D O C U M E N T 3 2 2 A U G U S T 1 9 2 2 2 5 7 sisters or whether one should, as far as one is able and knows how, preserve the will’s vigor . . . Four weeks ago my family doctor “diagnosed” a noticeable cardiac insufficiency and prognosticated for me a maximum of 10 years of life two weeks later another doctor (in Bühlerhöhe near Baden-Baden, where I visited my brother Vittorio)[4] could find nothing. I would, however, gladly sacrifice the 10, or even the 20 or 25 years, to toil relentlessly as long as the day lasts—if I did not . . . almost certainly know that I do not know in which direction. From Bühlerhöhe I sent out a book to you by commission of my sister-in-law Paula Winteler.[5] It is the work of her younger brother[6] who suddenly rejected life in 1910. A remarkably free and rich personality he was so at ease with the Greek sages that he more quickly and confidently found the Greek word than the Italian he had his body under extraordinary control as a swimmer and climber, and devel- oped a definite talent in sketching. The crucial questions of life bore very heavily down on him even so, or as a consequence. See, for example, pages 229–230 of the book, which lies open before me now.[7] Vero with wife and child are (since Saturday) in Zurich with the parents-in-law. He had productive practical training this past half-year, but is now looking for a more disciplined boss than he has had up to now.[8] As I wrote you in that letter of a few weeks ago, it would please me very much if he could gain a foothold pre- cisely within the League of Nations. Every person has to have his connections. A scientist belongs to the powerful circle that created the mathematical and observa- tional- experimental method. The normal person belongs to his family, his nation. He who, like us, does not have any clear bond of this type, must—and perhaps even can—connect himself as highly as he is capable of grasping. Did I tell you that Chavan gave me a wonderful enlargement of a photograph of you taken in his laboratory in 1906 or 1908?[9] Also that he told me how happy he would be to be able to extend to you his hospitality in Bern? We can do so now, too, by the way. So auf Wiedersehen, before or after the world tour! In all our names, yours, Michele.