During a discussion of the results obtained at a joint meeting of
the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society held especially
for that purpose recently in London, it was the general opinion that
Einstein's prediction might be regarded as justified, and warm tributes
to his genius were made on all sides. Nevertheless, I cannot refrain,
while I am mentioning it, from expressing my surprise that, according
to the report in The Times there should be so much complaint about
the difficulty of understanding the new theory. It is evident that
Einstein's little book "About the Special and the General Theory of
Relativity in Plain Terms," did not find its way into England during
wartime. Any one reading it will, in my opinion, come to the conclusion
that the basic ideas of the theory are really clear and simple; it is
only to be regretted that it was impossible to avoid clothing them in
pretty involved mathematical terms, but we must not worry about that.

I allow myself to add that, as we follow Einstein, we may retain
much of what has been formerly gained. The Newtonian theory remains
in its full value as the first great step, without which one cannot
imagine the development of astronomy and without which the second
step, that has now been made, would hardly have been possible. It
remains, moreover, as the first, and in most cases, sufficient,
approximation. It is true that, according to Einstein's theory,
because it leaves us entirely free as to the way in which we wish to
represent the phenomena, we can imagine an idea of the solar system
in which the planets follow paths of peculiar form and the rays of
light shine along sharply bent lines--think of a twisted and distorted
planetarium--but in every case where we apply it to concrete questions
we shall so arrange it that the planets describe almost exact ellipses
and the rays of light almost straight lines.