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character from the ones in the direction of time. But these are only subjective rea-
sons, which may perhaps even be brushed aside upon closer consideration.
I do hope it is still possible to hear a few words verbally about these things! We
heartily hope that you will do us the pleasure of stopping in Rostock, if your time
in any way
allows.[9]
You will be traveling via Warnemünde, in any event, won’t
you? In the very worst case, I ask you please at least to inform us of the time of your
transit so that there is a possibility of greeting you in the train. We are hoping for
very favorable news and have the warmest wishes for your
welfare.[10]
Once again,
sincere thanks for your letter! In extending best compliments to your esteemed
wife, I am truly gratefully yours,
M. Schlick
P.S. I am going to send a copy of the English translation of Space and Time to you
today.[11]
52. To Arthur S. Eddington
[Berlin,] 11 June 1920
Highly esteemed
Colleague,[1]
It is an inescapable necessity for me to clear my conscience by writing you a
brief letter. You know that I did not visit you this spring despite having informed
you of such
plans.[2]
But first of all, I was prevented by far too many extraneous
obligations, which restricted my time very much; on the other hand, I had the feel-
ing that a trip to England at this time would be perceived by our English and Ger-
man colleagues as an ugly attempt to fish for favor [captatio
benevolentiae];[3]
this
I wanted to avoid. In such a case even an internationally minded person must curb
himself if he does not want to do harm to the good cause.
I have now received from you the detailed report of your
expeditions,[4]
for
which I thank you kindly. I greatly enjoyed being able to witness in this way, ret-
rospectively, so to speak, the successful analyses by English astronomers. The
problem of the line displacements is becoming more exciting by the day. Now a
personal friend of mine, our colleague Julius in Utrecht, has also come to the result,
upon careful review of all the data, that the Earth-Sun line displacement does not
exist;[5]
but I have no doubt in my mind that in the end this consequence of relativ-
ity theory will find verification as well. Perhaps a careful comparative study of the
terrestrial light sources will bring
clarity.–[6]
I have the impression that Julius’s the-
ory on the emergence of asymmetric line broadenings through the influence of dis-
persion in relation to local density fluctuations in the solar atmosphere is too little
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