D O C U M E N T 1 1 9 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 8 1 3 1 other life.— Unfortunately, we must note that in certain later periods the Greeks thought in a less healthy way. I am referring to Plato. In those of his writings that praise the soul, Plato is a stronghold of immorality. These writings must never be put in the hands of the immature. The Symposium is a laudable exception.[4] In Plato, this tendency to overestimate elevates the soul it is the essence of Christian- ity, and seems to be still not entirely overcome even today. Now about proportionality. It seems to me to constitute an essential objection against the mind. It depends on where you study proportion. You must never study it at academic conferences or evening visits. The only essential thing is bodily pro- portion. Once and for all, the touchstone for the fitness of a person is not Latin and physics, but rather the horizontal bar and the race track. And that in general the peo- ple who shine intellectually are not the same as those who are harmonious in body, I can affirm with great conviction on the basis of years of experience. The harmony of a tiger can no longer be attained by human beings. Incidentally, on this subject, read Bernard Shaw’s novel Cashel Byron’s Profession.[5] Maybe I’ll give it to you for your birthday. About such matters one may have different opinions. But when I read in your letter, as a justification of the idea, that it could free one from the fetter of the ego, my hair stood on end. That is a direct attack on life! The mere idea is a mortal sin. I hope you didn’t really mean that. I believe it is mysticism or something worse. I’ll stop here. Are you very busy? I won’t hold you any longer. I can’t rid myself of the thought that my broad moralizing bores you. It will take centuries to resolve these questions. If by then humanity, evolving further on the same principles, has not arrived at the brink of collapse, I will concede that I am doing the mind an in- justice. By the way, I recently found in a serious researcher, Sigmund Freud, who is certainly not prejudiced against culture, the following: “Thus one must perhaps be astonished by the idea… that renunciation and suffering, as well as, more re- motely, the danger of the extinction of the human race as a result of its cultural de- velopment, cannot be averted.”[6] ________________________________ (End of the moral part) Incidentally, you mustn’t think I’m really resentful of you for bringing me into existence. I find the world quite liveable. The dominant overestimation of intellec- tual qualities might actually help me gain a satisfactory social standing. I still don’t know to which trade I will turn my hand. I’m beginning to think that a completely appropriate trade for me does not exist today. I’d become a clergyman, were it not such a dreadfully anachronistic position. I really belong in the Middle Ages. In that time, people still fought for their morals. Today we fight only for material things. But I’m almost afraid that back then they did basically the same.