DOCS.
93,
94
JULY
1915 109
In
my
view
the
existence in
principle
of
such
zero-point processes
through
boundary
transitions
can
be made evident
only, e.g.,
with
changes
in
volume,
el[ectrical]
conduction,
whereas
virtually
inconceivably
with
diffusion.[2]
It
re-
mains
doubtful with
a
chemical
process.
If
I
spoke
of
a
petitio
principii,[3]
I
wanted to
say
that
your proof assumes,
instead
of
the
statement
S2
-
S1
=
0,
one
that
is
generally by no means more
plausible
of
the
existence
of
reversible
zero-point processes
(provided
(1)
is
not
presupposed).
(By
contrast,
it
apparently
seems
evident to Nernst
that
a process
like
yours
would
never
reach
absolute
zero.[4]
Then
case
(1)
is
sufficient.)
It
would be
good
if
you
emphasized
this
a
bit
more.
With best
regards, yours,
A.
Einstein.
94. To
Heinrich
Zangger
[Berlin,]
7 July
[1915][1]
Dear friend
Zangger,
Now
I must
delay my
trip
to Switzerland
once
again.
For
my
son
has written
me a
very
curt
postcard
in which he
decidedly rejects
going on a
tour with
me.[2]
I would
not
even
be able
to
see
my children,
because
my
wife is
going
on a
trip
somewhere
or
has
already
gone!
And
for
this
I
had
arranged my
lecture
course
especially,
so
that
I
could end at
the
beginning
of
July.[3]
And yet-would to
God
that the
obstinacy
of
the
human soul
were
guilty
of nothing worse!
The
longer
this
dreadful
state
of
war
continues,
the
more grimly
people
hang on
to
insensible
hatred
founded
on
nothing.
As
long
as one
is
young,
one
admires
vibrant
emotion and disdains cold calculation.
But
now
I
think that the
blunders
originating
from blind
feeling
cause
much
more
bitter
unhappiness
in
the
world
than the
most heartless
of
calculating
minds.
But
in these times
you
appreciate
doubly
the
few
people
who rise
well
above
the situation and
do not let themselves
be
carried
along
in
the turbid
current of
the
times. One such
person
is
Hilbert,
the
Göttingen
mathematician.[4]
I
was
in
Göttingen
for
a
week,
where
I
met him and became
quite
fond
of
him.
I
held six
two-hour lectures
there
on
gravitation
theory,
which
is
now
clarified
very
much