"Time," said George, "why I can give you a definition of time. It's what
keeps everything from happening at once."
A ripple of laughter went about the little group of men.
"Quite so," agreed the Chemist. "And, gentlemen, that's not nearly so
funny as it sounds. As a matter of fact, it is really not a bad
scientific definition. Time and space are all that separate one event
from another. Everything happens some_where_ at some_time_."
"You intimated you had something vitally important to tell us," the Big
Business Man suggested. "Something, Rogers, that would amaze us. Some
project you were about to undertake--"
Rogers raised his hand. "In a moment, gentlemen. I want to prepare you
first--to some extent, at least. That's why I have led you into this
discussion. I want you to realize that your preconceived ideas of time
are wrong, inadequate. You must think along entirely different lines, in
terms of, I shall say, the _new science_."
"I will," agreed George, "only tell me how."
"You said that time, space, and matter are not separate, distinct
entities, but are blended together," the Doctor declared. "Just what do
you mean?"
Rogers gazed earnestly about the room. "This, my friends. Those are the
three factors which make up our universe as we know it. I said they were
blended. I mean that the actual reality underlying all the
manifestations we experience is not temporal or spatial or material, but
a blend of all three. It is we who, in our minds, have split up the
original unity into three such supposedly different things as time,
space and matter."
"Take space and time," said the Big Business Man. "Those two seem wholly
different to me. I shouldn't think they had the slightest connection."
"But they have. Between the three planes of space--length, breadth and
thickness--and time, there is no essential distinction. We think of them
differently; we instinctively feel differently about them. But science
is not concerned with our feelings--and science recognizes today that
time is a property of space, just as are length, breadth and thickness."
"That's easy to say," growled the Banker. "Any one can make statements
that can't be proven."
"It has been proven," Rogers declared quietly. "The mathematical
language of science would bore you. Let me give you a popular
illustration--an illustration, by the way, that I saw in print long
before Einstein's theory was made public. For instance, think about
this: A house has length, breadth and thickness. The house is matter,
and it has three dimensions of space. But what else has it?"
A blank silence followed his sudden question.
"Hasn't it duration, gentlemen? Could a house have any real existence if
it did not exist for any time at all?"
"Well," said George, "I guess that's something to think about."
Rogers went on calmly: "You must admit, my friends, that the existence
of matter depends on time equally as on space. They are, as I said,
blended together. A house must have length, breadth, thickness and
duration, or it cannot exist. Matter, in other words, persists in time
and space. Let me give you another illustration of this blending. How
would you define motion?"
Again there was a dubious silence.
"Motion," said George suddenly, "why, that's when something--something
material changes place." He was blushing at his own temerity, and he sat
back in his leather chair, smoking furiously.
"Quite so," smiled Rogers. "That, gentlemen, is about the way we all
conceive motion. Something material, a railroad train, for instance,
changes its position in space." He regarded the men before him, and this
time there was a touch of triumph in his manner. "But, my friends,
that's where our line of reasoning is inadequate. Time is involved
equally with space. The train was there _then_; it is here _now_. That
involves time."
"In other words--" the Doctor began.
"In other words, motion is the simultaneous change of the position of
matter in time and space. You see how impossible it is to speak of one
factor without involving the others? That is the mental attitude into
which I'm trying to get you. I want you to think of time exactly as you
think of length, breadth and thickness--as one of the properties of
space. Isn't that clear?"
The Big Business Man answered him. "I think so. I can understand now
what you mean by a blending of--"
"Oh, his words are clear enough," the Banker interjected testily. "But
what's the argument about? He started in by saying--"
George sat up suddenly. "Mr. Rogers, you said we were to come here for
something vitally important to you. Something about time and space. You
said--"
Rogers interrupted him. "I did indeed. I asked you all to come here to
the club tonight because you are my friends. Mine and Loto's. And the
affair concerns him more directly than it does me."