D O C U M E N T 2 8 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 1 2 3
I have to draft something quickly for
Brussels,[5]
despite stomach tweaks—
otherwise it’ll be too late.
Cordial greetings to all of you from your
Einstein.
Please send information about the other Russians soon, so that arrangements won’t
have to be made at gunpoint.
28. From Arnold Berliner
Berlin W9, 23/24 Link St., 21 January 1921
Esteemed, dear Mr. Einstein,
I will try to procure the transcript of the [Bad] Nauheim discussion and then will
contact Lenard about the correction
proofs.[1]
Mr. Springer has the intention of asking you for your Academy lecture on geom-
etry and
experience.[2]
If you should give him the lecture, I ask you please for per-
mission to publish it at the same time in the Naturwissenschaften. It has been such
a long time since I was able to produce any particularly powerful attraction in the
Naturwissenschaften that I would be especially thankful for your granting of my
request.–
And now to something completely different, that is, something at which you
might perhaps only pitifully smile, or it might cause you to shake that humane head
of yours. In any event I ask you please to regard what I have to tell you as only aris-
ing out of sincere, respectful consideration, having nothing to do with the quite
banal admiration you surely very often have to contend with, that some express to
you because so very many others express it to you.
For a long while already I have had the intention of publishing an article, roughly
under the heading “The Literature on the Theory of Relativity” and dividing this
article into two parts under the headings (this suggestion stems from
Reichenbach)[3]
1. friends, 2. opponents. I have been repeatedly postponing imple-
mentation of this plan because I could not clarify the question of who should write
it. But the appearance of Moszkowski’s
book[4]
does not permit delaying imple-
mentation of this plan any longer, and I have to come to a decision on the question
in one way or another. I see you quietly smile at the mention of Moszkowski’s
book, because you regard my worry as
exaggerated,[5]
but I may remind you here
of one Goethe’s saying: that one and the same thing looks entirely different,
depending on whether you look down at it from above or up at it from
below.[6]
You
stand above, and I stand right down at the bottom. You might retort that two differ-
ent persons are looking at the same thing. But difficult as it is for me to hold my
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