2 2 4 D O C U M E N T 2 2 8 M A R C H 1 9 2 4
him information about the older
part,[3]
I permit myself to turn directly to the
source. Perhaps you also know presumable owners of out-of-print papers, who
would be ready to exchange them for money & good words? Such as families of
lately deceased physicists.
2. I am waiting in suspense for the promised
paper,[4]
although the warning
about the mathematical difficulties does “alarm” me. Maybe you will also try to ex-
plain to me the logical possibility by the simplest possible example. Partial differ-
ential equations of first order naturally yield values for the field variables, which
correspond to a system of hypersurfaces infinitely close together, of the same value.
A different condition will yield a different system of hypersurfaces; coincidences
occur only along forms of lower dimension. But, on one hand, it seems only for-
mally to have anything in common with a field theory; &, on the other hand, ¢one
will² I don’t have an inkling yet how anything corresponding to discrete quantum
orbits is attainable by this route. In summary: I’m looking forward to the paper &
the commentary ad usum
delfini.[5]
3. The report about your Albert was a treat for me, the content of which entirely
meets our
expectations.[6]
I’m very curious about what direction his course in life
will take him. As far as my own progeny are concerned, I certainly don’t miss that
I cannot pass on any La Rochefoucauld maxims, which would not be followed,
anyway.[7] I am thinking, rather, of the rudiments of a simple, matter-of-fact regi-
men in life, like we even inherited from the ancestors through our parents. It is my
constant endeavor to master my very great aversion to order along the lines of this
desire. The life forms of the future are still almost ungraspable spiders’ webs, sim-
ilar to bare systems of directions. That’s what the coming-to-be looks like & is dif-
ficult to distinguish from the “homage that vice pays to virtue.” See Radbruch’s
Einführung in die Rechtswissenschaft [Introduction to Jurisprudence], Quelle &
Meyer, 1919, p.
165.[8]
4. I haven’t explained yet why you are getting a letter in pencil & not in my hand-
writing. I subjected myself to a hernia operation 1 week ago & am now in the pro-
cess of rapid recovery.
All my warmest from your
Michele & Anna.