proclaims must be true. The process is therefore rendered clear and simple. Examine your consciousness. Each distinct reply will be fact. He tells us further that all clear ideas are true, that whatever is clearly and distinctly conceived is true, and in these lie the vitality of his system, the cause of the truth, or error of his thinking. The following are the rules he gave us for the detection and separation of true ideas from false, i.e., imperfect, or complex. 1. Never to accept anything as true but what is evidently so, to admit nothing but what so clearly and distinctly presents itself as true, that there can be no reason to doubt it. 2. To divide every question into as many separate parts as possible, that each part being more easily conceived, the whole may be more intelligible. 3. To conduct the examination with order, beginning by that of objects the most simple, and therefore the easiest to be known, and ascending little by little up to knowledge of the most complex. 4. To make such exact calculations and such circumspections as to be confident that nothing essential has been omitted. Consciousness being the basis of all certitude, everything of which you are clearly and distinctly conscious, must be true. Everything which you clearly and distinctly conceive exists, if the idea of it involves existence. In these four rules we have the essential part of one half of Descartes' system. The other, which is equally important, is the attempt to solve metaphysical problems by mathematical aid. To mathematics he had devoted much of his time. He it was, who at the age of 23 made the grand discovery of the applicability of algebra to geometry. While deeply engaged in mathematical studies and investigations, he came to the conclusion that mathematics were capable of a still further simplification and of a much more extended application. Impressed with the certainty of the conclusions arrived at by the aid of mathematical reasoning, he began to apply mathematics to metaphysics. His ambition was to found a system which should be solid and convincing. Having searched for certitude, he had found its basis in consciousness. He next wanted a method and hoped he had found it in mathematics. He tells us that those long chains of reasoning, all simple and easy by which geometers used to arrive at their most difficult demonstrations, suggests to him that all things which came with human knowledge must follow each other in a similar chain. And that provided we abstain from admitting anything as true which is not so, and that we always preserve in them the order necessary to deduce one from the other. There can be none so remote to which we cannot finally attain, nor so obscure but that we may discover them. Acting out this, he dealt with metaphysics as we should with a problem from Euclid and expected by rigorous reasoning to discover the truth. He, like Archimedes, had wished for a standing place from which to use the lever that should overturn the world. But, having a sure standing place in the indubitable fact of his own existence, he did not possess sufficient courage to put forth the mighty power. It was left for one who came after him to fairly attempt the overthrow of the world of error so long existent. Cartesianism was sufficiently obnoxious to the divines to provoke their wrath, and yet, from some of its peculiarities, it had found many opponents among the philosophical party. The Cartesian philosophy is founded on two great principles, the one metaphysical, the other physical. The metaphysical is Descartes' foundation stone, the, I think, therefore I am. This has been warmly attacked as not being logical. Descartes said his existence was fact, a fact above and beyond all logic. Logic could neither prove nor disprove it. The cogito ergo sum was not new itself, but it was the first stone of a new building, the first step in a new road. From this fact Descartes tried to reach another, and from that others. The physical principle is that nothing exists but substance, which he makes of two kinds, the one, a substance that thinks, the other, a substance extended. Actual thought and actual extension are the essence of substance, so that the thinking substance cannot be without some actual thought, nor can anything be retrenched from the extension of a thing, without taking away so much of its actual substance. In his physical speculations Descartes has allowed his imagination to run very wild. His famous theory of vortices is an example of this. Assuming extension to be the essence of substance, he denied the possibility of a vacuum by that assumption, for if extension be the essence of substance, wherever extension is, their substance must be. This substance he assumes to have originally been divided into equal angular particles, each endowed with an equal degree of motion. Several systems or collections of these particles he holds to have a motion about certain equidistant points or centers, and that the particles moving round these composed so many vortices. These angular particles by their intestine motions he supposes to become as if it were ground into a spherical form. The parts rubbed off are called the matter of the first element. While these spherical globules he calls matter of the second element. And since there would be a large quantity of this element, he supposes it to be driven toward the center of each vortex by the circular motion of the globules. And that there it forms a large spherical body, such as the Sun. This Sun being thus formed and moving about its own axis with the common matter of the vortex would necessarily throw out some parts of its matter through the vacuities of the globules of the second element constituting the vortex. And this especially at such places as are farthest from its poles. Receiving at the same time in by these poles as much as it loses in its equatorial parts. And by these means it would be able to carry round with it those globules that are nearest with the greater velocity and the remotor with less. And further those globules which are nearest the center of the Sun must be smallest, because were they greater or equal they would by reason of their velocity have a greater centrifugal force and recede from the center. If it should happen that any of these Sun like bodies in the centers of the several vortices should be so encrusted and weakened as to be carried about in the vortex of the true Sun. If it were of less solidity or had less motion than the globules towards the extremity of the solar vortex, it would descend toward the Sun, till it met with globules of the same solidity and susceptible of the same degree of motion with itself. And thus being fixed there it would be forever after carried about by the motion of the vortex, without either approaching any nearer to or receding from the Sun. And so become a planet. Supposing then all this we are next to imagine that our system was at first divided into several vortices, in the center of each of which was a lucid spherical body. And that some of these being gradually encrusted were swallowed up by others which were larger and more powerful, till at last they were all destroyed and swallowed up by the biggest solar vortex, except some few which were thrown off in right lines from one vortex to another and so became comets. It should also be added that in addition to the two elements mentioned above, those particles which may yet exist and be only in the course of reduction to their globular form and still retain their angular proportions form a third element. This theory has found many opponents, but in this state of our work we conceive our duty to be that of giving a simple narrative of the philosopher's ideas rather than a history of the various criticisms upon those ideas. The more especially as our pages scarcely afford room for such a mode of treatment. Having formed his method, Descartes proceeded to apply it. The basis of certitude being consciousness, he interrogated his consciousness and found that he had an idea of a substance, infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, omniscient, and omnipotent. This he called an idea of God. He said, I exist as a miserably imperfect finite being, subject to change, ignorant, incapable of creating anything. I find by my finititude that I am not the infinite, by my liability to change that I am not the immutable, by my ignorance that I am not the omniscient, in short by my imperfection that I am not the perfect. Yet an infinite immutable omniscient and perfect being must exist, because infinity, immutability, omniscience, and perfection are applied as a correlative in my ideas of finititude, change, etc. God therefore exists. His existence is clearly proclaimed in my consciousness and therefore ceases to be a matter of doubt any more than the fact of my own existence. The conception of an infinite being proved his real existence for if there is not really such a being, I must have made the conception. But if I could make it, I can also unmake it, which evidently is not true. Therefore there must be externally to myself an archetype from which the conception was derived. All that we clearly and distinctly conceive of as contained in anything is true of that thing. Now we conceive clearly and distinctly that the existence of God is contained in the idea we have of Him. Ergo, God exists. Descartes was of the opinion that his demonstrations of the existence of God, equal or even surpass, insertitude the demonstrations of geometry. In this opinion we must confess we cannot share. He has already told us that the basis of all certitude is consciousness, that whatever is clearly and distinctly conceived must be true. That imperfect and complex conceptions are false ones. The first proposition, all must admit, is applicable to themselves. I conceive a fact clearly and distinctly, and despite all resistance I am compelled to accept that fact. And if that fact be accepted beyond doubt, no higher degree of certainty can be obtained. That two and two are four, that I exist, are facts which I never doubt. The cogito ergo sum is irresistible, because indubitable. But cogito ergo deus est is a sentence requiring much consideration, and upon the face of it is no syllogism. But on the contrary, it is illogical. If Descartes meant I am conscious, that I am not the whole of existence, he would be indisputable. But if he meant that I can be conscious of an existence entirely distinct, apart from an external to that very consciousness, then his whole reasoning from that point appears fallacious. We use the word I as given by Descartes. Mill, in his System of Logic, says, the ambiguity in this case is in the pronoun I, by which in one place is to be understood my will, in another the laws of my nature. If the conception existing as it does in my mind had no original without the conclusion would unquestionably follow that I had made it, that is, that the laws of my nature had spontaneously evolved it, but that my will made it would not follow. Now, when Descartes afterwards adds that I cannot unmake the conception, he means that I cannot get rid of it by an act of my will, which is true, but is not the proposition required. That what some of the laws of my nature have produced other laws, or those same laws in other circumstances might not subsequently efface, he would have found it difficult to establish. Treating the existence of God as demonstrated from the a priori idea of perfection and infinity, and by the clearness of his idea of God's existence, Descartes then proceeds to deal with the distinction between body and soul. To prove this distinction was to him an easy matter. The fundamental and essential attribute of substance must be extension, because we can denude substance of every quality but that of extension. This we cannot touch without at the same time affecting the substance. The fundamental attribute of mind is thought. It is in the act of thinking that the consciousness of existence is revealed. To be without thought would be to be without consciousness. Descartes has given us, among others, the axiom that two substances are really distinct when their ideas are complete and no way imply each other. The idea of extension is complete and distinct from the idea of thought, which latter is also clear and distinct by itself. It follows, therefore, that substance and mind are distinct in essence. Descartes has, from the vagueness of some of his statements, subjected himself to the charge of asserting the existence of innate ideas, and the following quotations will speak for themselves on the subject. When I said that the idea of God is innate in us, I never meant more than this. That nature has endowed us with a faculty by which we may know God. But I have never either said or thought that such ideas had an actual existence, or even that they were a species distinct from the faculty of thinking. Although the idea of God is so imprinted on our minds that every person has within him the faculty of knowing Him, it does not follow that there may not have been various individuals who have passed through life without ever making this idea a distinct object of apprehension. And in truth, they who think they have an idea of a plurality of gods have no idea of God whatever. This seems explicit as negating the charge of holding the doctrine of innate ideas. But in the Edinburgh Review several passages are given, among which is the following. By the word idea I understand all that can be in our thoughts, and I distinguish three sorts of ideas—adventitious, like the common idea of the Son, framed by the mind such as that which astronomical reasoning gives of the Son, and innate, as the idea of God, mind, body, a triangle, and generally all those which represent true immutable and eternal essences. With regard to these rather opposite statements, Lewis says, If Descartes, when pressed by objections, gave different explanations, we must only set it down to a want of a steady conception of the vital importance of innate ideas to his system. The fact remains that innate ideas form the necessary groundwork of the Cartesian doctrine. The radical error of all ontological speculation lies in the assumption that we have ideas independent of experience, because experience can only tell us of ourselves, or of phenomena, of nominal—it can tell us nothing. The fundamental question, then, of modern philosophy is this. Have we any ideas independent of experience? Descartes' disciples are of two classes—the mathematical cultivators of physics, and the deductive cultivators of philosophy. The first class of disciples are far in advance of their chief, and can only be considered as having received an impulse in a true direction. The second class unhesitatingly accepted his principles and continued his thinking, although they developed his system in a different manner and arrived at a stronger conclusion than Descartes' courage would have supported. Some of the physical speculations of Descartes have been much ridiculed by subsequent writers, but many reasons may be urged not only against that ridicule, but also against the more moderate censure which several able critics have dealt out against the intellectual character of Descartes. It should be remembered that the theories of all his predecessors were mere conjectural speculations, respecting the places and paths of celestial bodies, etc. Enumerable hypotheses had been formed and found useless, and we ought rather to look to what Descartes did accomplish under the many difficulties of his position in respect to the then state of scientific knowledge. Then to judge harshly of those speculations which, though attended with no beneficial result to humanity at large, were doubtless well intended by their author. He was the first man who brought optical science under the command of mathematics by the discovery of the law of refraction of the ordinary ray through diaphanous bodies. And probably there is scarcely a name on record, the bearer of which has given a greater impulse to mathematical and philosophical inquiry than Descartes. Although as a mathematician he published but little, yet every subject which he has treated he has opened, not only a new field for investigation but also a new road for the investigators to proceed by. His discovery of the simple application of the notation of indices to algebraical powers has totally remodeled the whole science of algebra. His conception of expressing the fundamental property of curved lines and curved surfaces by equations between the coordinates has led to an almost total supersedence of the geometry of the ancients. Contemporary with Galileo and with the knowledge of the persecution to which that father of physics was being subjected by the Church, we are tempted to express our surprise that Descartes did not extend the right hand of fellowship, help, and sympathy to his brother philosopher. But it is nevertheless the fact that either jealous of the fame of Galileo, as some have alleged, or from a fear of being involved in the same persecutions, Descartes abstained from visiting the astronomer, although traveling for some time near his place of abode in Italy. Louis in his life of Descartes says, Descartes was a great thinker, but having said this we have almost exhausted the praise we can bestow on him as a man. In disposition he was timid to servility, while promulgating the proofs of the existence of the deity he was in evident alarm lest the Church should see something objectionable in them. He had also written in astronomical treaties, but hearing of the fate of Galileo he refrained from publishing it, and always used some chicanery in speaking of the world's movement. He was not a brave man. He was also not an affectionate one. There was in him a deficiency of all finer feelings, but he was even tempered and studious of not giving offense. We are tempted, after a careful perusal of the life and writings of Descartes and his contemporaries, to be of the opinion that he was a man who wished to be considered the chief thinker of his day, and who shunned and rejected the offers of friendship from other philosophers lest they, by being associated with him, should jointly wear laurels which he was cultivating solely to form a crown for himself. Despite all, his brow still bears a crown, and his fame has a freshness that we might all be justly proud of if appertaining to ourselves. We trust that in these few pages we have succeeded in presenting Descartes to such of our readers who were unacquainted with his writings sufficiently well to enable them to appreciate him, and to induce them to search further. And at the same time we hope that those better acquainted with him will not blame as for the omission of much which they may consider more important than the matter which appears in this little tract. We have endeavored to picture Descartes as the founder of deductive method, as having the foundation stone of all his reasoning in his consciousness. End of Descartes by Charles Bradlaw. Ether and the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Ether and the Theory of Relativity, an address delivered on May 5th, 1920, in the University of Leiden. How does it come about that alongside of the idea of ponderable matter which is derived by abstraction from everyday life, the physicists set the idea of the existence of another kind of matter, the ether? The explanation is probably to be sought in those phenomena which have given rise to the theory of action at a distance and in the properties of light which have led to the undulatory theory. Let us devote a little while to the consideration of these two subjects. Outside of physics we know nothing of action at a distance. When we try to connect cause and effect in the experiences which natural objects afford us, it seems at first as if there were no other mutual actions than those of immediate contact, for example the communication of motion by impact, push and pull, heating or inducing combustion by means of a flame, etc. It is true that even in everyday experience, weight, which is in a sense action at a distance, plays a very important part. But since in daily experience the weight of bodies meets us as something constant, something not linked to any cause which is variable in time or place, we do not in everyday life speculate as to the cause of gravity and therefore do not become conscious of its character as action at a distance. It was Newton's theory of gravitation that first assigned a cause for gravity by interpreting it as action at a distance, proceeding from masses. Newton's theory is probably the greatest stride ever made in the effort towards the casual nexus of natural phenomena. And yet this theory evoked a lively sense of discomfort among Newton's contemporaries because it seems to be in conflict with the principles bringing from the rest of experience that there can be reciprocal action only through contact and not through immediate action at a distance. It is only with reluctance that man's desire for knowledge induce a dualism of this kind. How is unity to be preserved in this comprehension of the forces of nature? Either by trying to look upon contact forces as being themselves distant forces, which admittedly are observable only at a very small distance, and this was the road which Newton's followers, who were entirely under the spell of his doctrine, mostly prefer to take, or by assuming that a Newtonian action at a distance is only apparently immediate action at a distance, but in truth is conveyed by a medium permitting space, whether by movements or by elastic deformation of this medium. Thus the endeavour toward a unified view of the nature of forces leads to the hypothesis of an ether. This hypothesis, to be sure, did not at first bring with it any advance in the theory of gravitation or in physics generally, so that it became customary to treat Newton's law of force as an axiom not further reducible. But the either hypothesis was bound always to place some part in physical science, even if at first only a latent part. When in the first half of the 19th century the far-reaching similarity was revealed, which subsists between the properties of light and those of elastic waves in ponderable bodies, the ether hypothesis found fresh support. It appeared beyond question that light must be interpreted as a vibratory process in an elastic inert medium filling up universal space. It also seemed to be a necessary consequence of the fact that light is capable of polarization, that this medium, the ether, must be of the nature of a solid body, because transverse waves are not possible in a fluid, but only in a solid. Thus the physicists were bound to arrive at the theory of the quasi-rigid luminiferous ether, the parts of which can carry out no movements relatively to one another, except the small movements of deformation which correspond to light waves. This theory, also called the theory of the stationary luminiferous ether, moreover found a strong support in an experiment which is also of fundamental importance in the special theory of relativity in the experiment of Fizou, from which one was obliged to infer that the luminiferous ether does not take part in the movements of bodies. The phenomenon of aberration also favored the theory of the quasi-rigid ether. The development of the theory of electricity along the path opened up by Maxwell and Lorentz gave the development of our ideas concerning the ether quite a peculiar and unexpected turn. For Maxwell himself, the ether indeed still had properties which were purely mechanical, although of a much more complicated kind than the mechanical properties of tangible solid bodies. But neither Maxwell nor his followers succeeded in elaborating a mechanical model for the ether which might furnish a satisfactory mechanical interpretation of Maxwell's laws of the electromagnetic field. The laws were clear and simple, the mechanical interpretations clumsy and contradictory. Almost imperceptibly, the theoretical physicists adapted themselves to a situation which, from the standpoint of the mechanical program, was very depressing. They were particularly influenced by the electrodynamical investigations of Heinrich Hertz. For whereas they previously had required of a conclusive theory that it should content itself with the fundamental concepts which belong exclusively to mechanics, for example densities, velocities, deformations, stresses, they gradually accustomed themselves to admitting electric and magnetic force as fundamental concepts side by side with those of mechanics without requiring a mechanical interpretation for them. Thus, the purely mechanical view of nature was gradually abandoned. But this change led to a fundamental dualism which in the long run was insupportable. A way of escape was now sought in the reverse direction by reducing the principles of mechanics to those of electricity, and this, especially as confidence in the strict validity of the equations of Newton's mechanics was shaken by the experiments with beta rays and rapid cathode rays. This dualism still confronts us in unextenuated form in the theory of Hertz where matter appears not only as the bearer of velocities, kinetic energy, and mechanical pressures, but also as the bearer of electromagnetic fields. Since such fields also occur in vacuo, that is in free ether, the ether also appears as bearer of electromagnetic fields. The ether appears indistinguishable in its functions from ordinary matter. Within matter it takes part in the motion of matter and in empty space it has everywhere a velocity, so that the ether has a definitely assigned velocity throughout the whole of space. There is no fundamental difference between Hertz's ether and ponderable matter, which in part subsists in the ether. The Hertz theory suffered not only from the defect of ascribing to matter and ether, on the one hand mechanical states, and on the other hand electrical states, which do not stand in any conceivable relation to each other. It was also at variance with the result of Fizso's important experiment on the velocity of the propagation of light in moving fluids and with other established experimental results. Such was the state of things when H. A. Lorentz entered upon the scene. He brought theory into harmony with experience by means of a wonderful simplification of theoretical principles. He achieved this, the most important advance in the theory of electricity since Maxwell, by taking from ether its mechanical and from matter its electromagnetic qualities. As in empty space, so too in the interior of material bodies, the ether and not matter viewed atomistically was exclusively the seat of electromagnetic fields. According to Lorentz, the elementary particles of matter alone are capable of carrying out movements. The electromagnetic activity is entirely confined to the carrying of electric charges. Thus, Lorentz succeeded in reducing all electromagnetic happenings to Maxwell's equations for free space. As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether, it may be said of it in a somewhat playful spirit that immobility is the only mechanical property of which it has not been deprived by H. A. Lorentz. It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely its immobility. How this is to be understood will forthwith be expounded. The spacetime theory and the kinematics of the special theory of relativity were modeled on the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of the electromagnetic field. This theory therefore satisfies the conditions of the special theory of relativity but when viewed from the letter it acquires a novel aspect. For if K be a system of coordinates relatively to which the Lorentzian ether is at rest, the Maxwell-Lorentz equations are valid primarily with reference to K. But by the special theory of relativity, the same equations without any change of meaning also hold in relation to any new system of coordinates K' which is moving in uniform translation relatively to K. Now comes the anxious question. Why must I in the theory distinguish the K system above all K' systems which are physically equivalent to it in all respects by assuming that the ether is at rest relatively to the K system? For the theoretician such an asymmetry in the theoretical structure with no corresponding asymmetry in the system of experience is intolerable. If we assume the ether to be at rest relatively to K but in motion relatively to K' the physical equivalence of K and K' seems to me from the logical standpoint not indeed downright incorrect but nevertheless unacceptable. The next position which it was possible to take up in face of this state of things appeared to be the following. The ether does not exist at all. The electromagnetic fields are not states of a medium and are not bound down to any bearer but they are independent realities which are not reducible to anything else exactly like the atoms of ponderable matter. This conception suggests itself the more readily as according to Lorentz theory electromagnetic radiation like ponderable matter brings impulse and energy with it and as according to the special theory of relativity both matter and radiation are but special forms of distributed energy ponderable mass losing its isolation and appearing as a special form of energy. More careful reflection teaches us however that the special theory of relativity does not compel us to deny ether. We may assume the existence of an ether only we must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it that is we must by abstraction take from it the last mechanical characteristic which Lorentz had still left it. We shall see later that this point of view the conceivability of which I shall at once endeavour to make more intelligible by a somewhat halting comparison is justified by the results of the general theory of relativity. Think of waves on the surface of water. Here we can describe two entirely different things. Either we may observe how the undulitary surface forming the boundary between water and air alters in the course of time or else with the help of small floats for instance we can observe how the position of the separate particles of water alters in the course of time. If the existence of such floats for tracking the motion of the particles of a fluid were fundamental impossibility in physics if in fact nothing else whatever were observable than the shape of the space occupied by the water as it varies in time we should have no ground for the assumption that water consists of movable particles but all the same we could characterize it as a medium. We have something like this in the electromagnetic field for we may picture the field to ourselves as consisting of lines of force. If we wish to interpret these lines of force to ourselves as something material in the ordinary sense we are tempted to interpret the dynamic processes as motions of these lines of force such that each separate line of force is tracked through the course of time. It is well known however that this way of regarding the electromagnetic field leads to contradictions. Generalizing we must say this there may be supposed to be extended physical objects to which the idea of motion cannot be applied. They may not be thought of as consisting of particles which allow themselves to be separately tracked through time. In Minkowski's idiom this is expressed as follows. Not every extended confirmation in the four-dimensional world can be regarded as composed of world threats. The special theory of relativity forbids us to assume the ether to consist of particles observable through time but the hypothesis of ether in itself is not in conflict with the special theory of relativity. Only we must be on our guard against describing the state of motion to the ether. Certainly from the standpoint of the special theory of relativity the ether hypothesis appears at first to be an empty hypothesis. In the equations of the electromagnetic field there occur in addition to the densities of the electric charge only the intensities of the field. The career of electromagnetic processes in Vakuo appears to be completely determined by these equations uninfluenced by other physical quantities. The electromagnetic fields appear as ultimate irreducible realities and at first it seems superfluous to postulate a homogeneous isotropic ether medium and to envisage electromagnetic fields as states of this medium. But on the other hand there is a weighty argument to be induced in favor of the ether hypothesis. To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view. For the mechanical behavior of a corporeal system hovering freely in empty space depends not only on relative positions, distances and relative velocities but also on its state of rotation which physically may be taken as a characteristic not appertaining to the system in itself. In order to be able to look upon the rotation of the system at least formally as something real Newton objectivizes space. Since he classes his absolute space together with real things for him rotation relative to an absolute space is also something real. Newton might no less well have called his absolute space ether. What is essential is merely that besides observable objects another thing which is not perceptible must be looked upon as real to enable acceleration or rotation to be looked upon as something real. It is true that Mach tried to avoid having to accept as real something which is not observable by endeavoring to substitute in mechanics a mean acceleration with reference to the totality of the masses in the universe in place of an acceleration with reference to absolute space. But inertial resistance opposed to relative acceleration of distant masses presupposes action at a distance and as the modern physicist does not believe that he may accept this action at a distance he comes back once more if he follows Mach to the ether which has to serve as medium for the effects of inertia. But this conception of the ether to which we are led by Mach's way of thinking differs essentially from the ether as conceived by Newton by Fresnel and by Lorenz. Mach's either not only conditions the behaviors of inert masses but is also conditioned in its state by them. Mach's idea finds its full development in the ether of the general theory of relativity. According to this theory the magical qualities of the continuum of space-time differ in the environment of different points of space-time and are partly conditioned by the matter existing outside of the territory under consideration. This space-time variability of the reciprocal relations of the standards of space and time or perhaps the recognition of the fact that empty space in its physical relation is neither homogeneous nor isotropic compelling us to describe its state by 10 functions the gravitation potentials G subscript mn has I think finally disposed of the view that space is physically empty. But therewith the conception of the ether has again acquired an intelligible content although this content differs widely from that of the ether of the mechanical undulatory theory of light. The ether of the general theory of relativity is a medium which is itself devoid of all mechanical and kinematical qualities but helps to determine mechanical and electromagnetic events. What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as opposed to the ether of Lorenz consists in this that the state of the former is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the ether in neighboring places which are amenable to law in the form of differential equations whereas the state of the Lorenzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself and is everywhere the same. The ether of the general theory of relativity is transmuted conceptually into the ether of Lorenz if we substitute constants for the functions of space which describe the former disregarding the causes which condition its state. Thus we may also say I think that the ether of the general theory of relativity is the outcome of the Lorenzian ether through relativation. As to the part which the new ether is to play in the physics of the future we are not yet clear. We know that it determines the metrical relations in the space-time continuum for example the configurative possibilities of solid bodies as well as the gravitational fields but we do not know whether it has an essential share in the structure of the electrical elementary particles constituting matter. Nor do we know whether it is only in the proximity of ponderable masses that its structure differs essentially from that of the Lorenzian ether whether the geometry of spaces of cosmic extent is approximately Euclidean but we can assert by reason of the relativistic equations of gravitation that there must be a departure from Euclidean relations with spaces of cosmic order of magnitude if there exists a positive mean density no matter how small of the matter in the universe. In this case the universe must of necessity be spatially unbounded and of finite magnitude its magnitude being determined by the value of that mean density. If we consider the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field from the standpoint of the ether hypothesis we find a remarkable difference between the two. There can be no space nor any part of space without gravitational potentials for these confer upon space its metrical qualities without which it cannot be imagined at all. The existence of the gravitational field is inseparably bound up with the existence of space. On the other hand a part of space may very well be imagined without an electromagnetic field thus in contrast with the gravitational field the electromagnetic field seems to be only secondarily linked to the ether the formal nature of the electromagnetic field being as yet in no way determined by that of gravitational ether. From the present state of theory it looks as if the electromagnetic field as opposed to the gravitational field rests upon an entirely new formal motif as though nature might just as well have endowed the gravitational ether with fields of quite another type for example with fields of a scalar potential instead of fields of the electromagnetic type. Since according to our present conceptions the elementary particles of matter are also in their essence nothing else than condensations of the electromagnetic field our present view of the universe presents two realities which are completely separated from each other conceptually although connected causally namely gravitational ether and electromagnetic field or as they might also be called space and matter. Of course it would be a great advance if we could succeed in comprehending the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field together as one unified confirmation. Then for the first time the epoch of theoretical physics founded by Faraday and Maxwell would reach a satisfactory conclusion the contrast between ether and matter would fade away and through the general theory of relativity the whole of physics would become a complete system of thought like geometry kinematics and the theory of gravitation. An exceedingly ingenious attempt in this direction has been made by the mathematician H. Vile but I do not believe that his theory will hold its ground in relation to reality. Further in contemplating the immediate future of theoretical physics we ought not unconditionally to reject the possibility that the fact comprised in the quantum theory may set bounds to the field theory beyond which it cannot pass. Recapitulating we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities in this sense therefore there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time measuring rods and clocks nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it. End of Ether and the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein. Read by Availi in May 2010. How Children Learn About Human Rights by Wilhelmina Hill and Helen K. Macintosh from the Federal Security Agency Office of Education. How Children Learn About Human Rights. One of the most important things that children need to learn is the business of getting along together. In the process they are making practical applications of the principles involved in the Declaration of Human Rights. The ability to recognize one's own rights and at the same time respect the rights of others does not just happen. First of all it takes real effort on the part of parents to make the kind of home in which each child has the right to express ideas and opinions and has a part in making decisions such as choosing a new dress or suit, deciding when to go to bed, what to eat, or helping to decide whether the family will take a summer vacation or buy a television set. Using Situations Involving Human Rights. Teachers need to realize that when the child comes to school he brings attitudes that are good towards some people and bad towards others. Teachers must accept each child as he is and expect that in a classroom which is organized in a democratic way he can learn gradually that every person has rights that must be recognized and protected. In school children themselves have certain rights together with responsibilities. Each child has the right to a place where he can work comfortably, to a place to put his wraps and materials where they will be safe, to a feeling of security because he is liked and wanted to express his ideas to disagree with others courteously and to have a part in planning activities and in making decisions that affect him as a member of the group. With these rights go corresponding responsibilities. The child must not interfere with the comfort and security of other children. He must listen to other children's ideas as they listen to his. He must expect that other children will disagree with his ideas from time to time. He must realize that decisions of the group may not always agree with the decisions he would like to see made and he must learn to behave in these ways because he sees the fairness of doing so and because he wants to rather than because he is required to. In order to be a good citizen in his community, state, nation and world, a child must be a good citizen at home and in his school community. There are many situations in the school day that can be used to point up rights and responsibilities of girls and boys. Often it is possible to relate these to the declaration of human rights. The teacher with imagination and ingenuity and an understanding of children uses a situation such as the following. A new child enters school. When the fifth grade girls and boys come into Ms. Judson's room on Monday morning they see that a new girl has just been seated in Tom's group which organizes itself around a table for six. The teacher introduces Tom to the newcomer and suggests that he and the other children at the table get acquainted with a new member of the class and then introduce her to the others. The small group learns that her name is Jean. She is moved to town from a small community in the southwestern part of the state. She is living two blocks from school. Her father is working at the gas station near the post office and she has a brother in the fourth grade. Tom, as chairman, introduces Jean, tells where she came from, and says that Susan will help her through the first day. Ms. Judson and the children have agreed that every new child who enters their room needs friendship in a new place and has a right to feel secure and happy in order to do good work. Not all children will be immediately accepted by the group. That is where the teacher steps in to give guidance to help children see themselves in the same position as the newcomer. If the children have seen a copy of the Declaration of Human Rights in the hall, the library, or in their own classroom, this is the place where the teacher can point up Article 13. Quote, everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Unquote. Jean's father was offered a new job and the family moved without having to ask anyone whether or not they could do so. It may be possible and desirable to let children know that in some countries a person must at all times have an identity card, must register with the police when he enters a town or city for the first time, and must have permission to move from one place to another. Visitors come from other countries. Our government is bringing many teachers from other countries to visit schools in the United States. One of the important purposes of their coming is to get acquainted with teachers, with children and their parents, and with the community. These visitors have things to learn from us and things to teach us. When the visitor spends several weeks in the same school, children have an opportunity to get to know the visitor as a person. A teacher trainee comes from Israel to stay six months. She visits schools in the east, north, midwest, and south. For a month she visits in Grand Rapids, Michigan, spending two weeks in the same school where children have an opportunity to ask her questions about schools, children, herself, and her family, including her little son, and to examine books, pictures, and objects that the visitor has brought with her. Such personal contacts give boys and girls an opportunity to see what a person from another country looks like, how she acts and speaks, what some of the customs of present-day Israel are, and why and how she has come to this country. This is the point where the teacher can use the visit to discuss Article 13 of the Declaration, which states that a person shall have the right to leave one country and go to another, and Article 15, which gives every person the right to a nationality. A natural extension of this discussion may lead to investigating children's backgrounds to find whether parents and grandparents were born in the United States, and if not, what nationality they change from in order to become citizens of this country. Solving Group Problems in Human Rights and Responsibilities It is springtime, and the children of the upper grades are playing ball in one section of the school ground. At the same time, the boys come in to report that Bill batted a ball that broke a window of the house nearest the school. The irate owner arrives to ask, who is going to pay for my broken window? Everyone wants to talk at once. Miss Barber has a hard time to get the excited boys calmed down. Several of them have remarked, Bill broke it, he ought to pay for it. The girls haven't said anything because they are waiting to hear the whole story. Miss Barber helps the children talk the problem through far enough to suggest that since everyone has a right to be heard, they ought to hear from one of the players, from someone who is on the sidelines, and from Bill himself. The girls will be an impartial jury because they were not involved. When all the evidence is in, the teacher helps to guide the discussion with such questions as, since Bill was a member of the team, might it not just as easily have been someone else in the group who broke the window? Is there such a thing as group responsibility rather than individual responsibility? What practical ways of solving the problem can the group suggest? Miss Barber agrees to advance the money so that a committee chosen from the room can go personally to the next door neighbor to say they are sorry to have made him extra work in replacing the window and to ask the cost so that they can plan to earn enough money to pay for it. Out of this experience there develops the belief on the part of the group that it doesn't pay to make snap judgments, that everyone involved in and interested in a situation has a right to be heard, that sometimes a whole group has a responsibility for the action of one of its members, and that better planning should be done in the use of the playground so that accidents such as that of the broken window won't happen in the future. Again it is at this point that the teacher helps children to see the relationship of their problem to the declaration of human rights. Although there might be several articles that could be interpreted to have meaning for the situation it is article 10 that is singled out. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Using books and stories to build attitudes and understandings. The wealth of books now available to teachers and children is an important means of introducing boys and girls to problems in human relations which involve rights and responsibilities. In the book Fair Play children are something to see chiefly through pictures and with brief descriptions how far people have come from the days of the cavemen and learning to get along together. Although there is tension in the world today many countries have been able to get together to form the United Nations. This organization has been compared to the 13 colonies which struggled to form a United States of America in the early days of our own country. Some local radio stations have broadcast programs in the Books Bring Adventure series. Some of these programs have been made into records each of which dramatizes an interesting incident from a book for and about children. Such a book is The Level Land a story of the underground in Holland during World War II. This story tells clearly how the people of that country struggled to preserve their rights and freedoms. The question for teachers and children is, quote, would we be willing here in the United States to make the sacrifices and endure the hardships of the characters in the book in order to preserve our rights and freedoms unquote. An issue of childhood education which appeared several years ago was entitled The Discipline of Understanding Each Other. In this issue were stories of children of a number of countries, their culture, their customs, their songs, their recipes for cooking special dishes, and some helps for teachers to show that boys and girls must know and appreciate each other if the nations of the world are to develop common understandings. Such understandings are basic to realizing why the other person interprets the very same words of the declaration in ways that may be different from our own, or the story of the moved outers may be used to show the rights of our Japanese citizens were for a time not recognized during World War II. This story shows how children themselves shared in the problems of their parents and that rights set forth in the declaration were not considered at that time. What learnings can be expected of children? From the time that children reach school in the morning until they leave at the end of the day, every hour is crowded with situations that call, forgive, and take on the part of child with child, child with the group, and child with teacher and other adults. The teacher needs ability to identify these situations and to use skill in helping the children to recognize that their own everyday problems involve human rights. If the teacher is autocratic in her methods of working, it will be difficult to give children such opportunities. It will be equally difficult if she has a philosophy which permits children to do as they please. A classroom that is organized democratically is essential to the teaching of human rights. In a recent year book of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the authors point out, quote, schools which do not respect the dignity of each individual child within the classroom cannot teach children to be concerned with the rights of children in far distant lands, unquote. An example of the influence of the teacher in the classroom is the story of a year-round camp school for children where the younger group had read and heard about the dictatorship in Germany before World War II. Because this was a school where children helped with the planning, newcomers often thought they would be happier, quote, if the teacher would just tell us what to do, unquote. After discussion of what a dictatorship is like, the children decided that they would like to have their teacher act as a dictator for at least a day. They agreed that they would not move about, speak, make suggestions, or volunteer for responsibilities. They would do only what they were told when they were told. But after they had tried a day of this sort, with every child required to stay in his seat, with assignments written on the board with an old-fashioned type of question-and-answer recitation of what was in the textbook, with the teacher giving directions for every activity and no opportunity for the children to participate, they decided that one day was enough. There was one child, a newcomer, who said, quote, this seems all right to me. School is always like this at home, unquote. But the majority said, I'll never vote for a dictatorship again. They voted to go back to the type of classroom where each child had a share in working out problems and sharing experiences with others. The Time to Begin Teachers actually begin the study of human rights with their children in the earliest years. Although prejudices may not be expressed in words until boys and girls are in the middle years of the elementary school, they are probably felt by children in the primary grades if teachers, parents, or other adults give them a bad example. Teachers need to work with parents on this problem in study groups or conferences. Such prejudices may become a fixed part of the individual's personality that no amount of later education can change. Most children of kindergarten or first grade age come to school with the hope and expectation to like and be liked. But if Jimmy continues throughout his first weeks in school in the kindergarten to take a toy and go off in the corner to play with it, the teacher entrusts him in a block building activity with another child and then gradually enlarges the group to three or four children. In the first grade, a little girl puts the doll in a buggy, wheels it around by herself while other children are carrying on dramatic play as a family in the playhouse. The teacher suggests to the child and to the group that she be the older sister who takes care of the baby but who comes home to help the mother get lunch. It is in these early years that a child often uses force to get what he wants. He may hit, push, pull, fight to get a toy, a particular chair, or a book. He has not yet learned to say, it is mine, or may I have it now, or it's my turn. The teacher may well begin with such a situation as this to help children see that everyone's rights and needs must be considered in deciding who shall have the toy, the book, or the chair, and for how long. Every added experience, whether it be reading in a small group, choosing a partner to work or play with, planning the school day or going on an excursion involves recognizing other people's rights as well as those of the individual as children grow older. Usually by the time the child reaches third grade he has learned to express himself effectively to get what he wants unless he is unusually shy. He uses words instead of force to get what he wants or to persuade the other fellow to share. If he spoils another child's painting or if he fights a smaller child on the playground the teacher will know about it. Oftentimes the children will want to enforce more severe penalties for infringing on the rights of others than will the adult. It is the teacher's place to raise the question, why did you spoil the picture, or why did you fight, and what can we do to help you? At about the third grade level children can be helped to look at situations objectively and to suggest what can be done about relations that need improving. In the upper grades children may take responsibility for carrying on the work of a school council that will be used to solve these problems that are common to all classes in the school. There are such problems as how can each group have play space on the playground at the same time? How can the children themselves help to prevent schoolhouse windows from being broken during after school hours? How can the all-purpose room which has sinks, gas plates, tools, and other equipment and materials for use be shared by all groups? A council meeting can become a mere training session for practice in parliamentary procedure, but with an alert teacher children can learn to analyze problems, to suggest possible solutions, to carry out studies or surveys, to evaluate information, to get opinions, to reach decisions, and to work out plans for action. They can also develop simple rules of conduct for all the activities of the school that are accepted by every class, that are in keeping with the Declaration of Human Rights, and that can be related to that document. Children begin early to learn about human rights. Not all of the thirty articles of the Declaration of Human Rights can be translated into situations that have meaning for boys and girls. At some time in their school lives they will want to read the Declaration article by article, but the teacher will choose the time, the place, and the situation that can make one of the articles real before she attempts to introduce children to it. The children of one sixth grade have attempted to restate the articles of the Declaration in simple form. Many groups will want to make their own simplified statements when they have studied the articles. Some examples of the sixth grade children's interpretations follow. The rights of all people in all lands. Article one. Every person has the right to be treated like a brother. Article two. The thirty articles in this Declaration apply to all people no matter who they are, what they do, what they believe, or where they live. Article three. Every person has the right to live safely. Article four. No one should be forced to work as a slave. Article five. No one should be made to suffer in humanity. Article six. Every person is entitled to his rights in any land at all times. Article seven. All persons are equal before the law. Article eight. Every person has the right to regain any rights he may have lost. Article nine. No person should be punished for a crime he has not committed. Article ten. Every person has the right to a fair trial in an honest court. Article eleven. Every person has the right to be considered innocent of a crime until he is proved to be guilty. Article thirteen. Every person has the right to come and go as he wishes. Article fourteen. A person who is persecuted in one country has the right to move to another country. Article seventeen. Every person has the right to own and hold property. Article eighteen. Every person has the right to freedom of religion. Article nineteen. Every person has the right to have his own ideas and also has the right to express them. Article twenty-one. Every person has the right to vote as he pleases on a secret ballot in an honest election. Article twenty-three. Every person has the right to work for a just wage in healthy surroundings. Article twenty-four. Every person has the right to reasonable working hours with time for rest and paid holidays. Article twenty-six. Every person is entitled to an education. Article twenty-seven. Every person has the right to enjoy the better things of life. Article twenty-eight. Every person has the right to live in a land where all these rights are considered. Article twenty-nine. Every person must be willing to do what he can to help others secure these rights. Whatever the approach and the method of study, there are certain principles that hold good regardless of the age level of the children concerned. These principles have been developed in the illustrations used and are only summarized here. First of all, the classroom environment must be a democratic one. Children themselves must feel secure in their right to express opinions, but must be willing to abide by group decisions and to take responsibilities that go along with rights. The articles of the Declaration of Human Rights cannot be taught as verbalisms, but must be made real and understandable through situations and experiences that have meaning for children themselves. The study of human rights should be started so far as the school is concerned as soon as children enter and should begin with what the home has done or may have failed to do. There must be continuing emphasis at all levels upon human rights if adult citizens are to have a clear idea of what the Declaration means and a desire to accept the obligations involved. What some schools are doing about the Declaration. In many intermediate and upper grades, pupils are becoming acquainted with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and learning to use it in relation to their own problems and experiences. They are learning directly the responsibilities which accompany the rights specified in the various articles of the Declaration. Primary as well as older children are having experiences in group living which will lead to an understanding of human rights and relationships. In one Minneapolis school a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights hangs in the hall. Children refer to it when it can give assistance in their study of United Nations and its peoples and in the solving of their own problems. One sixth grade class in Minneapolis was faced with a problem of heated arguments. A discussion was held of the pros and cons of arguments. An outgrowth of this discussion was a study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each article was discussed and evaluated. The pupils made drawings of how the document relates to them. Drawings about Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression showed pupils engaged in group work and in play activities. Drawings about Article 21 on the right to take part in government and to choose representatives showed children carrying out these procedures in their own civic league. Results of this study are being bound in albums to be sent to the United Nations headquarters in New York and to the Office of Education in Washington D.C. The pupils hope that other teachers and children will see these albums or hear about them and be stimulated to carry out similar studies. Another sixth grade in the school rewrote the Declaration for the school's younger children. This class made a study which they entitled, Man's Search for Freedom. The problems decided upon by the children were, why is it that all the people in the world have not had the rights to which they are entitled? How has man tried to gain his rights? How can man eventually get the rights he should have? Through their reading and discussion, they learned of many documents that were milestones in man's search for freedom. They divided into groups to study the following documents. Magna Carta, Atlantic Charter, Declaration of Independence, United Nations Charter, Constitution of the United States, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Bill of Rights, Emancipation, Proclamation. While real life experiences in accord with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are provided throughout the school program, it has felt that the children from grades 4 to 12 should have, in addition, some direct contact with the written document. They should see its relationship to man's continuing struggle for basic freedoms, its relation to the American Bill of Rights, and should know the story of its writing. The fifth and sixth grade social studies programs lend themselves admirably to the study of the extension of freedoms to all peoples. In the fifth grade, the pupils study about how the people of the United States won their freedoms originally and how we are trying to maintain those rights today. For the past two years, fifth grade classes have written original scripts concerning appropriate sections of the Universal Declaration. During their study of the people who came to the United States and why they came here, one sixth grade class made effective use, in terms of extension of human rights, of a recording entitled The Statue of Liberty, which is read by Judith Anderson. Following a discussion of the rights included in this poem, the children made a careful investigation of the written guarantees covering these particular rights as they appear in the American Bill of Rights. Then they searched through the Universal Declaration to find whether or not the same rights were included there. They discussed the need for all persons to feel a responsibility for seeing that opportunities are guaranteed for the exercise of these rights. Another project of rewriting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was carried out by a high school class of Portland, Oregon. Members of this class felt that the adult phrasing and vocabulary of the most important principles developed after a long period of study and debate by the United Nations General Assembly might create a barrier to the understanding of them by young people. Since the development of constructive attitudes in human relationships should begin at a very early age, this language barrier might prove a serious handicap in furthering this very important purpose. This simplified version of the Declaration for Younger Brothers and Sisters was published by the Portland Public Schools and distributed to all elementary schools of the city. Children learn respect for each other through working together. In Ithaca, New York, opportunities are given in the lower elementary grades for the development of foundational experiences for understanding the Universal Declaration. Emphasis is on living and learning together. The Declaration is not taught directly at this level. In Ithaca schools, there are children from various countries of the world. The teachers are consciously and directly developing the understanding of such concepts as the same things make all of us happy, and we all have the right to talk some of the time, and to be heard. Reports from the radio, daily newspapers, and magazines are giving many opportunities for motivating discussions of the Universal Declaration. The film script series, Our Heritage of Freedom, has been used over and over by classes in grades 5 and 6 to give an understanding of the freedoms which people have been fighting for through many centuries, the Swiss, the English barons in the time of Magna Carta, and people in other times and places. Each elementary classroom in Ithaca is supplied with a poster or booklet copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When the freedoms that Americans possess are studied, the children and their teacher carry through to ascertain what attempts have been made to extend these freedoms. At one school in Wilmington, Delaware, sixth grade children are learning about the right to take part in the government, by participating in weekly class meetings where every child has a part in agreeing upon certain behavior standards which are set up under the title Our Classroom Constitution. This is used by the group as a guide in solving problems in which the actions of an individual or a small group are not in the best interests of the class or the school. They are learning to concede to everyone the right to speak freely, even if they disagree with what is being said. Fifth grade pupils are gaining through experiences such concepts as, all people can be free. Each person is responsible for his own actions as a member of a group. Individuals and groups are dependent on each other. Group problems are best solved by group action. Respect for others and their way of life is an American ideal. Children are gradually beginning to realize that they can be free to make decisions, plan group action, if each one within the group has self-discipline and can consider the wishes of everyone within his group and that their class group must consider other groups and individuals within the school. This class has studied the problems of freedom and group relations in the home and in the community in which they live, always coming back to the fact that freedom is possible only within a framework of discipline. Later they plan to study the rights of people wherever they may live, especially those rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the experiences this class had, which gave opportunity to demonstrate living by our principles of freedom, human rights and responsibilities, was an overnight camping trip. Here the children experienced a total living situation, living, eating, sleeping, working, playing and planning together. Cabin groups, work details and study groups were planned by the children, each group with its leader. In such a situation the children realized more clearly than before that each child in a group has certain rights and each must do his share for the comfort and happiness of the entire class. A similar plan of group work and responsibility is being followed in the classroom for the development of projects and the solution of problems. Under the leadership of the class president the whole group works together. Within the class there are five smaller groups each with its leader and working on problems and projects. Second grade children are learning a great deal about human rights and responsibilities as they try to understand and evaluate how families work and play together. Children have included in their study the work done by mother, by father and by children in the home, how families play together. Kinds of jobs, fathers and mothers hold outside the home and services to the home by persons and agencies in the community. The group has visited plants and other places where fathers and mothers work. Third and fourth grade children are being helped to understand basic concepts of human rights through living and growing in an atmosphere where all individuals are important as they work together to develop an attitude of consideration for each other. Ted and the fourth grade feels free to say to his teacher, I really didn't deserve that calling down I was talking to Ned but we were talking about our work. Ted and the teacher can talk the matter over until each is satisfied with the outcome. Children throughout the school should have the same right as Ted. Most of the efforts to teach about the universal declaration of human rights in Westerly, Rhode Island have been through an integrated approach rather than through separate units. In one sixth grade class the pupils studied the universal declaration in connection with the social studies unit on how a nation was made from 13 states. Here the pupils studied and compared the United States Bill of Rights with the Universal Declaration. Several topics for further study took shape during the discussion, battle for human rights, when rights conflict, how rights are constantly being broadened, and comparison with the four freedoms. Pupil sponsored morning programs have provided excellent opportunities for integration with current affairs. Various issues in the news relating to education and to employment have afforded a fertile field for considering several articles from the declaration. In particular articles 1, 2, 4, 16, 18, 19, 23, 26, and 27. For example, are there children in the United States who do not have as good an opportunity for education as we have? Is a problem that boys and girls can discuss. At one stage of a unit, westward to the Rockies, a contrast was made between education on the frontier and modern American education. The teacher capitalized on the situation to introduce article 26 on our right to education and our responsibility to make the most of our opportunities. Through such procedures as those described, the sixth grade pupils have become aware of the meaning and importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A sixth grade class in Cleveland, Ohio, learned about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in connection with the study of United Nations. The children had received materials from the United Nations headquarters in New York. They were especially interested in the work of the United Nations as it affects the children of the world. One member of the class brought several dozen photographs from the company where her father was employed. These photographs showed how people were being helped by such organizations as the International Refugee Organization. They learned, too, of the ways in which the Commission on Human Rights is promoting respect for the observance of human rights and freedoms. Additional information was secured from daily papers, conversation with adults, and from the library. Parents reported on the discussions in their homes which had resulted from the children's interest in the unit. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being read, interpreted, and discussed by many upper grade elementary pupils in the Chicago Public Schools. Increasing emphasis is being placed on the growth of good human relationships as the basis for an understanding of human rights. The Human Relations Committee of the Chicago Schools, through its pilot programs, is attempting to encourage the development of new techniques and practices which will promote this learning through a living. In Long Beach, California, a sixth grade class developed a script on the United Nations which was used in a broadcast over the school's FM radio station, KLOX. In this script some of the basic principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are stated in the simple language which children can understand. A teacher's handbook on the United Nations had been prepared primarily for the secondary schools. It has been used in the elementary schools wherever possible and suitable. Along with the other materials on United Nations there are specific references to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Kinds of experiences provided. The experiences selected for a realistic study of human rights should provide opportunity for group attack on problems that are interesting to children, suited to their maturity level, and related to the immediate needs of their everyday living. Children need to learn to plan, work, play, and evaluate through cooperative techniques. They should learn to respect the rights of others. They should learn about their own rights. They need to learn always to assume their share of the responsibilities that come with group experiences and that a company writes in freedom. Planning and having a breakfast at school, writing and producing a radio program, planning and producing a school newspaper, and planting a school garden are examples of some of the many experiences through which these things can be learned. Citizenship experiences in which pupils participate in school government offer excellent opportunities for experiencing human rights, relationships, and responsibilities. Both student councils and classroom organizations provide such experiences in many of our elementary schools. Certain areas of the social studies curriculum provide good opportunities for learning about human rights. Among these are family living, recreation, living in the school, community life, and people of other communities and other lands. The history of our country, from its early days to the present, gives the story of man's struggle for rights and freedoms in America, including the documents involved, such as the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Direct contact and experiences with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may be had in intermediate and upper grades. The Declaration may be displayed in poster form where it is easily referred to. Simplified versions may be written for the younger children by upper grade or high school pupils. Where this is done, great care must be taken that the meaning not be changed. As has been pointed out, children may study those articles, such as the ones concerning freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, and the right to an education, which are understandable and useful in their problems of living, which involve human relationships. Intermediate and upper grade children may learn about the work of the Commission on Human Rights of United Nations in drafting the Declaration, and the problems they encountered in finding the exact wording to which all members of the Commission would agree. For example, some of the women on the Commission would not agree to the words all men. For, said they, we women in our country would be denied our rights. Children of all ages may participate in celebrating United Nations Human Rights Day on December 10, which was designated for such observance by the President of the United States. Frequently, children represent the various nations and dramatize some aspects of the work of the United Nations that is especially interesting to them, and that relates to human rights. Where can materials be secured? Listed are a number of sources from which reference materials on human rights may be secured. These materials include study guides, sets of posters, work kits, and pamphlets. For the study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, copies of the document may be secured in poster or pamphlet form from United Nations Headquarters, as indicated. End of How Children Learn About Human Rights by Wellamina Hill and Helen K. McIntosh heard on April 29, but only for one day. Then, as the wind took up its accustomed northerly drift again, he was silent. The first chimney swallows, four, appeared on April 25, and were quickly followed by a number. They might be said to be about three weeks behind time, and the cuckoo of fortnight. The chif-chaff uttered his clear, yet rather sad notes on April 26. The same morning at five o'clock there had been a slight snow shower, but it was a sunny day. One made the first, a stitchwork was in flower, a plant that marks the period distinctly. A swift appeared on May 2. I should not consider this late. A white throat was catching insect in the garden on May 6. The cuckoo was sang again on May 8. The same day, a red-admiral butterfly was seen, and the turtle dove heard cooing. Next day, the ninth, the cave swallow appeared, and also the bank martin. With the cooing of the turtle dove, the spring migrants are generally complete. A warm summer bird is usually the last, and if the others had not been seen they are probably in the country somewhere. The chimney swallows had been absent five months, all but five days, last seen in November 30, so that reckoning the first and the last they may be said to stay in England seven months, much longer than one would think without taking the dates. Up till April 20, the hedges seemed as bare as they were in January, a most dreary spectacle of barren branches, and the great elms gawned against the sky. After that, the hedges gradually filled with leaf, and were fully coloured when the turtle dove began to sing, but still the elms were only just budding, and but faintly tinted with green. Chaucer was right in the singing of the flowers of May, not withstanding the northern winds, and early frosts, and December-like character of our Maze, that the cycle of weather was warmer in his time is probably true, but still, even now, under all the drawbacks of the late and wintery season, his description is perfectly accurate. If anyone had gone round the field on Old May Day, the thirteenth, his May Day, they might have found the deep blue bird's-eye Veronica, anemones, star-like stitch-works, cow-slips, butter-cups, lesser selendine, daisies, white blackthorn, and gorse in bloom. In short, a list enough to make a page bright with colour, though the wind might be bitter. In the coldest and most exposed place I ever lived in, and with the spring as cold as this, the May garlands included orchids, and the meadows were perfectly golden with marsh marigolds. For some reason or other, the flowers seemed to come as near as they can to their time, let the weather be as hard as it may. They are more regular than the migrant birds, and much more so than the trees. The elm, oak, and ash appear to wait a great deal on the sun and the atmosphere, and their bowels give much better indications of what the weather has really been than birds and flowers. The migrant birds try their hardest to keep time, and some of them arrive a week or more before they are noticed. Elm, oak, and ash are the surest indicators. The horse-chestnut is very apt to put forth its broad succulent leaves too soon. The sycamore, too, is an early tree in spite of everything. It has been said that of late years we have not had any settled, soft, warm weather till after Midsummer. There has been a steady continual cold draft from the Northwood till the sun reached the solstice, so that the summers, in fact, have not commenced till the end of June. There is a good deal of general truth in this observation. Certainly we seem to have lost our springs. I do not think I have heard it thunder this year up to the time of writing. The absence of electrical disturbance shows a peculiar state of atmosphere unfavorable to growth, so that the corn will not hide a partridge, and in some places hardly a sparrow. Where did the painters get their green leaves from this year in time from the galleries? Not from the trees, for they had none. A flock of rooks was waddling about in a thinly-grown field of corn which scarcely hid their feet, and a number of swallows, flying very low, scarcely higher than the rook's breasts, wound in and out among them. The day was cloudy and cold, and probably the insects had settled on the ground. The rook's feet stirred them up, and as they rose they were taken by the swallows. All over the field there were no other swallows, nor in the adjacent fields, only in that one spot where the rooks were feeding. On another occasion, swallows flying low over a closely cropped grass field, alighted on the sward to try and catch their prey. There seems a scarcity of some kinds of insect life due doubtless to the wind. Out of a dozen butterfly chrysalids collected, six were worthless. They were stiff, and when open were stuffed full of small white larvae, which had eaten away the coming butterfly in its shell. They were the offspring of a parasite insect, which thus provided for the sustenance of its young by eating up other young, after the cruel way of nature. Why does one robin carefully choose a thatched cave for its nest, out of reach except by an adder, and safe from all beasts of prey? And another place its nest on a low grassy bank scarcely hidden by a plant of wild parsley, and easily taken by the smallest boy. At first it looks like a great difference in intelligence, where probably each bird acted as well as could be under the circumstances. Each robin has to fight for his locality, and he has to make the best of his territory. If he trespassed on another bird's premises he would be driven away. He must build your house where you happen to possess a plot of land. It is curious to see the male bird feeding the female, not only while on the nest, but when she comes away from it. The female perches on the branch and utters a little call, and the male brings her food. He was feeding her the other evening on the bare boughs of a fig tree, some distance from the nest. The warmth of the sun, although weak would not feel it, must have penetrated into the earth some time since, for a slow worm came forth on a mound for the first time on April 16th. He coiled up on the eastern side every morning for some hours, but was never seen in the afternoon. His short, thick body and unfinished tail, more like a punch or the neck of a stumpy bottle, was turned in a loop, the head nearly touching the tail, like a pair of sugar tongs. Coming out from the stitchwork and grasses, the spider's often run over his shining dark brown surface, something the colour of blazed earthenware. A snake or an adder would have begun to move away the moment anyone stopped to look at it, but the slow worm takes no notice, and hence it is often said to be blind. He seems to dislike any sharp noise and is really fully aware of your presence. Close by the mound, which stands in a corner of the garden, there is a great bunch of blue country, to which the bees and humblebees come in such numbers as to seem to justify the idea that these insects prefer blue, or perhaps the blue flowers secrete sweeter honey. Every kind of wild bee is yet flying, as it is this plant, tiny bees barely a quarter of an inch long, others as big as two philberts. Some are deep amber, some striped, like wasps. A little of Chaucer's May has come, now and then a short hour or two of sunshine between the finger and thumb of the north wind. Most pleasant it is to see the eaves swallow, dive down from the roof, and rush over the scarcely green garden, a household sign of summer. In the lane, if you gather them, the young leaves of the sycamore have the fragrance scent like a flower, and low down, ferns are unrolling. On the low wall sits a yellow hammer, just brightly touched afresh with colour. Happy green vinsces go by, and it is curious to note how the instant they enter the hedge, they are lost now under the leaves. So few days ago they would have been unconcealed. So near is it to summer that the first rush begins to seem at three o'clock in the morning, end of mixed days of May and December by Richard Jeffries.