A great deal can be said in the direction of general comment making the Special Theory and its surprising accompaniments easier of acceptance, and we shall conclude the present discussion by saying some of these things.]* [It has been objected that the various effects catalogued above are only apparent, due to the finite velocity of light--that the real shape and size of a body or the real time of an event cannot be affected by the point of view or the motion of an observer. This argument would be perfectly valid, if there were real times and distances; but there are not. These are earth-bound notions, due to our experience on an apparently motionless platform, with slow-moving bodies. Under these circumstances different observations of the same thing or of the same event agree. But when we no longer have the solid earth to stand on, and are dealing with velocities so high that the relativity effects become appreciable, there is no standard by which to resolve the disagreements. No one of the observations can claim to be nearer reality than any other. To demand the real size of a thing is to demand a stationary observer or an instantaneous means of information. Both are impossible. When relativity asks us to give up our earth-bound notions of absolute space and absolute time the sensation, at first, is that we have nothing left to stand on. So must the contemporaries of Columbus have felt when told that the earth rested on--nothing. The remedy too is similar. Just as they had to be taught that falling is a local affair, that the earth is self-contained, and needs no external support--so we must be taught that space and time standards are local affairs. Each moving body carries its own space and time standards with it; it is self-contained. It does not need to reach out for eternal support, for an absolute space and time that can never quite be attained. All we ever need to know is the relation of the other fellow's space and time standards to our own. This is the first thing relativity teaches us.]141