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But between the clear vision of this goal and its actual

realisation it was necessary to surmount a serious difficulty,

and as this lies deep at the root of things, I dare not withhold

it from the reader. We require to extend our ideas of the

space-time continuum still farther.

[17] This follows from a generalisation of the discussion in

Section XX.

XXIII.

BEHAVIOUR OF CLOCKS AND MEASURING-RODS ON A ROTATING BODY OF

REFERENCE

Hitherto I have purposely refrained from speaking about the

physical interpretation of space- and time-data in the case of

the general theory of relativity. As a consequence, I am guilty

of a certain slovenliness of treatment, which, as we know from

the special theory of relativity, is far from being unimportant

and pardonable. It is now high time that we remedy this defect;

but I would mention at the outset, that this matter lays no small

claims on the patience and on the power of abstraction of the

reader.