6 2 D O C U M E N T 6 3 J U N E 1 9 2 3
less—already then, while they were living nearer
by;[3]
and then I noticed nothing
definite in conversation with Albert, who keeps everything back, is at once de-
pressed and
proud.[4]
About materials science he judged independently and very
circumspectly, and reported to me about
Tete[5]
with objective warmth, warmheart-
edly and caringly. Tete always was very finely, reservedly proud, the “little Ein-
stein” with masses of plans and an ease at school that we older generation cannot
imagine. Thus the message by Dr. Zürcher struck me like
lightning;[6]
and so I
wrote, right then and there at the Pfäffikon jury court, with that unpleasant sense of
duty that also imbued me as expert; and then later I heard that the younger boy, on
my advice from a fortnight before, was already by the sea, and that was before I
could inform
you.[7]
The boy should eat nutritiously and have much rest: “One
must take what fate offers,” you say, and with that you can be
content.[8]
The two
Alberts do, incidentally, simply have Albert-strongheadedness: To Albert that
strong sense of gravity and of principles is a guarantee, and then again, he is a Swiss
+ Einstein.
Albert. Earlier you did like it that he had strong basic opinions; I used to be such
a hard fellow, too.—As long as that propping up and firm severity toward oneself
isn’t an excuse for something dishonest or convenient, as long as one is harder on
oneself than on other members of one’s own [family], such an exalting sense of ac-
knowledgment pours forth out of precisely that being-offended-at-all-costs, that a
strong reflection of it, and hope too, are lent even to the suffering. What is certain
is that both are suffering, and that Albert could not have said a word about you to
me (which he otherwise always did) because it would have choked him, because he
could not have hidden the pressure anymore, and because it was none of my busi-
ness—because he knows my natural disposition, that I would have tried to help, and
he, proudly, did not want that or suppressed it in his hardness—but he simply is,
precisely by virtue of this hardness, Albert Einstein; and that is why he is valued
by many people and is absolutely reliable, no question of carelessness or coarse-
ness; and that he can help himself even less when he is suffering and when he
knows that you are suffering because of him, you know that very well—but I do
think this is right: he should be on his own now and work; there isn’t any alterna-
tive; and the visit by the younger boy will help both to find the natural way again.
The little one has a very pure, appreciative sensibility that soothes both Alberts,
who don’t tolerate hardness and [will find] each other again
I have just been spending the past few hours listening to Weyl Relativity:
Eddington–Einstein. It really would be almost uncanny if the mathematical ϕ, be-
cause it is skewed, because it must correspond to a potential, must now immediate-
ly yield the electric field besides gravitation—although the sign in the first part
does still come out wrong ( ).—You want to tell me, when I come to Berlin, –1?
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