DOCS.
466,
467
AUGUST
1913
349
Cordial
greetings to
all
of
you.
If there
is nothing
else
that
you
particularly
want to
read,
then read
Dr. Bernardi
by
Schnitzler
(very amusing),
and also
Balzac's
writings[5]
(which, however,
I know
only
from
hearsay.
467. To
Hendrik
A.
Lorentz
Zurich, 14
August
[1913][1]
Highly
esteemed and dear
Prof. Lorentz:
I
thank
you
with all
my
heart
for
your
two
letters
and, especially,
for
your
congratulations
on
my
new position.[2]
I
could
not
resist
the
temptation
to
accept
a
position
in which
I
am
relieved of
all
responsibilities
so
that
I
can give myself over
completely
to
rumination.
As for
the
succession to
my post,
the situation
is
as
follows.
To all
appearances,
Laue[3]
will
lay
claim to
it,
and
there
is
certainly
no one
who
is
more
entitled
to it.
But
I
believe
that
Keesom[4]
would be the
right
man
for
the
University (in
Laue's
place),[5]
and
even
that
Keesom
would be
a
real
blessing
for
Swiss
physics
in
general
because
he
is
fully
conversant
with
the
techniques
of
low-temperature
experiments.
In addition, he
would
certainly
also have
a
stimulating
effect
as a
theoretician.[6] I
am sure
that
you
would
support
me
in
my
effort
to
secure
this offer for Keesom.
To
be
sure, my
influence
at
the
university
is
not
very
great.[7]
But I have
already
written
to
Laue about
this matter
and
hope
to
get
his
support too. I
would be
very
pleased
if
Keesom
were
to
find
a
position
commensurate with his abilities. As
soon as
I
get
better
acquainted
with
the
matter I will write
you again.
As for
that other
matter,
regarding
your
son-in-law,[8]
I
do
not
know how to
begin
at
the
moment,
because
I have
neither
an
institute
nor an
assistant
in
Berlin.[9]
I
am
only
a
member of the
Academy,
and
I
receive
a
payment
that
is
disbursed
by
the
Academy
but
comes
from
a
private person's
gift.
But
seeing
that I
have
been made into
a
"Jack-
of-all-trades,"
perhaps
I will still be able
to
do
something
for
him
one
of these
days.
I
will also
talk
with Mr.
Weiss[11]
about
it,
when he
returns.
In the meantime,
I
look
forward
to getting
better
acquainted
with
your
children
in
Berlin,
and
I congratulate
you
for
being
the best and
most
loving
of
all
grandfathers,
with all
my
heart. And
in
the
meantime,
please
convey my
cordial
greetings
to
everybody.
You
can
be
sure
that
I will
not
lose
sight
of
your suggestion.
And
now
to
gravitation.
I
am
delighted
that
you
so
warmly
espouse
our
investiga-
tion.[12] But, unfortunately,
there
are
still such
major
snags
in
the
thing
that
my
confidence in
the
admissibility
of
the
theory
is
still
shaky.
So
far the "Entwurf"
is
satisfactory
insofar
as
it
concerns
the effect
of
the
gravitational
field
on
other
physical
processes.
For the absolute differential
calculus
permits
the
setting
up
of
equations
here
that
are
covariant
with
respect
to
arbitrary
substitutions.
The
gravitational
field
(gßV)