DOC.
306
MARCH
1917 293
familiar
with the
nature
of
scrofula;
I
did
not
know
that this
is
tuberculosis
with
hereditary
risks for
the
children.[6]
Indeed,
to
be
honest,
I
knew
nothing
about
scrofula
either
and
did
not
attach
any
particular importance to
the
glandular
swelling
that
my
wife
had at
the
time.
Now
the misfortune
is
upon us,
as
it had
to be.
Bearing
it,
not
bewailing
it, is
the
solution. We
care
for
the
sick and
console ourselves with
the
healthy.
I
draw
strength
from
the
idea
of taking
Albert
out of school
and
teaching
him
myself and,
where
I
fall
short, supplementing
it
with
private tutoring.
The
only
thing
that
makes
me
vacillate in this resolve
is
the
consideration
that
he would lack the
necessary
contact with
boys
of his
own
age,
which would
not
be
an
insignificant deficiency
with
his
undeniable
predisposition
for
a
certain
reserve.
What
do
you
think
about
this? I
think that
I
could
offer
the
boy very much,
not
just
intellectually.
Do you
think
that
my
wife
would consent?
Your
suggestion regarding
relativity is
a
good
one. However,
the
booklet
is
finished[7]
and
the
proofs are
almost
completed already,
so
I
cannot make
use
of
it
anymore.
The
description
has
turned
out
quite
wooden. In
the
future,
I
shall
leave
writing
to
someone
else
whose
speech comes
more
easily
than
mine
and
whose
body is
more
in order.
You
will
have received
the
“Cosmic Considerations.”[8]
It
is
at
the
very
least
proof
that
general
relativity
can
lead to
a
system
free of
contradictions.
Be-
fore,
there
had
always
been
the
fear
that the
“infinite”
harbored
irreconcilable
contradictions. There
is unfortunately
little
prospect
of
testing
the
advocated
view
against reality, though.
With the
aid of
the
astronomers’
inquiries
into
the
density
distribution
of stars,
we
arrive at
the
order of
magnitude[9]
R
=
107 light-years,
whereas
visibility approaches only
R
=
104
light-years.
The
question
arises, incidentally,
whether
we
should
not
be able
to
see
stars
lying
closely enough
to
our
antipodal
points.
These would have
to
have
a
negative
parallax.[10]
It
should not be
forgotten, though,
that
the curvature of
space
is
an
uneven
one,
so
light rays
traverse
a
medium full
of
streaks. The
quantum
paper
I
sent
out
has led
me
back to
the
view of
the
spatially
quantumlike
nature of
radiation
energy.[11]
But
I
have
the
feeling
that the actual
crux
of
the
problem
posed
to
us
by
the
eternal
enigma-giver
is
not
yet
understood
absolutely.
Shall
we
live
to
see
the
redeeming
idea?
Politically, things
look
strange.
When
I
speak
with
people,
I
sense
the
pathology
of
the
general
state
of
mind. The times recall
the
witch
trials
and
other
religious
misjudgments.
It
is
precisely
the
responsible
and
privately
most
selfless
of
people
who
are
frequently
the
most
rabid
supporters
of
dogmatism.[12]
Social sentiment has
gone
badly astray.
I
could not
imagine
such