6
DOCS.
FOR
VOL.
5
NOVEMBER 1911-MARCH
1912
Vol.
5,
312a. To Marie Curie
Prague, 23
November
1911
Highly
esteemed
Mrs.
Curie,[1]
Do not
laugh
at
me
for
writing you
without
having
anything
sensible
to
say.
But
I
am so
enraged by
the
base
manner
in which
the
public is
presently
daring to
concern
itself with
you[2]
that
I
absolutely
must
give
vent to
this
feeling. However,
I
am
convinced
that
you consistently despise
this
rabble,
whether it
obsequiously
lavishes
respect
on
you
or
whether it
attempts to
satiate
its
lust
for sensationalism!
I
am
impelled
to
tell
you
how
much I have
come
to admire
your intellect, your
drive,
and
your honesty,
and
that
I
consider
myself lucky
to have
made
your
personal acquaintance
in Brussels.
Anyone
who does not number
among
these
reptiles
is certainly
happy,
now as
before,
that
we
have such
personages among
us
as you,
and
Langevin[3]
too,
real
people
with whom
one
feels
privileged
to be in
contact. If
the rabble
continues to
occupy
itself with
you,
then
simply
don’t
read
that
hogwash,
but rather
leave
it
to
the
reptile
for whom it has been
fabricated.
With
most
amicable
regards
to
you, Langevin,
and
Perrin,[4]
yours very truly,
A.
Einstein
P.S. I have
determined the statistical
law of
motion
of
the
diatomic
molecule
in Planck’s
radiation
field
by
means
of
a
comical
witticism,
naturally
under the
constraint
that the structure’s motion
follows
the
laws of
standard
mechanics.
My hope
that
this
law is
valid in
reality
is
very
small,
though.[5]
Vol.
5,
375a. From Walther Nernst[1]
Berlin,
26a Am
Karlsbad, 23
March
[1912][2]
Esteemed
Professor
Einstein,
With
these lines
I just
want to
express my joy
at
the
prospect
of
arriving
at
agreement
in
an
oral
discussion,
at
which
the
presence
of
our
colleague
Planck[3]
is naturally
not
only extremely
welcome
but could make mine almost
superfluous.
Nor do
I
want
to address
today
your
view
that
publications
could do
no
harm
because
one
does not have to read
them[4]-I
do
think, though,
that
such
an
attitude,
if it
were
prevalent,
would
hamper
the
steady
development
of physics–
rather,
only
to
express again my delight
that
I
can
welcome
you
here
soon.
I
shall