5 9 8 D O C U M E N T 4 0 3 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 9 403. From Arthur Stanley Eddington [Cambridge Observatory,] 1929 Feb. 11 My dear Einstein I was glad to receive reprints of your new papers.[1] I very much hope that it is a sign that your health is better than when you wrote to me last.[2] I think I have understood your argument, and I have written a short article for “Nature” which I hope will be of assistance to English students who are trying to understand the paper.[3] (It should appear in “Nature” in about 10 days.)[4] You may be amused to hear that one of our great Department Stores in London (Selfridges) has pasted up in its window your paper (the six pages pasted up side by side) so that passers by can read it all through. Large crowds gather round to read it! But I am afraid you have not converted me at present. We have discussed on for- mer occasions,[5] whether anything further could be expected in getting a natural connection between electricity and gravitation by field-theory alone. I don’t think it will come out this way but if the working out of your field-law to a second ap- proximation yields anything interesting I would reconsider this opinion. I am sending reprints of two recent papers in which you will see that I have been making a somewhat big adventure in theory.[6] There is a good deal to be done be- fore I get my theory into final shape, but I feel sure the general lines of it must be right.[7] Yours very sincerely A. S. Eddington ALS. [9 292]. [1] In Abs. 838, Einstein reported to the editor of Nature that he had sent Einstein 1929n (Doc. 365) to Eddington, in a letter that does not survive. Eddington (1882–1944) was Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College and director of the Cambridge Observatory. [2] Einstein had been ill with heart problems between mid-March and mid-October 1928. [3] Eddington 1929b. [4] In Abs. 838, Einstein had informed the editor of Nature that he hoped Eddington would provide a summary in English of Einstein 1929n (Doc. 365) for readers of that journal. [5] Einstein and Eddington had rarely met in person at this time, and possibly not at all since 1921, so this statement probably refers to their correspondence and publications on unified field theory and gravitation (see, e.g., Einstein to Eddington, 20 October 1925 [Vol. 15, Doc. 91], and the Introduction to Vol. 15, sec. II). [6] Probably Eddington 1928 and 1929a. [7] For a discussion of Eddington’s theory see Kilmister 1994.