88
DOCS.
73,
74 APRIL
1915
The
experiment provided
detailed verification
of
the
theory
within
the
margin
of
error
(about
10%).
The
paper
will
appear
in
a
few
weeks;[5]
then
I
shall send
you
an
offprint,
of
course.
The
theory
of
gravitation will
not find its
way
into
my colleagues’
heads for
a
long
while
yet,
no
doubt.
Only one,
Levi-Civita in
Padova,
has
probably grasped
the
main
point
completely,
because he
is
familiar with
the mathematics
used;
but
he
is
seeking
to
tamper
with
one
of the
most important
proofs
in
an
incessant
exchange
of
correspondence. Corresponding
with him
is
unusually interesting;
it
is currently
my
favorite
pastime.[6]
Life
without
my
wife is
a
veritable
rebirth
for
me
personally.
It
feels
as
if
I
had
ten
years
of
prison
behind
me.
In
matters
of
the
emotions humans
are so
strange.
And
all
this
even
though
I love
my boys
more
than
I
can say,
who have
now
been
taken
away
from
me
after
all;[7]
I
carried them around countless times
at
night,
took them
out
on
walks in
their
pram,
carried them
on
my shoulders, joked
with
them,
explained
things to
them that their little minds
were beginning
to
absorb,
guided
their attitude
toward things-and
now
they
are
gone, my
influence
on
them shrunk
down
to
superficialities. My
human and
professional
contacts
are
few
but
very
harmonious and
rewarding, my public
life
withdrawn
and
simple.
I
must
say
that
to
me
I
seem
one
of
the
happiest
of
persons.
I
hope confidently
that
soon
there
will
be
peace;
the
madmen
will
soon
turn
their
efforts to
a more
harmless
field
again.
But
they
will
remain
just
what
they
are.
From where do
you
get your
optimism
to
devote
yourself
with
such resilience
to
the
affairs of
the
general public?
I
admire
it,
but
do
not
understand it.
For
rarely
has
anyone
been treated
so
abominably
out of
conscious
meanness
as
you;
only
educated
beasts
are
capable
of
the
like.[8]
When
I
receive
the
promised copy
of
your
essay,[9] I
shall be
glad
to make notes
on
it,
which naturally cannot
yield
anything factual
for
you,
because
I
am a
child in these matters;
at
best
I
am
somewhat
knowledgeable
in
logical
composition.
How is
your
friend
Huguenin?[10]
Affectionate
greetings
from
your
Einstein.
74. To
Tullio
Levi-Civita
[Berlin,]
Sunday,
[11
April
1915]
Dear
Colleague,
You
get
a
nice
special
case
for
the
statement
that
Euv/-g
is
a
tensor[1]
when
you
set
H
=
const. The condition
Bu
=
0
is
then
satisfied
identically,
and
H
Previous Page Next Page