DOCS. 127-129
OCTOBER
1915 135
127.
From
Paul
Hertz
Göttingen, 8
October
[1915][1]
Highly
esteemed
Professor,
Had
you
devoted
as
much
care
to understanding
people
as
to understanding
nature,
you
would not have
written
me
any insulting
letter.[2] I
am
firmly
con-
vinced
that this
was
not
legitimized by my
letters,
which
I
certainly
have
no cause
to
justify
to
you,
leaving
out of
consideration
that
I
find
a
continuation
of
our
correspondence impossible.
Respectfully,
P.
Hertz.
128. To Paul Hertz
[Berlin,]
9
October
1915
Dear Mr.
Hertz,
I
cannot
stand
knowing
that
I
have offended
you.[1]
You
must
forgive me, par-
ticularly
in consideration
of
the fact
that I-as
you
yourself
say
with
justification–
have not bestowed
the
same care
to understanding
people
as
to understanding
nature.
(How
would
one
in the
contrary
case
get
around
to
dealing
with
nature?)
I
am
willing
to
do
anything to
make amends to
you
and
beg you only
to
inform
me
soon
that
you
again
want to
hold
out
your
hand
in
friendship. My
emotions
ran
away
with
me.
Even in
case
your indignation
prompts
you
to
be
permanently
angry
with
me,
I
shall maintain
a
friendly
attitude toward
you.
With
cordial
greetings,
yours,
A.
Einstein.
129. To Hendrik A. Lorentz
[Berlin,]
12
October
1915
Highly esteemed,
dear
Colleague,
Subsequent
reflections
on
the
last
letter
I
sent
you
have revealed
that
I
made
erroneous
assertions in
that
letter. In
actual
fact the invariant
theory
method
does not
yield
more
than
Hamilton’s
principle
when
determining your
function
Q(= Hv-g.[1]
The
reason
why
I
did
not
notice this last
year
is
that
on
page
1069