188
DOCS.
185,
186
JANUARY-FEBRUARY
1916
right-hand
side of the
field
equations.
I would
appreciate
it
if
you
would
then
give
these
pages
back to
me,
because nowhere
else
do
I have these
things
so
nicely
in
one
place.
With best
regards, yours,
Einstein.
186. To
Arnold Sommerfeld
[Berlin,] 2
February 1916
Dear
Sommerfeld,
I’ve
been
cracking my
brains about
your
letter,
especially
since I
must
ac-
knowledge quite
much of
what
you say
as
correct.
Fr.[1]
is
of
the
“greyhound”
breed,
more
or
less, as
defined
by a good acquaintance
of
mine. His
way
of
bolt-
ing
is
also
not particularly
distinguished.
I
have known
this
person’s
weaknesses
for
a
long
time[2]-and
have also been
more or
less
irritated
by
him.
It
is
un-
doubtedly
justified
to raise
the
question:
Is
Einstein
right
when he
attempts
to
remove
all obstacles in
this
person’s
career?[3]
You
answer
in
the
negative.
I
have
thought
about the
matter
thoroughly
and also have discussed
it with
an
intel-
ligent
and well-intentioned
person
to whom I had
presented
the
“evidence”
and
whose
objectivity
in
the
matter
is
entirely beyond
doubt.[4]
First
to
the
personal
characteristics.
I
would not
choose
Fr.
as
an
intimate
friend of mine but would
always
maintain
a
healthy
distance from him either
way.
And
yet
I
come
to
the
conclusion: If
the
devil
were
to unseat
all of those
among
our
professorial
colleagues
whose self-criticism and
decency
are
not
above
that
of
Freundlich’s,
then the
trusty
ranks would be
considerably
thinned.
I
would
even-horribile dictu-fear
for
your
informant
S![5]
On
the other
hand,
Freundl.
offers
something
worth its
weight
in
gold-an
enthusiastic
dedication
to
the
problem;
that
is
a rare
trait
he does
not
share with
very many.
Now to
the
professional qualities.
Freundl.
is not
really creatively
talented,
but
he
is
intelligent
and resourceful. The
greyhound
nature
of
his,
mentioned
above,
comes
to
a large
part
from his
pounding
heart
when
he
investigates
a
scientifically
important
issue.
We
must
not
forget
that
Fr.
had
devised
the
sta-
tistical method
that
makes
possible using
fixed stars
in
addressing
the
line-shift
question. Although
the
nasty
calculation
error
did
slip by
him
and
some
other
things
there
are
greyhound-like
as
well
(density definition),
the
overall value of
the
matter
ought
not
to be
forgotten
because
of
it.[6]
Errors
can
be corrected
and
in
time
are
always
corrected. The
task
involves
discovering
a
way
and
smoothing
it
until
it becomes
passable.
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