DOCS.
374,
375
AUGUST
1917
369
conviction
as
“utopians.”[7]
Only
facts
can
dissuade
the
majority
of
the
misled
from
their
delusion
that
we were
living
for
the
state
and that its
intrinsic
purpose
was
the
greatest
power possible
at
any price.
The
finest
alternative
to
lead
us
out
of
these
deplorable
circumstances
seems
to
me
to be
the
following:
America, England, France,
and Russia conclude
a
military
arbitration
agreement
for all time with settlements
on
mutual
assistance and
on
a
minimum and maximum
of
military
readiness. This
agreement
would have
to
contain
the
establishment of most-favored nation tariffs.
Any
state
that
has
a
democratically
elected
parliament
and whose ministers
depend
on a
majority
within this
parliament
ought
to be allowed to enter into
this
pact.
This brief
sketch
will
have to
suffice.
If
Germany,
which
is
dependent on
markets for its industrial
products,
finds
itself confronted
with
such
a
permanent
state
of
affairs,
the
view
that
it
is
im-
perative
to
abandon the
present course
would
soon
prevail.
As
long as
German
statesmen
can
hope, though,
that
sooner or
later
a
shift in
the distribution
of
power
will
occur,
no
sincere
change
in
course
will
be considered. For
proof
that
everything
is
still
as
it
was,
look at
the
way
in which
the
change
in
chancellorship
was
staged
lately.[8]
In
wishing
that
in these sinister times
you
find comfort in
your inspired
artistic
creativity,
I send
you my
cordial
regards, yours very truly,
A.
Einstein.
375. From
Tullio Levi-Civita
[Rome,
23 August
1917][1]
Dearest
Colleague,
It
was
only yesterday,
but with
the
greatest
pleasure,
that
I
received
your
friendly
letter
of the second
of
this
month.[2] I
am
very grateful
for
your cordiality,
which
I
return
with
all
my
heart,
and
for
your very flattering
and
favorable
opinion
of
the mathematical
considerations of
my
latest
papers:
in
any case,
the
main
credit
goes
to
you
for
opening up
such
wide horizons in
natural
philosophy
these
new
fields
of
research.
Now
to
our
amicable
controversy.
As I
think
I
also indicated in
a
note
I
wrote
a
few
months
ago
to
my colleague
Grossmann,[3]
I
understand
very
well
your
reluctance
to
occupy yourself
with
the
not
very
fruitful solution
represented by
the
equations[4]
Tik
+
Aik
=
0
(i,
k
= 0,
1,
2, 3) (1)
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