1 0 0 D O C U M E N T 8 2 M A R C H 1 9 2 2 help in this better than anyone else and by accepting you will do a very great ser- vice to your colleagues from Germany and France and above all to our common vision.” I answered my friend’s letter initially with a polite refusal, indicating that my main reason grew out of a sense of solidarity with my colleagues here.[4] I could not rid myself of the feeling, however, that by my refusal I had followed the path of least resistance rather than my true duty. A conversation with Minister Rathenau[5] had the result of turning this feeling into firm conviction. That is why a few days after my first refusal I wrote a second letter to Prof. Langevin[6] in which I retracted my refusal and stated my willingness to accept the invitation if other arrangements had not in the meantime been made regarding the relevant guest lec- tures. Thus I agreed with Langevin to travel to Paris at the end of the month, in order to deliver the lectures.[7] In view of the circumstance that the academy is interested in all events that con- cern international relations, I consider it appropriate to submit the above informa- tion to the academy. With great respect, A. Einstein. 82. From Paul Ehrenfest [Leyden,] 13 March 1922 Dear Einstein, The devil take you—to Leyden!—You drive your contemporaries crazy, not just with but also with your routine activities.[1] 1.° You are going to Japan in the fall[2] —very rightly so—at least in the sense: I naturally would go to Japan, too, if anyone invited me.— But translated from Jap- anese into Dutch this means: In the fall you are in any case not coming to Ley- den.— 2.° So I have to thank God Almighty that I grabbed you by your spring coattails when you wrote with such conviction: “Should I come and see you yet again isn’t it better if I come in the fall?”[3] 3.° Now you’re piping yet another tune and want to come “through” Leyden instead of “to” Leyden (on 7 April not a single cat—besides me—will be in Leyden anymore!)—Oh my, oh my, oh my!—I’d sooner take a mortgage on a soap bubble than on you. 4.° No—Mr. Privy Councillor: You come nicely and like a normal bourgeois to Leyden, not during but after (our) Easter vacation. Whereby, as a special favor, I Ghk,uv st