638
DOCS.
612,
613
SEPTEMBER
1918
Now
you
see
why
I
cannot write
you
when
I’m
coming
to Zurich. On
condition
that
my proposal
finds
approval,
I just want
to travel to Zurich when
the
necessary
dates
are
set
so
that
I
can
link
the
trip
to
a
lecture cycle.-Do
you
think that
I
did
the
right thing?
Your remarks
about the
role of
experience
and
speculation
in
physics very
much
appealed
to
me.[4]
I
would
just
like
to add
that
it doesn’t fit to
count
Riemann’s achievement
as
pure speculation.
Gauss’s
accomplishment
is
the
for-
mulation
of
the
positioning
laws
[Lagerungsgesetze]
of
little
rigid
rods
on a
given
plane.[5]
His ds
corresponds
to
the little
rod;
without this
experience-based
struc-
ture,
the entire
consideration would of
necessity
not have been made. Riemann’s
generalization
to
the
multidimensions
admittedly is
a
purely speculative deed;
but it
likewise
is
based
on
Gauss’s
conception
of
the little
measuring
rod. When
others later
forgot
the terrestrial
origin
of
ds2,
that
was
certainly
not
an
advance.
In his
fine
book, Weyl rightly
calls Riemann’s
theory
the
geodesy
of
multidimen-
sional structures.[6]
Warm
regards, yours,
Albert.
613.
To Kurt Hiller
[Berlin,]
9 September 1918
Esteemed
Sir,
I
read
your
brochure
as
well
as
your
note
of
7
September
with
great
interest
and do not want
to
omit
thanking
you
and
expressing my
opinion.[1]
I would have liked to
appear
at
your meeting. However,
it
is
not
appropriate
for
me as a
Swiss to
involve
myself
in local
political
affairs.
Your brochure
is brilliantly
written;
your proposal,
though,
in
the
indefinite
form
it
is, seems
to
me
to contain
little that
lies
within
the
realm
of the
possible.[2]
If
you
summon
together
those local
men
who have
distinguished
themselves in
their
various fields
by significant
intellectual
achievements, you
will
assemble
a
collection of
power-or “pragmatic”-politicians who,
if
they
are
truthful,
will
agree
on
the
tenet
that
private
morals have
no
importance
in
the
relations
between
states
and
nations;[3]
that
only
the
right
of
the
strongest
is decisive;
that without
war
humanity
would
degenerate;
concessions
to
pacifism
should be considered
merely as
fine
gestures
for
hoodwinking
...,
etc.,
etc.
These
persons
are
simply
the
children of
their
time,
their
wishes
(which are
determined
by
their
views)
the
product
of
a
development
of
the
mass
psyche
which
is stamped
with
Bismarck’s
name.[4]