'THE SUDDENLY FAMOUS DOCTOR EINSTEIN' 305
ment on receiving this news after seven years of waiting will now be clearer. Then
came November 6, 1919, the day on which Einstein was canonized.f
Ever since 1905 Einstein had been beatus, having performed two first-class mir-
acles. Now, on November 6, the setting, a joint meeting of the Royal Society and
the Royal Astronomical Society, resembled a Congregation of Rites4 Dyson acted
as postulator, ably assisted by Crommelin and Eddington as advocate-procurators.
Dyson, speaking first, concluded his remarks with the statement, 'After a careful
study of the plates I am prepared to say that they confirm Einstein's prediction.
A very definite result has been obtained, that light is deflected in accordance with
Einstein's law of gravitation.' Crommelin added further details. Eddington spoke
next, stating that the Principe results supported the figures obtained at Sobral,
then reciting the two requisite authentic miracles subsequent to Einstein's eleva-
tion to beatus: the perihelion of Mercury and the bending of light, 1"98 + O."30
and 1".61 + 0".30 as observed in Sobral and Principe, respectively. Ludwick
Silberstein,* the advocatus diaboli, presented the animadversiones: 'It is unscien-
tific to assert for the moment that the deflection, the reality of which I admit, is
due to gravitation.' His main objection was the absence of evidence for the red
shift: 'If the shift remains unproved as at present, the whole theory collapses.'
Pointing to the portrait of Newton which hung in the meeting hall, Silberstein
admonished the congregation: 'We owe it to that great man to proceed very care-
fully in modifying or retouching his Law of Gravitation.'
Joseph John Thomson, O.M., P.R.S., in the chair, having been petitioned
instanter, instantius, instantissime, pronounced the canonization: 'This is the most
important result obtained in connection with the theory of gravitation since New-
ton's day, and it is fitting that it should be announced at a meeting of the Society
so closely connected with him.... The result [is] one of the highest achievements
of human thought.' A few weeks later he added, 'The deflection of light by matter,
suggested by Newton in the first of his Queries, would itself be a result of first-
rate scientific importance; it is of still greater importance when its magnitude sup-
ports the law of gravity put forward by Einstein' [Tl].
Even before November 6, Einstein and others already knew that things looked
good.
11 find the parallels with the rituals of beatification and canonization compelling, even though they
are here applied to a living person. Note that a beatus may be honored with public cult by a specified
diocese or institution (here, the physicists). A canonized person is honored by unrestricted public
cult. For these and other terms used, see [N3].
^The details of the proceedings quoted here are found in an article in the Observatory [O2].
*Silberstein, a native of Poland who moved to England and later settled in the United States, was
the author of three books on relativity. On several occasions, he was in dogged but intelligent oppo-
sition to relativity theory.