DOCS. 393-395
OCTOBER
1917 391
Enough
science for
this
time. In
a
week
it’s
gravitation
evening again
at
Ehrenfest’s
colloquium.
De
Sitter
will
be
speaking.
It
would be nice if
you
could
be
there,
but
you are unlikely
to be able to
come so soon.
In
any event,
we
all
hope
that the
waiting
period
will
be
extremely
short. Ehrenfest
will
probably
also write
about
this. Cordial
regards
from
my wife[7]
and
me
and
Auf Wiedersehen!
Yours,
Gunnar
Nordstrom.
394. To Edouard Guillaume
[Berlin,
24
October
1917]
Dear
Guillaume,
In
my opinion,
this
new
point
of
view[1]
is
also untenable. If
t is
supposed
to
be
a
function of
u
and
x,
it must
be possible
to
specify
this
function
explicitly.
Upon
calm
consideration, you
will
yourself
become convinced
of
the
nonexistence of
a
t
to which
the
role
of
universal time could be ascribed. If
it
existed,
there
would also
have to be
a
preferred family
of surfaces
in
Euclidean
geometry,
since
the
former
is
also
obviously
characterized
by linear,
orthogonal
coordinate transformations.
With best
regards,
yours,
A.
Einstein.
395. From
Franz
Selety
Vienna
I, 11
Zedlitz
Alley,
29
October
1917
Esteemed
Professor,
I
thank
you
most
cordially
for
the
lengthy
letter
you
were
so
kind
as
to
send
me.[1]
I
had
naturally not
expected you
to
devote
so
much time
to
me
and had
not demanded
it.
Although
I
had
hoped
to
receive
an
answer
to
my questions,
I certainly
had
not intended to
cause
you
so
much trouble. In
my present reply
I
am
not
going
to
pose any
more
questions;
nonetheless
I
do take
the
liberty of
answering you
in
some
detail
again since,
obviously,
reading requires
less
time
than
writing.
I
also
prefer
that
you
not read the
philosophical
sections of
this
letter
right
away,
which
constitute the
greater part of
it,
just
because
you
have
received
it,
but that
you
do
so
in
no
hurry
when
you
have time for
it;
for I know
how burdensome
something
can
become,
even
if it is
intrinsically
of
interest,
when