DOCS.
455,
456 FEBRUARY
1918
461
455.
From Ernst Troeltsch[1]
Charlottenburg,
Berlin,
4
I,
Reichskanzler
Place,
4 February 1918
Esteemed
Colleague,
On
the
first
day
of vacation[2] I
finally
find the time
to
thank
you
for
your
very
welcome and amicable
letter
occasioned
by my
Volksbund
speech.[3]
I
do
such
things
only
out
of
a sense
of
duty, you
know,
and
actually
against
my
inclination.
But
something
must
be done
about
the terrible illusions
dominating
the
public
and about the Fatherland
Party’s[4]
treacherous incitement of all
the
passions.
The Volksbund
was
the
only
thing
that
we
could
manage
to
do.[5]
The current
strike
is
a
serious
test of
endurance for
it.[6]
It
is
thus all
the
more
important
that
our
intellectuals
profess
their
support
and
join
it.
I
should ask
you
to do
so as
well. Now
each and
every person
is
needed for
the
cause
of
reason.
Unfortunately,
the
newspapers,
which have been
bought up directly
and
indirectly
by
the
opposing party,
are
very
hard
for
us
to obtain.
This makes
private
action
even more
important.
If
the
Social Democrats
are
eventually eliminated,
a
league
of intellectuals could
come
out of
it. The
great
delusions
will
certainly dissipate
quickly,
and
then
our
program
will
gain
importance
and influence.
In
utmost
respect,
most
devotedly
yours,
E.
Troeltsch.
456. From
Gustav
Mie
Halle-on-S[aale],
47 I
Magdeburger
St.,
5
February 1918
Highly
esteemed
Colleague,
I
do still extend
my very
cordial
thanks
to
you,
albeit somewhat
tardily,
for
sending
me
the
offprints
of
your
latest
papers![1]
After
the Christmas
holidays,
I
was
unfortunately
very preoccupied
with
teaching
and therefore
had
to postpone
until
now
my plan
of
writing
you.
I
would
now
like to
add
some
comments to
your
essay,
“Cosmological
Considerations,’[2]
which
I
read with
particular
interest.
I
see as
the
most
important
result
of
this
study
the
statement: “The
parallel
axiom
is independent
of
the
axiom
of
the
general transformability
of
the fundamental
equations
in
physics.”[3]
I
find this result
quite extraordinarily interesting.
How-
ever,
I
must
admit that
even so
I
personally
feel
no
inclination toward
abandoning
the
parallel
axiom,
which contributes
essentially
to
the
wonderful
simplicity
of
the
general
mathematical
foundations
of
our
world,
which
is
so
complex
in its
finer details.
What
is
going
on
at
infinity
in
space
and
time
actually
does not